Transcriber’s Notes
Text printed in italics has been transcribed _between underscores_,
bold face text =between equal signs=. ~Text between tildes~ represents
blackletter text, ^{text} represents superscript text. Small capitals
have been replaced with ALL CAPITALS.
More Transcriber’s Notes may be found at the end of this text.
[Illustration: _Pl. II._
_Accums’, Description of Gas Works._
_to Face Title._
_Mulholland Del^{t}._
_W. Read, Sculp^{t}. Maiden Lane, Covent Garden._
GAS LIGHT APPARATUS,
_Erected by Order of Government at =THE ROYAL MINT=, by Fredc^{k}.
Accum._]
DESCRIPTION
OF
THE PROCESS OF MANUFACTURING
COAL GAS,
FOR THE LIGHTING OF STREETS HOUSES, AND PUBLIC BUILDINGS,
WITH
ELEVATIONS, SECTIONS, AND PLANS
_OF THE MOST IMPROVED SORTS OF APPARATUS_
NOW EMPLOYED AT THE
~Gas Works in London,~
AND THE PRINCIPAL PROVINCIAL TOWNS OF GREAT BRITAIN;
_Accompanied with comparative Estimates, exhibiting the most
Economical Mode of procuring this species of Light_.
[Illustration: _Plate I._]
_WITH SEVEN PLATES._
BY FREDRICK ACCUM,
_OPERATIVE CHEMIST_,
Lecturer on Practical Chemistry, on Mineralogy, and on Chemistry
applied to the Arts and Manufactures; Member o£ the Royal Irish
Academy, Fellow of the Limnæan Society, Member of the Royal Academy of
Sciences of Berlin, &c. &c.
~London.~
PRINTED FOR THOMAS BOYS. N^{o}. 7. LUDGATE-HILL. (FROM N^{o}. 3,
PATERNOSTER ROW)
MDCCCXIX.
PREFACE.
_Compton Street, Soho._
The extraordinarily rapid progress which the recent invention of
lighting with coal gas has made in this country, is perhaps without a
parallel in the history of the useful arts.
It was an invention not exempted from the misfortune common to all
innovations on established practises, of encountering opposition, but it
had the fortune common to few, of obtaining an almost instantaneous
triumph.
A single exhibition of the gas lights in actual use was sufficient to
determine the public judgment in favour of the new mode of illumination;
to see was in this case, indeed to believe.
The legislature responsive to the popular voice, and fortified in its
responsibility, by the results of special enquiries which were ordered
to be made into the merits of the invention, and in which I had the good
fortune to be professionally engaged, gave the most liberal and decided
encouragement to its adoption.
Capital, often wanting even in this opulent country for undertakings of
magnitude, came to the promotion of the new art of procuring and
distributing light in overflowing abundance; and already ere many years
are elapsed, such has been the rapidity with which the gas light
illumination has advanced, that there is not a city and scarcely a town
of any note in Great Britain, in which the art of lighting by means of
gas, has not been carried into effect, or in which active measures are
not in progress, to participate in the benefit of this important
discovery.
When the art was yet in its infancy, I published a Treatise, containing
a description of the apparatus and machinery best calculated for
illuminating streets, houses, and public buildings, by means of coal
gas, with remarks on the utility, safety, and general nature of this new
branch of domestic economy, as far as then understood, and practised in
the metropolis.
The universal avidity for information on the subject, more perhaps than
any particular merit in the work itself, produced a demand in this
country for four large impressions of this work, in the course of a few
years, and I have also had the satisfaction of finding that the Treatise
has been translated into the French, German, and Italian languages.
Since this work was written, however, the art of manufacturing and
applying coal gas, has undergone so many material improvements, all
combining to bring it to a degree of simplicity, precision, and economy,
far surpassing every thing which the original mode of practice
exhibited, that I have felt I should be guilty of an injustice to the
constant demand which still exists for my former Treatise, had I not
made it my duty to publish the work I now present to the reader;
superseding altogether the former publication, but superseding it from
circumstances of necessity, and with a view to good, which I trust will
be found not illusory.
