NEW METHOD OF MAKING GAS. [From, the Daily News, February 7.]

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume XXXII, Issue 54, 3 July 1873, Page 4

NEW METHOD OF MAKING GAS. [From, the Daily News, February 7.]

On Saturday afternoon, ,a number of scientific gentlemen connected with the various gas companies of London, and gas engineering generally, assembled at the Pumping Station of the New Water- Works in York-road, Battersea, to inspect the process of manufacturing the new gas which is about to be introduced to the world. Mr. B. P. Spice, C.E., one of the consulting engineers of the company, conducted the party to the shed where the gas was being generated. Inside a brick-furnace have been constructed three cast-iron retorts, intercommunicating by means of pipes. Both the furnace aud the retorts, being filled with highly-heated coko and iron, or charcoal, a jet of steam is introduced into the two lower retorts. The intense heat decomposes the steam, but in order to have the decomposition as complete as possible, the two currents of steam are introduced into the third and higher retorts, aud subjected to t\ still greater heat, whereby hydrogen is set free, and carbonic oxide, carbonic acid, and sulphuretted hydrogen are formed. The gas is then sent out through a purifier, charged with oxide of iron, which takes out the sulphuretted hydrogen. The gas thus obtained is inflammable, and generates so iutense a heat that it will become very valuable, not only for manufacturing purposes, but also for I domestic requirements, such as warming apartments or cooking. The change from heating to illuminating gas is exceedingly easy, it being merely necessary to pass the gas through rectified petroleum spirit of the specific gravity of about 680 degrees. The volume of the gas is thereby increased 25 per cent., aud when consumed in an argand burner at the rate of five feet per hour it has an illuminating power of 166 candles burning 120 grains of sperm. Its advantages are that it is quite free from sulphuretted hydrogen, ammonia, and bisulphide of carbon ; it has no disagreeable, though a very perceptible odour, which renders it easy of detection ; aud it is somewhat less liable to explosion than ordinary coal gas. Severe tests have been applied to ascertain what would be the effect of the change of temperature; and Dr. Louttit, the well-known chemical aualyst of Greenwich, certifies that after long aud continuous exposure to a temperature considerably below freezing point, tbe illnminating power remained undiminished ; while, after being stored in a gasometer for the lasb two mouths a\>oye ground, ifc was found, in all respects, unaltered. Messrs. Quick and Son, gas engineers, have also passed it through a thousand yards of three-iiich main above ground, exposed it to a sudden reduction of temperature from sixty to sixty-three degrees Fahrenheit, without finding any diminution of illuminating power. The saving of labour iv the manufacturing process is remarkable, as one stoker here can do the work of thirty at the old system of making coal gas, At the same time the process is perfectly independent of coal, wood or carbon being equally serviceable. The cost of production for heatiDg gas is about Bd. a thousand cubic feet, and as twenty million gallons of petroleum have already been offered to the cotnpauy at a uniform price, they feel justified in giving Is , Sd. as the price of the lighting gas. The offices aud pumping station of the Water Works Company are at present lighted with it, and it certainly seems a powerful illuminator. After the explanations of Mr. Spice and Dr. Louttit, a full discussion on the merits of the invention was courted, and every facility was given to test the correctness of the statements.