. !< ADVANTAGES OF GAS LIGHTS. 



Advantages of The general use of gas would give us several great advan* 

 neral use of tages : first it would prevent the great demand for tallow ; 

 gas. and candles would never be so expensive as at the present : 



secondly it would in part take the place of oil j and thirdly 

 it would render soap lower, as the fat used for candles, might 

 be employed for soap making, saying nothing about the 

 ^se of coal tar. possibility of making spirits from the tar. Besides, if this 

 could not be done, the tar is a very excellent coating for all 

 put-door work, such as gates, fencing, and paling; as welj 

 as for boat builders and shipwrights, it being a certain pre- 

 servative from the worm or the rot in wood exposed to the 

 air, or lying in the water; by coating the articles once in twQ 

 years well with it. It is infinitely better than the common 

 paint used now : besides if the thing was general, and such 

 quantities of tar were made as would be the case, I should 

 suppose government would recommend its use in the dock 

 yards in order to encourage its consumption in preference to 

 that imported; for it is without doubt superior both as a 

 preventive of decay, and a preservative from the worm in 

 ships' bottoms. 



All these advantages we have within ourselves, in that ar- 

 ticle which abounds in such plenty all over this island— coal. 

 Utility of the I now proceed to state the benefit 1 have derived from the 

 'smalf'^manu- "^^ ^^ *^^ ^^ ^^ "^^ srnall manufactory, in order that small 

 facturers. tradesmen may make a comparison themselves, and see what 



an advantage they may derive from its use. Mr. Murdock's 

 paper is on the great scale, therefore far above the calcula- 

 tion of the simple mechanic; and it is to the great number 

 of these that the thing ought to be made clear. To them a 

 small saving of ten pounds per annum is of as great conse- 

 quence as to the wealthy their thousands. 

 Apparatus on My apparatus is simply a small cast iron pot of about 

 * ^"^u ^^^^ eight gallons, with a cast iron cover, which I lute to it with 

 sand. Into this pot I put my coal. I pass the gas through 

 water into the gasometer, or reservoir, vyhich hplds about 

 four hundred gallons ; and by means of old gun barrels con- 

 vey it all round my shops. Now from twenty or twenty-five 

 pounds of coal I make perhaps six hundred gallons of gas; 

 for when my reservoir is full, we are forced to barn away the 

 overplus in waste, unless we have work to use it as it is made. 



But 



