40 T. H. HOUGHTON. 



abandoning entirely the old type; the Australian Gas Light 

 Company were, however, unable to discard the older type, 

 but their extensions at Mortlake in 1913 were of the ver- 

 tical type in which the coal is fed in at the top and the 

 coke discharged at the bottom. Further extension has 

 since been made, and now 50% of the gas produced at 

 Mortlake is made in vertical retorts. 



The new works of the North Shore Gas Company, the 

 completion of which has been delayed by the war, will have 

 vertical retorts. 



This type of retort requires the coal to be raised to 

 hoppers at the top, which is done by an extensive system 

 of electric telpherage, the coke discharged automatically 

 from the retorts is also handled by the same means; the 

 complete system was put into operation at Mortlake in 1915. 



The company have at their various works and depots 

 storage capacity for 20,000,000 cubic feet of gas; the holder 

 recently constructed at Mortlake holds 12,000,000 cubic 

 feet and is the largest in the Empire, a larger one near 

 London having been destroyed during a Zeppelin raid. 



The tar produced is distilled in accordance with the War 

 Precautions Act requirements, but up to the present no 

 attempt has been made on a commercial scale to go 

 beyond this. 



Both at Mortlake and Kent Street the company have 

 installed plants for the manufacture of carburetted water 

 gas, the capacity being three million and one million cubic 

 feet of gas per day respectively. 



The Australian Gas Light Company's progress during the 

 last quarter of a century has been followed throughout the 

 State, the industry showing remarkable progress. Tables 

 VI and VIa have been compiled from data in the Gas World 

 Year Book, and show that in the fourteen years from 1902 

 to 1916 the quantity of gas made has increased 300%. 



