NOTKIN'S AERO-GAS FOUNTAINS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXII, Issue 52, 2 March 1901, Page 2 (Supplement)

NOTKIN'S AERO-GAS FOUNTAINS.

This is a patented apparatus (says "Chambers'") for providing a supply of gas for public or private lighting, lighthouses, buoys, and beacons, as well as *or gas-engines and for heating and cooking purposes. The socalled fountain consists of a metallic, vessel' filled with a porous material, which is charged from time to time with a light hydrocarbon, such as gasoline or petrol. Air enters at an upper orifice, takes up the hydrocarbon vapour, and becoming heavier, gravitates through the absorbent, and issues'from a. lower orifice to be used for lighting, heating, or power as the' case may be. The apparatus is exquisitely simple, and its efficiency undoubted, so that the first question naturally asked is as to cost of working. Upon this point we have addressed an inquiry to the engineer of the syndicate which has been formed to work the patent, and he informs us that, with the hydrocarbon at one shilling and sixpence per gallon, the cost of the gas may be taken at four shillings and twopence per thousand feet; while at one shilling per gallon, the cost would be two shillings and ninepence per thousand feet. The aero-gas is used in conjunction with Argand burners; but we suppose that it could with equal ease, and possibly better economy, be with the incandescent mantle. The invention seems to be well adapted for use in remote country districts where gasworks are conspicuous by their absence, or by the necessarily high price of their gas. The invention is patented throughout Australasia.