LENOIR'S GAS ENGINE.

Press, Volume VII, Issue 805, 30 May 1865, Page 3

LENOIR'S GAS ENGINE.

A correspondent of the Australasian, whose special duty is to give an account of all the recent discoveries and inventions in England, gives the following description of Lenoir's gas-engine, a French invention, which, he says, is coming into use in England:

"Lenoir's gas-engine,"-another new invention, is coining largely into use in this country, as it has been for the last two years and more in France. In this engine, a mixture of atmospherio air and ordinary coal-gas is exploded, by means of the electric spark, alternately abore and below a piston, working in a cylinder. This engine requires no chimney, furnace, water, or attention while it is at work, makes jio dirt, and consumes per horse-power per hour only about fifty cubic-feet of gas,, coating abour threeDence in London, but not more, than three-halfpence in many of. our large provincial towns. When the service* of the engine are wanted, no getting up of steam has to be waited for; all that has to be done is to turn the gas-tap and a button connected with the small galvanic battery which supplies the spark for the ignition of the mixed gases, the- explosion of which propels the piston, and the engine is then instantly in notion. It can of course be stopped as instantly by turning the tap and button the other way. This engine goes into very little space, and for light work is unquestionably the cheapest engine yet invented, while on the score of convenience—as regards places, that is, whero gas can be had, and elsewhere it cannot be need at all—it leaves nothing whatever to be desired. It will probably come into use for many domestic purposes. Already I have heard of one lady setting up a Lenoir's engine, of one-quarter horse power,- and of about the size of a hat-box, to work a sewing*' machine, and of another lady having a similar engine in her drawing-room to work the bellows of a small chamber-organ. ; ' It has just been suggested in one of our soientifio journals that this gas-engine might be applied to the propulsion of omnibuses, cabs, and all other vehioles, public or private, used on common roads., A vehicle so propelled would have to carry, instead of the coal, water, furnace,- and boiler, which" roust be carried by a vehicle propelled by steam, simply a bag of gas, which need not be of excessive bulk, and, could' be refilled in the streets, aaoftan as nbceseary, by means of stand-pipes connected with the ordinary gag mains. As a gas-engine goes into very email compass, can be made very light, works almost without noise, and gives off in working neither eteam nor smoke—characteristics which give it great advantage over the steam-engine for street use—rit ie perhaps not unlikely that this suggestion may come to something. - ' •

The greatest obstacle which- gee manufacturers have to overcome in the purification of coal-gas ie the bi-sulphide of carbon. Thie substance, which is s> liquid and easily volatilized' compound, of an exceed* ingly unpleasant odour, is composed of one equivalent of carbon and two of sulphur, and in combustion it is resolved into sulphurous and carbonic acids. ' Now sulphurous acid, being a substance laving the disagreeable smell of burning sulphur, possesses other qualities of a highly detrimental character. Thus it is poisonous to animal life when ... inhaled in any considerable quantity, and it destroys -; ■ almost all vegetable colours by acting uDon .them in. T' a manner somewhat ordinary bleaching powder. Heretofore, the methods adopted for the removal ox this material from coal-gas were inadequate, and the result; was that all forma of gas presented thie sab* stance in greater or lesser proportion.- <Xt is therefore,; ~ , of considerable advantage to the manufacturer that aC very'simple and satisfactory means of pun£yi£% eci&l ' ' Ss from solphide o£ carbon has* been itovjfted. \ r. Lewis Thompson, ALB.Oil,,va gentleman 3Yho . has given years to. the. study, of coal-gas /and its im- ~ purities, has just shown us howtliie pernuaotis sulphide may be completely removed, andy*w|»t ie equal importance, he has decUned;to coyery. Briefly, his invention: i»as follows:— the gas has left the hydrau|ie>mayi, enters the condenser,iit is ■ quantity, of steam (superheated the iini/ ture i»passed throngb: a retort-or tube heated to . about 12OOdeg. Fahr. , JB& shape of the retort Is not, ■ of it appears tliat the eUiptical; ' form over Aβ WoaSks&a *t-c*s|-ißsn vessel is better fban a day onV SHieaength to thft velocity of the currenlAassmg through.lt When the two vapours—bi-aiflfmide "of carbon «psd steam—r . «c fJlowW#t^opet«tempon ; maonpr they mutually decompose each other, the carbon cf ■ bouie acid, whileLitoeulphurjeombiaes. with the %in# geo a§±ti» Tj|»ar, s^^becomes- v ; - sulphuretted hydrogen, which mey ftp. ea»i!y reSKfffei "•■-" ' ■ ' '-,', ,' ',7/ , ■'■'.'• ")*'. '-' .•<■'-■ - . --.- - - ijrgi: