GAS AT SEA.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LI, Issue 5604, 10 February 1879, Page 5

GAS AT SEA.

That the buoys which mark channels and wrecks are sometimes destroyed or displaced by vessels running along the coast on dark nights is well known. After two trials cf lighted buoys, therefore, the Trinity Board have resolved upon sending a buoy of which the lantern can be kept continuously burning to a station off Dundee. The first of these trials took place in August last at the Trinity wharf, when the light lasted uninterruptedly for 28 days. Water was pumped upon it from a steam-engine, to see what would be the effect of the shock and drenching, and no harm was done. The buoy was then sent down to the Nore, and there burned steadily for 24 days. The same buoy has now left London Nr its appointed place near Dundee. Provision has been made for keeping it alight without any interference for 34 days. It is a buoy of moat awkward construction; but this does not lessen its usefulness, and others are being more skilfully made to receive the same .illuminating apparatus. This is a modification of what is known as Pints Ch’s compressed gas system It was first brought out in Germany, and originated from the demand of some of the railway authorities for a better means of lighting their carriages than that afforded by common oil lamps. Attempts to light railway trains by ordinary gas 1 were first made in England about fifteen year ago; and either the 'quantity wanted for the whole train has been carried in the break-van or each carriage was provided with its special bag. The expense and trouble in all instances have been very great, and almost prohibitive. After several failures with coal gas Mr Pintsoh at last adopted a rich heavy gas extracted from oil, which he employs in a compressed state; and he soon found that it was not only better but easier to make the lighting of each carriage independent of the rest. The gas is produced by a simple and not costly apparatus for distilling shale oil or any fatty material. ‘ It is then purified, compressed to the extent of ’ten or twelve atmospheres, and stored in metal cylinders. A supply sufficient for use during thirty or thutvfive hours is, as required, taken into light WrbUght-fron holders, at about six atmosS' ues pressures, fixed beneath the carriages. S cylinders are provided with an ingenious arrangement by which the pressure is regulated asdecuaUied, and the gas allowed to issue and aiipply the burners. The gas is burned through a small fishtail burner biased beneath and close to a convex reflecting surface of white enameled iron, in which a small slot is mads to admit of the passage of the heatedairto the chimney. The necessary atmoepherioair enters through the hd of the lamp. " The ognstrnotion is each that no gas can flood' Its Way r foto : the foterior; of the carriage, and the' light can be modified at' pleiGriurewithOutbelpg'extinguished.! .Each carriage ean be separately fitted withal! that IS hooeisairy' for iuUminalJon > the [light is. : perfeotly'under control, tod the weight and , jDai|c , system liftbeen adopted !# 11 eome -23 railway 1 tompMes ; Hi. Germany, is’"in use in ‘the; Imperial travelling ‘ post . offices, and is j to. „be found In >the saloon carriages {St the"

Emperors of Germany and Bosoa. la itngiana it has been used for two years (somewhat penurionsly, perhaps) la the carnages of the little branch fine miming from Baker street to St John’s Wood, and u in course of adoption elsewhere. The saloon carnage used by the Prince of Wales is already furnished with this liA*, and on a recent occasion the gas remaining in, the holders after a previous journey was found at the end of three months to be as good as ever, and more than sufficient for the next tnp. This gas is manufactured at present at the rate of 16s BJd per 1000 feet, and the consumption per light per hour is 0 5983 of a cubic foot* Coal gas, which will not bear compression, as in use on the Metropolitan and Railways, costs only 8. 9dper 1000 feet 5 but its consumption u, in round numbers, at the rate of four feet per Lour instead of 6-lOths of a foot. That mid ssv. it takes 6500 feet of coal gas to do the work which 1000 feet of the Pintseh gas accomplishes, at a cost of £l 4* for the former as compared with 1% 6d for the latter.

With regard to floating lights it is proposed to make the buoy itself the recipient fox contaming the compressed gas, with its regulator (which is one oi the most important points of the invention), and the lantern at the top of a short conducting tnhe. A buoy of ordinary size will bum about three tnanth, night and day with only one filling, and the tight is visible ut a distance of about four iDiere is, however, in existence an electric lighting apparatus which might be employed, so that the light could be 6ztioguiu6d gt sunrise and restored at night* giving, of course, a much longer duration to the work* ing of the buoy. It will be interesting to sea the result of this experiment, as tbw tueftfw of the scheme would be a boon to navigation out of all proportion to the increased comfort of a few benighted and betunnelled railway travellers. —Pall Mall Budget.