GAS LIGHTING.
EARLY USE OF NATURAL GAS--COAL GAS INTRODUCED BY MURDOCH--WINSOR
ORGANIZES FIRST GAS COMPANY IN 1804--MELVILLE IN UNITED STATES
LIGHTS BEAVER-TAIL LIGHTHOUSE WITH GAS IN 1817--LOWE’S PROCESS OF
MAKING WATER GAS--ACETYLENE GAS--CARBURETTED AIR--PINTSCH GAS--GAS
METER--OTTO GAS ENGINE--THE WELSBACH BURNER.
For many centuries the going down of the sun marked a cessation of man’s
labors, and among his first efforts toward increasing his efficiency was
the prolongation of his hours of vision by artificial illumination.
Beginning with a shell for a lamp, a rush for a wick, and the fat of his
game for oil, the first crude lamp was made, and while it shed but a
feeble and flickering light, man ceased to go to sleep with the fowls
and the beasts, and continued his labors and amusements into the night.
For many centuries the lamp held its exclusive sway, and probably will
ever find a useful place; but with the discovery of coal gas and its
practical manufacture the nights of the Nineteenth Century have been
made to represent illuminated illustrations of the world’s progress.
Coal gas can hardly be claimed as an invention, however, for natural gas
from the bowels of the earth had been observed and used in China from
time immemorial. The holy fires of Baku on the shores of the Caspian and
elsewhere were also thus supplied. The first steps toward its artificial
production began in the latter part of the Seventeenth Century with Dr.
Clayton. Bishop Watson, in 1750, and Lord Dundonald, in 1786, also
experimented with combustible gas made from coal, but the man who more
than any other contributed to its practical manufacture and introduction
was Mr. Murdoch, of Redruth, Cornwall, England. In 1792 Murdoch erected
a gas distilling apparatus, and lighted his house and offices by gas
distributed through service pipes. In 1798 he so lighted the steam
engine works of Boulton & Watt, at Soho, near Birmingham; and in 1802
made public illumination of the works by this means on the occasion of a
public celebration. In 1801 Le Bon, of Paris, used a gas made from wood
for lighting his house. In 1803-4 Frederick Albert Winsor lighted the
Lyceum Theatre, took out a British patent No. 2,764, of 1804, for
lighting streets by gas, and established the National Light and Heat
Company, which was the first gas company. In 1804-5 Murdoch lighted the
cotton factory of Phillips & Lee at Manchester, the light being
estimated as equal to 3,000 candles, and this was the largest
undertaking up to that date. In 1807 Winsor lighted one side of Pall
Mall, London, and this was the first street lighting. A disastrous
explosion occurred shortly afterwards, and such eminent men as Sir
Humphrey Davy, Wollaston, and Watt expressed the opinion that it could
not be safely used; but the so-called “coal smoke” had come to stay, and
in 1813 Westminster Bridge and the Houses of Parliament were lighted
with gas. In 1815 there was general adoption of gas in the streets of
London, and shortly afterwards in Paris. In 1805-6 David Melville, of
Newport, R. I., invented a gas apparatus and lighted his house with it.
He took out United States patent March 18, 1813, and in 1817 contracted
with the United States to supply for a year the Beaver Tail Lighthouse.
In 1815 James McMurtrie proposed the lighting of the streets of
Philadelphia; Baltimore commenced the use of gas in 1816, Boston in
1822, and New York in 1825.
[Illustration: FIG. 222.--A COAL GAS PLANT.]
In Fig. 222 is shown a diagrammatic illustration of the principal
features of a gas works, as employed throughout the greater part of the
Nineteenth Century. On the left is seen the furnace, in which is
arranged above the fire a series of retorts, which are in the nature of
horizontal closed cast iron boxes. Only one of the series is visible in
the view. Their ends project out beyond the furnace walls, and have
doors for giving access to the interior, and each retort outside the
furnace is connected by an upright pipe to an elevated cylinder called a
_hydraulic main_. When the retort is charged with coal through its end
door, and is heated red hot by the subjacent fire of the furnace, a
heavy gas is driven off from the coal, which passes up the pipe to the
_hydraulic main_, where it partially condenses and leaves its heavier
portions in the form of coal tar and ammoniacal liquor. The gas then
passes through the series of bent pipes, which form a _condenser_, where
other remaining portions of the tar and other impurities are condensed,
and drawn off from time to time in the little well shown on the left of
the coil. From the condenser coils the gas passes into the _purifier_,
shown on the right of the coils as an enclosed case having a series of
shelves on which is spread slaked lime, which takes up from the gas
impurities in the form of sulphuretted hydrogen and carbonic acid. From
this _purifier_ the gas passes downwardly through a pipe into a large
gas holder whose lower end is sealed in a water tank, and which gas
holder is balanced by weights and chains passing over pulleys. With the
gas holder, the distributing mains of the city are made to connect to
receive their supply. When the gas holder is full it is buoyed up by the
lighter gas, and occupies an elevated position, and as its supply is
used up, the gas holder settles down into the water.