The present treatise, as its title expresses, is intended to exhibit the
superior process of manufacturing coal gas now employed in the
metropolis and the provincial towns of Great Britain, and to lay before
the reader the elevations, sections, and plans of the improved Gas Light
machinery, which has stood the test of practice, and is now in action at
the most celebrated Gas Light Establishments.
In the first and second part of the Treatise, I have, as introductory
to the rest, given a sketch of the chemical theory and production of Gas
Light. I have pointed out the leading objects of public and private
utility, to which the art of lighting with gas has been, or remains to
be applied: and added such other facts and observations as may serve to
remove all doubt in the minds of the reader as to the important benefit
which this country in particular, and the world at large, have gained by
this discovery.
In the third part I have stated the maximum quantities of gas obtainable
in the large way, from different kinds of coal.
In the fourth part, I have given a description of all the various forms
and dimensions which the distillatory vessels or retorts have
successively assumed, as well as of the improvements that have been made
in the mode of setting the retorts, with a view to saving them from
undue deterioration, and preventing any improvident waste of fuel. I
have here given a particular account of the distillatory apparatus now
used at the most celebrated gas works in the metropolis.
The fifth and sixth parts, lead the reader considerably further into a
knowledge of the economy and practice of this art. They contain an
account of a great variety of experiments which have been pursued on a
large scale, in order to ascertain the most profitable mode of
employing the retorts, the differences of opinion which have existed
among practical men with respect to the degree of temperature fittest to
be applied, and the number of hours at a time during which the retorts
may most advantageously be kept in action, with the particular results
which the experiments instituted into these points have afforded; and
such other data, as will enable the reader to adopt that mode of
operation, which under every circumstance of locality will be found most
advantageous.
The changes which have taken place with respect to the retorts, have
been before detailed in part fourth; but in order to give the
manufacturer a nearer insight into the superior advantages attending
retorts of the construction lately brought into use, I have given in
part seventh, a detailed description of the horizontal rotary retorts,
the application of which has led to a more economical, expeditious, and
easy method of manufacturing coal gas than heretofore practised. I have
distinctly pointed out the advantages which these retorts present, the
particular results they afford, and the method of applying them.
The purification of coal gas forms the subject of part eighth. I have
compared here, the apparatus for purifying coal gas, as it was
originally constructed, with the improved machinery lately adopted,
showing the inefficacy and defects of the former, and the decided
superiority which belongs to the latter.
The ninth part gives an account of the various improved gas holders
which have been invented, and now are in action at the most recent
establishments, for the purpose of storing large quantities of gas. The
improvements that have been made in this department of the Gas Light
machinery, are particularly valuable and have contributed more perhaps
than any other, to lessen the expence of manufacturing gas for
commercial purposes.
In the tenth part, I have given a description of an entirely new
machine, called the gas-metre, or self-acting guage, lately adopted at
the Birmingham, Chester, and other gas works, which measures and
registers the quantity of gas manufactured in any given time, from any
given quantity of coal, or consumed during any period, by any number of
burners or lamps. The great services which such a machine must render
both to the manufacturer and consumer of gas, are particularly pointed
out, and illustrated to the manufacturer, by serving as a complete check
on his workmen as to the quantity of work that ought to be performed,
and to the consumer, as an exact measure of the quantity of gas he
receives, and ought to pay for.
The eleventh part is appropriated to the description of another
apparatus, called the governor, also of recent invention, and now in use
at numerous establishments. The design of this machine is, to regulate
the pressure of the gas, before it enters into the mains, the importance
of which must be sufficiently manifest. I have also pointed out the
application of this apparatus for regulating the magnitude of the flames
of gas burners and lamps.
