FIRE WITHOUT COAL OR WOOD.

Otago Witness, Issue 84, 25 December 1852, Page 1

FIRE WITHOUT COAL OR WOOD.

(From the London Mining Jotirnal.) j When Colonel Thompson was canvassing | Sunderland, a question was put to the hon. , candidate as to what he would suggest in the event of the coal mines of this country being exhausted. The Colonel replied that he did not see what the matter had to do. with the | election of a Member of Parliament, but that i his answer was, that he did not think the catas- ■ trophy alluded to could occur in the present age. Colonel .Thompson probably calculated, : as others have, that, as in equally great discoveries, science would bring forth the right thing j at the right time. For once science, it would i appear, has anticipated, and has been prema- : turely fruitful. Somebody has said that the i philosopher's stone would, after all, prove to i be, when there was no coal and no wood, some wherewithal to make the pot boil. Our old friend, Mr. N. Defries, the gas engineer, has patented an invention, by which he claims to ' have discovered the treasure, even while Liver- ! pool and London are constructing new docks ] t for the increase of the coal trade — he having, ] in fact, " carried coals to Newcastle ;" but his fuel is not coal — it is to supersede coal, to shut i up collieries, and abolish colliers. In short, the ' change which, whatls popularly called " gaY ] (as though there were only one) produced in , the lighting of towns, it is now proposed to l

effect in the warming of houses. The invention is a very simple one : the English are not to be deprived of their own firesides ; their noses and knees are still to be kept hot, and their backs are still to -remain frozen ; their grates, which kill housemaids, and their chimneys, which create draughts, are to continue as before. There is to be no change in the appearance of things ; the grate is to be the same, the coals are to be simulated, and the only alterations are such as are to be encountered in the half-year's accounts, the extinction of chimney-sweepers, and the better preservation of carpets and furniture. We come to the facts, however, as they are presented. At the Polytechnic Institution, on Saturday evening, a large party of gentlemen were to be seen chatting and laughing round what may be called a roaring fire, only that it burned fiercely without making the slightest noise. It was an ordinary small drawing room grate, and within the bars was a very ordinary-looking fire of what appeared to bethe " clean best screened." Nothing peculiar was to be seen about the matter, except a woven gutta percha pipe attached to the back of the grate, and snaking off to some distant region of the mysterious institution. Living in an age of electric telegraphs, we were ready to believe anything, and should \ot have been startled if we had been informed that the pipe in question conveyed liquid fire from the igneous coal beds, which (according to country papers) in the winter are always burning in any part of the land where news is deficient. The lecturer, however, did not venture to impose upon us ; be quietly stated that he had applied a well-known combination to ordinary purposes ; that what we took to be walls-end, were thin layers or flakes of metal (platina), over and through which a stream of water-gas was passed ; that, when set on fire with a lighted taper, these ilakes of metal threw out a heat far greater than could be got from the same body of coals ; that they were nevertheless indestructible — the metal (vice the coal) merchant never having the chance of getting more than one order per house ; and we were ourselves enabled to give evidence that there was no smell. The flakes were red-hot, and the large amount of radiating surface they presented licking over one another, completed the illusion of a brisk coal fire. One involuntarily asked for a poker to spoil it — as is the way with Englishmen. The advantages, the data being assumed for the present, of such an invention are palpable. The new fire could be used at once in all cases where " gas" is already " on," and in all cases there would, it was stated, be a direct saving in expense, as compared with the cost of coals — coals involving wood too. But the patentees desire to apply non-carbonised gas, obtained by the decomposition of water, and with this object are starting a company to lay such " gas" on in towns. Their calculation is, that this gas would cost about one shilling per 1000 cubic feet. There would then at once be economy in the poorest household, and coals for domestic purposes would be superseded. There would be the further economy of avoiding all nuisances involved in the introduction and use of coal in a house. There would again be the economy of lessening the danger of conflagration, and the consequent reduction of the terms of insurance offices. But, above all, the curse of towns would, we are told, leave us for ever — smoke. Is not this a solution of the " sanitary question ?" To indulge the visions called up by the sight of this " new fire'' — ' feu de joie' is the only name we can suggest for it. Of course, all culinary purposes are accomplished by the metal (any metal) as well as by the coals. But it is also applicable to the generation of steam — certainly in all stationary steam engines — perhaps, in time, to a Crampton's locomotive, or to a Canard s leviathian. Scientific men and curious persons should lose no time in analysing and inquiring. The invention is put plainly before the world, not as a miracle for ingenuity, but as a basis for business. We have talked lightly of the matlter, because it would not be well to accept too abjectly the data of an evening's gossip. But the novelty is interesting, and may prove moßt valuable.

Hollmoay's Pills for Bowel Complaints, Diarrhcea, and Disordered Stomachs. — Persons subject to these complaints cannot use a finer medicine than ibese invaluable Pills, and if taken in moderate doseß, md the diet attended to, a certain cure will be effected. Their strengthening nature speedily renovates the impaired tone of the stomach, and renders the digestive organs more powerful. Bile and disorders of the liver may infallibly be cured by their use, and those who are suffering from a long resilence in hot climates cannot adopt a more effectual remedy than Hplloway's Pills. They are also, the best family medicine extant. " '