In the operation of gas making many valuable secondary products are
formed. The coal in the retorts is not entirely consumed, but is reduced
to the condition of coke, and in this form is sold for fuel. The
ammoniacal condensations are purified to form ammonia, while the coal
tar, which but a few years ago was little more than a waste material, is
now a valuable commercial product, being extensively used in the
manufacture of the aniline, phenol, and naphthalene dyes, also in
medicines and perfumes, and being used in crude form also as an
important element in street paving compositions.
_Water Gas._--In 1875 an important era in gas making was inaugurated by
the introduction of what is known as “_water gas_,” so called for the
reason that water in the form of steam is decomposed and its hydrogen,
mixed with carbonic oxide gas, is mingled with a heavier carbon gas from
oil, and is converted at a high temperature into a permanent, stable
illuminating gas, at a much lower cost than coal gas.
[Illustration: FIG. 223.--LOWE’S WATER GAS APPARATUS, PATENTED SEPTEMBER
21, 1875.]
Fontana was the first to notice the decomposition of steam by
incandescent carbon to form hydrogen and carbonic oxide. Ibbetson’s
British patent, No. 4,954, of 1824, represents the first application of
this principle. This was followed by Alexander Selligue, who, in 1834,
obtained a French patent, No. 9,800, and in 1842 produced water gas at
Batignolles, a suburb of Paris. Sanders’ United States patent, 21,027,
July 27, 1858, was the basis of an experiment tried at the Girard House
in Philadelphia. These, with Siemens’ British patents, Nos. 2,861, of
1856, and 972, of 1863, for methods of constructing furnaces, constitute
the earlier steps in the development of water gas, although many other
patents were granted prior to the latter date for various methods and
forms of apparatus. The practical production and successful commercial
use of water gas, however, began with T. S. C. Lowe, who obtained United
States patent No. 167,847, September 21, 1875, and revolutionized the
gas making industry. In less than a dozen years from the date of his
patent 150 cities and towns in the United States were using water gas,
and in 1886 the Franklin Institute gave to Mr. Lowe a grand medal of
honor for his invention, which of those exhibited that year was believed
to contribute most to the welfare of mankind by cheapening the cost of
light. Fig. 223 represents an illustration of the Lowe apparatus as
shown in his patent, and whose operation is as follows: Valves 9 and 10
being open, an anthracite coal fire in generator chamber 1 gives off
carbonic oxide gas, which passes down pipe 2 and enters the base of
superheater 3, where mixing with air coming down pipe 4, it burns to
form an intense heat. The chamber, 3, is filled with loose pieces of
fire brick, which are soon heated white hot. Valves 9 and 10 are then
closed and steam is taken from an upright boiler, 6, and carried by a
small pipe, 7, to the incandescent mass in chamber 3, and passing down
through it is superheated. This superheated steam passes from the bottom
of chamber 3 to the bottom of chamber 1, and then up through the mass of
red hot coal. The intensely hot steam is thus decomposed into hydrogen
and oxygen, and the oxygen unites with the carbon of the coal to form
carbonic oxide gas. As hydrogen and carbonic oxide burn with only a
feeble blue flame, these gases are now made richer in light giving
carbon at this point by the addition of oil contained in an elevated
tank, 8. This, dripping on the incandescent coal in chamber 1, is
volatilized, and at the same time enriches and combines with the
hydrogen and carbonic oxide to form a permanent illuminating gas (water
gas) that passes up pipe 5 and through the flues in boiler 6, to outlet
13, and thence on in the usual way to the condenser, scrubber and gas
holder, which are not shown, and merely act to purify the gas. As the
excessively hot water gas passes through the boiler flues it furnishes
the necessary heat to generate the steam. The air used in the process is
forced at 12 into a drum in the smokestack, 11, and is heated by the
escaping products of combustion. In practical operation there are two
(or more) of the steam superheating chambers 3, working alternately, and
one of them is being heated up while the other is superheating the
steam.
Water gas has neither the illuminating nor the heating qualities of coal
gas, and it is also much more poisonous. According to O. Wyss, one-tenth
of 1 per cent. of uncarburetted water gas renders the air of a room
injurious to health, and 1 per cent. is fatal to all warm-blooded
animals. Notwithstanding these facts, however, its extreme cheapness and
fairly satisfactory light have carried it into such general use that
to-day it is said that two-thirds of all gas made in the United States
is carburetted water gas.