The twelfth part treats on gas mains and branch pipes, I have here
stated the rules and practical proceedings necessary to be observed, for
applying and distributing gas pipes to the greatest advantage.
The most efficient method of introducing the gas to the interior of
houses, forms the subject of part thirteen. All the necessary
instructions are here given to workmen, for adapting the gas pipes, and
insuring success at the least cost, under every variety of
circumstances.
The fourteenth part gives an account of the illuminating power of coal
gas--the quantity of gas consumed in a given time, by different kinds of
gas burners and lamps, the relative cost of gas, tallow, and oil lights
of different intensities, and the most improved method employed for
ventilating apartments lighted by gas.
In the fifteenth and sixteenth parts, I have added an account of the
manufacture of carburetted hydrogen gas, from coal tar, vegetable tar,
and oil, with such other observations as may enable the reader to form a
proper estimate of the comparative advantage of manufacturing gas from
oil, or tar, under certain circumstances. I have here also given an
account of the manufacture of carbonate of ammonia, as now practised,
from the ammoniacal liquor obtained in the Gas Light process, and of the
manufacture of other saleable products obtainable from coal, namely;
pitch, coal tar, and oil.
In conclusion I have to observe that my object throughout has been to
make the work a compendium of all the best information which the
practice of the art down to the present moment has been able to afford,
embodying a great number of data, with which I have been obligingly
favoured by gentlemen, the most practically versant in the art, and for
which I beg they will individually accept this public expression of my
thanks, and obligations, as well as the results which my own labours in
this department, neither few, nor inconsiderable have furnished.
To supply the reader with a work of practical utility in a most
valuable, and growing branch of national economy has been my object; and
I need scarcely add, that the suffrages of the public to the zeal and
industry at least with which I have endeavoured to obtain that object,
will be a source of infinite satisfaction.
FREDRICK ACCUM.
_LONDON, 1819._
CONTENTS.
PART I.
PAGE
GENERAL NATURE AND ADVANTAGES OF THE ART OF PROCURING LIGHT, BY
MEANS OF CARBURETTED HYDROGEN, OR COAL GAS 1
PART II.
OUTLINE OF THE NEW ART OF PROCURING LIGHT BY MEANS OF COAL GAS,
AND THEORY OF THE PRODUCTION OF GAS LIGHTS 33
PART III.
CLASSIFICATION OF PIT COAL, AND MAXIMUM QUANTITY OF GAS,
OBTAINABLE FROM DIFFERENT KINDS OF COAL 41
PART IV.
FORM AND DIMENSIONS OF THE RETORTS ORIGINALLY EMPLOYED FOR
MANUFACTURING COAL GAS 51
APPLICATION OF HEAT--FLUE PLAN ORIGINALLY ADOPTED 59
REPORT ON A COURSE OF OPERATIONS, MADE WITH SETS OF 66, OF 30, OF
116, AND OF 64 RETORTS, WORKED ON THE FLUE PLAN 61
OVEN PLAN LATELY ADOPTED 67
DESCRIPTION OF THE RETORT OVEN 69
PART V.
DIFFERENCE IN THE QUANTITY OF GAS EVOLVED DURING DIFFERENT
PERIODS OF THE DISTILLATORY PROCESS, AND ECONOMICAL
CONSIDERATIONS RESULTING THEREFROM IN THE MANUFACTURE OF COAL GAS 77
EXPERIMENTS WITH 18 CYLINDRICAL RETORTS, CONTAINING ONE CHALDRON
OF COAL 80
EXPERIMENT WITH THIRTY-SIX PARALLELOPIPEDAL RETORTS, EACH
CONTAINING TWO BUSHELS OF COAL 81
REPORT ON A COURSE OF EXPERIMENTS MADE TO ASCERTAIN THE
COMPARATIVE ECONOMY OF MANUFACTURING EVERY WEEK, 857,667 CUBIC
FEET OF GAS, BY MEANS OF CYLINDRICAL RETORTS VARIOUSLY WORKED 84
PART VI.
TEMPERATURE BEST ADAPTED FOR WORKING CYLINDRICAL RETORTS 94
ANNUAL CREDITOR AND DEBTOR ACCOUNT OF MANUFACTURING DAILY, FROM
50,000 TO 102,000 CUBIC FEET OF GAS, AT THE PRICE WHICH COAL
BEARS IN THE METROPOLIS, THE OPERATION BEING COMMENCED WITH NEW
RETORTS, AND THE RETORTS BEING LEFT IN A FIT WORKING STATE 97
COMPARATIVE FACILITY WITH WHICH THE DECOMPOSITION OF DIFFERENT
SPECIES OF COAL IS EFFECTED 106
PART VII.
HORIZONTAL ROTARY RETORTS, LATELY BROUGHT INTO USE FOR
MANUFACTURING COAL GAS 110
DESCRIPTION OF THE HORIZONTAL ROTARY RETORTS AT THE ROYAL MINT 112
ACTION AND MANAGEMENT OF THE HORIZONTAL ROTARY RETORTS 120
ADVANTAGES OF THE METHOD OF MANUFACTURING COAL GAS BY MEANS OF
HORIZONTAL ROTARY RETORTS 124
DIRECTIONS TO WORKMEN WITH REGARD TO THE MANAGEMENT OF HORIZONTAL
ROTARY RETORTS 134
PART VIII.
PURIFYING APPARATUS, OR LIME MACHINE 140
LIME MACHINE ORIGINALLY EMPLOYED FOR THE PURIFICATION OF COAL GAS 141
LIME MACHINE LATELY ADOPTED 149
TEST APPARATUS, FOR CERTIFYING THE PURITY OF COAL GAS, AND THE
PROPER MANNER OF WORKING THE LIME MACHINE 157
BEST METHOD OF PREPARING QUICK-LIME FOR THE PURIFICATION OF COAL
GAS 161
PART IX.
GAS HOLDER 164
GAS HOLDER AS ORIGINALLY EMPLOYED 165
GAS HOLDER WITH GOVERNOR, OR REGULATING GUAGE, LATELY BROUGHT
INTO USE 169
GAS HOLDER WITH GOVERNOR OR REGULATING GUAGE AT THE CHESTER GAS
WORKS 175
GAS HOLDER WITH GOVERNOR OR REGULATING GUAGE AT THE BIRMINGHAM
GAS WORKS 177
REVOLVING GAS HOLDER AT THE WESTMINSTER GAS WORKS 181
RULE FOR FINDING THE CAPACITY OF A REVOLVING GAS HOLDER OF GIVEN
DIMENSIONS 185
COLLAPSING GAS HOLDER 185
RULE FOR FINDING THE CAPACITY OF A COLLAPSING GAS HOLDER OF GIVEN
DIMENSIONS 195
RECIPROCATING SAFETY VALVE 196
PART X.
GAS METRE, OR SELF-ACTING GUAGE, WHICH MEASURES AND REGISTERS, IN
THE ABSENCE OF THE OBSERVER, THE QUANTITY OF GAS PRODUCED IN A
GIVEN TIME, FROM ANY GIVEN QUANTITY OF COAL, OR CONSUMED DURING A
GIVEN PERIOD, BY ANY NUMBER OF BURNERS OR LAMPS 200
DESCRIPTION OF THE GAS METRE AT THE ROYAL MINT GAS WORKS 214
RULE FOR CALCULATING THE WEIGHT, WHICH A GAS METRE OF GIVEN
DIMENSIONS, WILL RAISE, TO A GIVEN HEIGHT, IN A GIVEN TIME 220
GAS HOLDER VALVE 221
SIPHON, OR WATER RESERVOIR 221
PART XI.
GOVERNOR OR REGULATING GUAGE 225
DIRECTIONS TO WORKMEN FOR FIXING THE GOVERNOR AND GAS METRE 229
PART XII.
GAS MAINS AND BRANCH PIPES 239
WEIGHT OF CAST IRON GAS MAINS OF DIFFERENT LENGTHS AND BORES 251
PART XIII.
GAS LAMPS AND BURNERS 253
DIRECTIONS TO WORKMEN, FOR ADAPTING GAS PIPES TO THE INTERIOR OF
HOUSES 258
PART XIV.
ILLUMINATING POWER OF COAL GAS, AND QUANTITY OF GAS CONSUMED IN A
GIVEN TIME, BY DIFFERENT KINDS OF BURNERS, AND GAS LAMPS 269
PART XV.
GAS FROM COAL TAR 282
GAS FROM OIL 289
PART XVI.
OTHER PRODUCTS OBTAINABLE FROM COAL, NAMELY:
COAL TAR 298
COAL OIL 300
PITCH 302
AMMONIACAL LIQUOR 303
MANUFACTURE OF CARBONATE OF AMMONIA FROM THE AMMONIACAL LIQUOR 303
MANUFACTURE OF MURIATE OF AMMONIA FROM THE AMMONIACAL LIQUOR 307
DESCRIPTION OF THE PLATES 315
INDEX TO THE WORK 321
LONDON PRICE LIST OF THE MOST ESSENTIAL ARTICLES EMPLOYED IN THE
MANUFACTURE AND APPLICATION OF COAL GAS 331
ADVERTISEMENT.
The author of this work respectfully informs the public, that they may
be furnished with estimates, and plans for the building of Gas Works,
particularly adapted to the circumstances of the places where they are
to be established, and that he proposes to superintend the erection of
the works.
Mr. Accum also engages to supply the whole of the Gas Apparatus ready
for immediate use, and to guaranty its efficient performance.
Or he will contract with any committee, directory, or public company,
for Lighting with Gas, any Town, Manufactory, or Building, upon
whatever scale of magnitude, for an annual specific sum.
Of the qualifications for the services which he thus proffers, he
would speak with diffidence. Such proofs as he is able to offer of
them, are to be found in the work here laid before the reader, beyond
which he would add no more than the flattering testimony of
approbation, with which his labours have been honoured, in having been
selected by HIS MAJESTY’S GOVERNMENT to plan and erect the GAS WORKS
at the ROYAL MINT, and since entrusted with the active management and
superintendance of that establishment.
_Compton Street, Soho,
May 28, 1819._
The following particulars are required to be stated by those who are
desirous of receiving estimates, concerning the comparative economy of
applying coal gas as a substitute for oil, wax, or tallow light.
1. A plan of the place to be lighted with Gas, drawn to a scale not
less than one tenth of an inch, to ten feet. The design must exhibit
the particular spot, where the Machinery is to be erected.
2. The kind of gas lights required, namely; whether the lights shall
be equal in illuminating power to one, or more tallow candles of a
given weight, or equal to an argand lamp.
3. The number of lights.
4. The average time the lights are to burn, throughout the year.
5. The average price of coal, and rate of workmen’s wages, at the
place where the light is wanted.
AN
ACCOUNT
OF THE
PROCESS OF MANUFACTURING
~Coal Gas~.
PART I.
_General Nature and Advantages of the art of procuring Light, by means
of Carburetted Hydrogen, or Coal Gas._
The new art of lighting houses, streets and manufactories, with
carburetted hydrogen, or coal gas, is one of those modern discoveries on
which the admirers of science and the inhabitants of this country in
particular, have greater reason to congratulate themselves, than any
other invention or discovery of the present age.
This art is so wonderful and important, it speaks so forcibly by the
effects it has already produced, that it cannot fail to increase the
wealth of the nation by adding to the number of internal resources, as
long as coal continues to be dug in this island from the bowels of the
earth.
For if we distribute the catalogue of human wants which a civilized
state of society has introduced, the production and supply of artificial
light, holds next to food, clothing and fuel, the most important place.
