WATER-GAS AT LAST.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XV, Issue 5335, 21 December 1878, Page 7

WATER-GAS AT LAST.

If certain very circumstantial statements may be relied upon, the old problem of obtaining illuminating gas from water has at length been solved in a very satisfactory manner. There have been many attempts to achieve this, and several of them have been thoroughly successful, we believe, in every respect but one. That, unfortunately, was the all-important one of coat. It has been demonstrated that to obtain a good illuminating gas from water is an easy matter, but to make it cheaply has hitherto, we understand, bailed the most ingenious of inventors. It is said, however, that a system haa been in operation for a year past in New York by which not only an exceptionally pure gas is obtained, but obtained at such a price as renders it a formidable rival to coal gas. Many large establishments, and several streets in New York, have for some time past been supplied with this novel li#ht, an d it is said that the demand for it is in excess of existing facilities for supplying it. The New York Sun gives, apparently, minute and complete details of the process, though, it is to bo presumed, they are not quite so complete as they look, since the company professes to keep the rnodtis operandi a profound secret. According to the acc-onnt given, it appears that the water from which the gas is to be produced Is fir'.l Leaieci to lOOSacg. Fahrenheit, and then passed auto generators filled with anthracite coal, when ';ha o tygen uuites with cat'jw of the- «oal, and forms <.~».-bonii: vxi'o. '''!•?•» caibc.iic oxide, mixed with tho lit,, -.vted hydrogen constitutes the crude gas, which hais now to undergo various processes ot purification, until in its ultimate form it in found to be a clear, white-burning gas, without odour, and far more brilliant than ordinary coal-gas. Its illuminating power is represented to be 30 per cent, greater than that of carburetted hydrogen, and it could be sold, if the manufacturers were so disposed, at a much lower rate than this latter gaf. At present, however, they affirm that they have two thousand applicants on their books waiting to be served, and they s»e no particular reason for exceptional generosity. It costß them, it is said, 50 cents per thousand cubic feet, and they sell it at 2 dollars ; and while the price of coal-gas keeps up to that mark and they are overwhelmed with orders, they see no great inducement to make any alteration. When the electric light has been a little farther elaborated, possibly it will enable both old and new companies to see the matter from another aspect.