_Acetylene Gas_ is a combination of two parts carbon and two parts
hydrogen. It was discovered in 1836 by Edmond Davy, who produced
carburet of potassium, and evolved acetylene gas therefrom by
decomposing it with water. It was long known as _klumene_, and when
burned it produced an intense white light. For a long time it was only
produced in a small way in the laboratory. It is now made commercially
by the mutual decomposition of water and calcium carbide, the latter
giving off, when brought in contact with the water, acetylene gas, which
rises in bubbles. In the reaction the carbon of the carbide unites with
a portion of the hydrogen of the water, producing acetylene gas (C₂H₂),
while the calcium of the carbide unites with the oxygen of the water and
the remaining portion of the hydrogen and forms calcium hydrate, or
slaked lime, which precipitates as a slush.
The union of carbon with an alkali metal, first accomplished by Davy in
1836, was followed in 1861 by the combination of carbon with calcium by
Wohler. It was not, however, until the electrical furnace became an
agency in chemical reaction that calcium carbide was made on a
commercial scale. The production of acetylene gas for illuminating
purposes began with the operations of Thomas L. Willson in 1893, and his
patents, Nos. 541,137 and 541,138, of June 18, 1895, and 563,527 and
563,528 of July 7, 1896, cover the chemical process, the product, and
the mode of operating. The reaction is a very simple one. A mixture of
lime and carbon is subjected to the heat of an electric arc, and the
carbon combines with the calcium of the lime to form calcium carbide,
which appears on the market as dirty black stone-like lumps. The
simplicity of the method of generating acetylene gas from this substance
by merely bringing it in contact with water has greatly stimulated
invention in this field. The art began practically in 1895, and since
that time more than 500 patents have been granted for acetylene gas
apparatus.
[Illustration: FIG. 224.--ACETYLENE GAS APPARATUS.]
A very simple apparatus for the purpose is shown in Fig. 224, in which a
vessel containing water has an inverted bell or cylinder within it, open
at its lower end. A basket or cage is suspended within the inner
cylinder, and contains a few lumps of calcium carbide, which are first
immersed in the water by being forced down by the rod supporting the
same, which passes through a stuffing box. Acetylene gas is immediately
generated and its pressure forces the level of the water down in the
inner cylinder, causing it to rise in the annular space between said
cylinder and the case. As the water level descends in the inner chamber
it passes out of contact with the calcium carbide, and the generation of
gas is discontinued until some of the gas is drawn off or consumed at
the burners, whose pipe is shown connecting with the gas space of the
inner cylinder. When so drawn off, the pressure in the inner cylinder is
relieved, and the water therein rises to contact again with the calcium
carbide and renews the generation of gas. This principle of automatic
action is a very old one, and will be recognized by the student as that
of the Dobereiner lamp of the chemical laboratory, invented by Prof.
Dobereiner, of Jena, in 1824.
[Illustration: FIG. 225.--MULTI-CHARGE ACETYLENE GAS GENERATOR.]
In acetylene gas apparatus a great variety of methods are employed for
bringing the water and carbide into contact. Instead of the automatic
pressure level principle described, many devices discharge a regulated
quantity of powdered calcium carbide into the water, while in another
form the water is discharged upon the calcium carbide. An example of the
latter is given in Fig. 225, which represents the Criterion generator. A
number of receptacles containing charges of calcium carbide are made to
successively receive a regulated quantity of water, the gas being
collected in a rising and falling holder.
Acetylene gas finds its principal uses for isolated plants, and in
country houses. One form of using it is to compress it under high
tension in cylinders, but this method has been attended with some
disastrous explosions, and is discriminated against by the insurance
companies.
Calcium carbide is now made in a large way by the Willson Aluminum
Company, at Spray, N. C., and also at Niagara Falls and at Sault St.
Marie, Mich., and its cost is between 3 and 4 cents per pound.
Acetylene gas has an acrid, garlicy odor, and burns with an intensely
white flame, and so superior is it to coal gas in illuminating power
that it only requires a pipe of one-third the diameter of that used for
coal gas to produce the same illuminating effect.
_Carburetted Air_ is another form of illuminating gas which has found
some useful applications. This consists simply of air forced through
some light hydrocarbon, such as naphtha, benzine or gasoline, and so
saturated with the vapors of these volatile substances as to become an
inflammable mixture. Many patents have been granted for apparatus
operating on this principle, and it has been put to some practical use
in country houses, and seaside resorts.
_Pintsch Gas_ is another special application. It is a gas made from oil
and compressed in storage cylinders by means of pumps for portable use.
It is stored under a pressure sometimes as high as 150 pounds to the
inch, its pressure being reduced at the burners through the agency of
pressure regulators. It is used for lighting railway cars, buoys, and
lightships.
