374 Mr Gordon’s New Portable Gas Lamp. 
under the table, or, when it is required to be ornamental, it may 
be put into a statue, or the pedestal of a statue, or may be sus- 
pended, as in Fig. 2. 
In order to regulate the escape of the condensed gas, Mr 
Gordon has employed two different contrivances, which are ex- 
tremely ingenious. The first of these is a stop-cock. Fig. 5. 
constructed in the following manner : After the cock has been 
drilled through in the usual manner, the circular hole in the 
key is contracted at one side, by soldering into it two pieces of 
brass, which join at one side a of the hole, and are about ^’^th 
of an inch distant at the other side, as at h c, forming an acute 
angular aperture, (Fig. 7.) By this means the is^ue of gas can 
be regulated to the smallest possible stream, by bringing the acute 
angle a of the opening in. the key to communicate with the cir- 
cular opening in the cock ; and as the expansibility diminishes 
as the gas is consumed, the aperture can be increased in the 
same proportion. But to secure the above object more com- 
pletely, and to prevent the possibility of turning the cock sud- 
denly, so as to admit too great a discharge of gas, a ratchet wheel 
is fixed in the end of the key of the cock, in which an endless 
screw m Fig. 5. works. By turning this screw with the nut 
N, the flame may be enlarged or diminished to any extent, 
however highly condensed the gas may be. 
The second contrivance which Mr Gordon employs to pro- 
duce the same effect, is a conical leather valve, similar to that in 
the reservoir of an air-gun, placed in the opening of the reservoir 
of the lamp, where it screws on to the condensing pump. When 
the reservoir has been charged with gas, and removed from the 
pump, a set of brass. Fig. 6. is screwed in above the valve. 
Through this piece of brass there passes a finger-screw, the point 
of which, when made to press on the valve, forces it back, and 
allows the gas to issue in any quantity that may be required. 
A bridge of brass a 6, consisting of a hollow tube, in the form of 
a Gothic arch, passes over the head of this regulating screw, for 
the purpose of giving freedom to the fingers in turning the screw 
to regulate the flame, and to conduct the gas to the burner, 
which, in a standing lamp, is screwed on at the centre c of the 
arch. 
By either of these contrivances, the latter of which Mr Gor- 
don prefers from the simplicity of its construction, the com- 
