IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF GAS. 123 
Among other testimony in favour of their process and its 
result, the directors of the Western Gas Company have 
furnished the St. Marylebone vestry with a copy of a report 
from Dr. Leeson, Professor Miller, and Mr. W. J. Hay, 
who have, on behalf of the Company, inspected a temporary 
apparatus erected for the purpose at Vauxhall, and analysed 
the gas. 
This report speaks favourably of the process as being ef- 
ficient, convenient, and free from the effluvia and other 
nuisances attending gas-works in general. 
The gas is described as possessing a greater specific 
gravity than that of ordinary gas (in the proportion of 632 
to 400) and an illuminating power considerably superior, 
four cubic feet of the patent gas when burnt giving a light 
equal to seven cubic feet of ordinary gas. It is also stated 
to be unusually pure^ containing no sulphuretted hydrogen, 
no ammonia, and no carbonic acid. Such are the advantages 
offered to the public by the new company, and we have no 
hesitation in saying that if the managers can and will realize 
all that they have promised, much benefit will arise from 
the competition. 
It must not be understood, however, that the process de- 
scribed in the specification of| the patent is altogether a 
novelty. Mr. Palmer himself, in the year 1818, took out a 
patent, comprising in principle the main feature of his pre- 
sent process. A similar process was also patented by Mr. 
Down in 1S32, and also, with some unimportant modifica- 
tion, by M. Malam in IS 35. We have before us a plan and 
description of Mr. Malam's regenerators and furnace, which 
appear to be precisely identical with those described in Mr. 
Palmer's recent specification. Mr. Grafton took out a similar 
patent inj 1841. The regenerators are condemned by the 
most experienced gas manufacturers, as it is found that the 
gas is injured by this additional heating, the increase in 
volume being effected at the expense of its illuminating 
power. The mechanical precipitator is in principle equiva- 