Gas making has probably been the most extensive and important of all the
commercial chemical operations of the Nineteenth Century, and with it
has come a great array of minor inventions as accessories. Among these
first came the gas meter and pressure regulator. With the introduction
of gas into houses some means of determining the amount consumed as a
basis of payment was required, and for this purpose the gas meter was
devised. The first gas meters were known as wet meters, and effected a
measurement by passing the gas through a liquid and rotating a wheel
therein. The wet meter was invented by Clegg (British patent No. 3,968,
of 1815), and the dry meter, by Malam (British patent No. 4,458, of
1820), and improved by Defries (British patent. No. 7,705, of 1838). The
gas regulator is simply a little automatic apparatus whereby the
variation of pressure in the gas main is reduced and the flow rendered
perfectly uniform at the burner. It effects a saving of gas by
preventing it from blowing when the pressure is too great, and also
gives a more steady and uniform light.
Among the great number of mechanical devices which have grown out of the
use of gas may be mentioned the gas range for heat, the gas engine for
power, and the Welsbach burner for light. The gas range has contributed
much to the domestic economy of the city house. It gives an immediate
heat in the kitchen for all culinary and domestic purposes, without the
incidental objections of having to transport fuel and remove ashes. It
is put into or out of action in an instant, saves labor and time, and
avoids the heat and discomfort of a coal stove during the hot months of
summer. It is organized in principle after the Bunsen burner, whereby a
perfect combustion of the carbon is obtained with maximum heating effect
and without smoke or deposits of lampblack.
[Illustration: FIG. 226.--OTTO GAS ENGINE.]
The Otto gas engine, seen in Fig. 226, is a pioneer and representative
type of a great number of explosive gas engines, which in recent years
have become active competitors of the steam engine where only small
power is required. The Otto engine is covered by patent No. 194,047,
August 14, 1877. Patents No. 222,467, 297,329, 336,505, 358,796,
320,285, 386,211 and 549,160 represent important developments in this
art.
[Illustration: FIG. 227.--WELSBACH GAS BURNER.]
_The Welsbach burner_ for improving the quality of gaslight, and
economizing its consumption, is also well and favorably known. It
utilizes the Bunsen burner principle to make a very perfect combustion
of the gas, with the greatest possible heat and the least smoke, and
then directs its great heat on to a refractory body which will not burn,
but glows with a brilliant white incandescence. The Welsbach burner was
brought out in 1885. The United States patent therefor was granted
October 7, 1890, to Carl Auer Von Welsbach, No. 438,125. The Welsbach
light is a development of the Drummond, or limelight, invented by Lieut.
Drummond, of England, in 1826. This latter exposed a piece of quick lime
to the intensely hot flame of the oxy-hydrogen blow pipe, which was
invented by Dr. Robt. Hare in 1802. The piece of lime glows with an
intense brilliancy approximating that of the electric light. The
Welsbach burner, see Fig. 227, operates on the same general principle,
except that the refractory body, which is heated to incandescence, is a
tubular sleeve of netted fabric first steeped in a solution of the salts
of refractory earths, and then incinerated by heat to burn out the
textile fibre and leave the refractory earthy oxides as a skeleton of
the fabric, and which is called a “mantle.” This mantle is suspended
above the flame arising from a proper admixture of air and gas, and is
heated thereby to a brilliant incandescence which furnishes the light.
In the Welsbach burner the light seen does not proceed directly from the
combustion of the gas, but from the white hot mantle. The light is a
very pure white one, does not distort or falsify colors, and effects a
great saving of gas. An important improvement upon the mantle is covered
by Rawson’s patent, July 30, 1889, No. 407,963, for coating the mantles
with paraffine or analogous material to toughen them and prevent them
from breaking in packing and transportation.
_Natural Gas._--No review of gas lighting would be complete without some
reference to the development incident to the use of the natural gas
flowing from the internal reservoirs of the earth. Such gas has been
known and utilized for centuries in China, and was conveyed by the
Chinese in bamboo pipes to points of utilization. The discovery of coal
oil in the United States in 1859, and the great advances made in the
methods and apparatus for sinking oil wells, have resulted in the
discovery of numerous wells of natural gas, whose values were quickly
perceived and utilized by their owners. The village of Fredonia, N. Y.,
was probably the first to be lighted by natural gas, and a flow from a
well at West Bloomfield, N. Y., opened in 1865, was carried in a wooden
main more than twenty miles to the city of Rochester. Many wells of
natural gas have since been found at various points, and so extensive
has been its use for cooking, heating, lighting and metallurgical
processes, that thousands of patents have been taken for various forms
of burners, pressure regulators and other appliances for utilizing the
same. The annual production of natural gas in the United States for 1888
was valued at $22,629,875. There has, however, been a steady decrease in
the past ten years. The amount produced in 1897 was $13,826,422. The
insatiable demands of modern civilization must some day exhaust the
supply, and what will take place when the subterranean chambers are
relieved of their burden is a question for the geologists to answer.