A NEW DEPARTURE, IN GAS MAKING.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume XXIX, Issue 11127, 12 February 1886, Page 2

A NEW DEPARTURE, IN GAS MAKING.

. ' -■■ ■ ■ t < , ", A most important discovery bearing on the great question of gas making is exciting general' attention throughout , Europe. It has be^u put forward hy MM. Felix«Hemberc and Henry, in ft - communication tb the Aoademy? A-oi'.. - Sciences. If the process whioh ISi^&A gentlemen have described marks -t-%s^ -fy is to mark— a new departure in g&i making, the matter is of weighty import, a not only to the gas manufacturers, but to coal owners aDd iron masters.- It will effect ia no iaconsiderable degree the consumption of coal, and zhodify7 some of the processes of iron manufa.o* ture. . The communication to the Academy desoribes an improved method of making water gas, of producing pure hydrogen 'at an extremely loir. ooetl^A .; jet of super-heated steam is direoted " into a retort filled w*th incandescer^coke. The oxygen unites with the oarbon to form carbon jnopnoxide, jMai. hydrogen is liberated. "Op to&is jwiiat there is nothing new in,* the. proceed But now, these gases are ledawayjiotpi a seoond retort filled with lumps o^re**' fraofcory substance maintained at • $*$?£ 7 heat. The use of the tefraotory material 7 is to expose a large surface to thd 's& AA ooming gases. Into this second re^il 7there is led at. the same time a; jet jpf: steam superheated to thepo^^f'dlar^ association. The oxygen of ti_w'steftia? . seizes upon the oarbon monoxide, to form dioxide, and more hydrogen is liberated. To remove the carbon dioxide the gases are passed through milk of lime, and pure hydrogen is led away fov the reservoir. The authors of the com** ; munication say that oae ton of coke pro* ■--. 'duces 96,000 feet, of gas, which is 1 about * : eleven times as muoh as 1 that obtained from a ton of coal; Not the least Is** 0 ?' tonishing part of the process is "tßp t (po|fr. .' of the gas which is said to be about onfr» fifth of a penny per 1000 feet. It isfelatr %j to see the numerous applications of suea a gas for heating purposes ; but the in- , ventors have arranged to make a s^jfcC with it for lighting. How.the carb«j»ii ; tion is, to be effected is not. stated, buti_7 T _ is'aimbunced that the little townsh^ofctf *Boulegne-sur- Seine ii to ba. lighted ; ■with this gas during the Whiter:' Tbe7> result of the experiment will be wafcdhed with interest.