We might indeed exist without it, but how large a portion of our lives
would in that state be condemned to a state little superior in efficacy
to that of the animals around us.
If we could for a moment suppose the privation of artificial light,
during the absence of the Sun, it would follow as an immediate
consequence that the greatest part of the globe on which we dwell, would
cease to be the habitation of man. Whether he could ensnare or overtake
those animals upon whose unprepared remains he would then be compelled
to feed; whether he might store the fruits of the earth for his winter
supply--what might be the physical and moral consequences of a state of
such desolation, may perhaps be conjectured, but no estimate can show
its dreadful magnitude.
How much do our comforts, and how greatly does the extent of our power
depend upon the production and supply of artificial light. The flame of
a single candle animates a family, every one follows his occupation, and
no dread is felt of the darkness of night. It might be a curious
speculation to enquire how far, and in what respect, the morals of men
would become degraded by the want of this contrivance. But it is
sufficient on the present occasion, that, previous to entering upon a
dissertation respecting a new art of procuring light, a train of ideas
has slightly been hinted at, which cannot fail to show its magnitude and
importance.
The progress of the new art of lighting houses, streets and public
buildings, by means of the inflammable gas obtainable from coal, has
been within these few years uncommonly rapid. The number of gas-lights
already in use in the metropolis alone, amounts to upwards of fifty-one
thousand. The total lengths of mains in the streets through which the
gas is conveyed from the gas-light manufactories into the houses, now
measures two hundred and eighty-eight miles.
The gas-light illumination has also spread far and wide through the
country. Establishments for the supply of the new lights are carried on
at Edinburgh, Glasgow, Liverpool, Bristol, Bath, Cheltenham, Birmingham,
Leeds, Manchester, Exeter, Chester, Macclesfield, Preston,
Kidderminster, and in many other towns and places of Great Britain.
Every body is now convinced that pitcoal is capable of furnishing light
superior to that obtained from oil, wax, or tallow. The public attention
is awakened to the new value of coal, and will not rest till the art of
lighting with gas is pushed to the utmost of its extent.
In order to arrive at a full and accurate knowledge of the many
advantages attending the application of carburetted hydrogen or coal
gas, as a substitute for candles or lamps, it may be necessary,
especially for the information of those readers who have never
personally witnessed this mode of illumination, to take a brief
preliminary view of some of the leading objects of public and private
utility, to which this mode of procuring and distributing light may be
applied, and of the extent to which it is entitled to national
encouragement.
The chief advantages attending the use of gas, are superiority and
uniformity of light, saving of labour, cleanliness, safety and
cheapness.
It must be difficult for a person wholly unacquainted with this art, to
imagine with what facility and neatness gas-lights are managed. The gas
being collected in a reservoir, is conveyed by means of tubes, which
branch out into smaller ramifications, until they terminate at the
places where the lights are wanted. The extremities of the branching
tubes are furnished with burners, having small apertures out of which
the gas issues with a certain velocity corresponding to its degree of
pressure. Near the termination of each tube, there is a stopcock, or
valve, upon turning which when light is required, the gas instantly
flows out in an equable stream. There is no noise at the opening of the
valve, no disturbance in the transparency of the atmosphere; the gas
instantly bursts on the approach of a lighted taper into a peculiarly
brilliant, soft and beautiful flame; it requires no trimming or
snuffing to keep the flame of an equal brightness. Like the light of the
Sun itself, it only makes itself known by the benefit and pleasure it
affords.
The gas flame is entirely free from smell. The gas itself has a
disagreeable odour before it is burnt, and so has the vapour of wax,
tallow and oil, as it comes from a candle or lamp newly blown out. This
concession proves nothing against the flame of gas, which is perfectly
inodorous.
The gas-light flame is perfectly steady; a benefit which persons
accustomed to read or write by candle-light, are particularly capable of
appreciating. With the other modes of illumination we have never the
light of the same intensity for two minutes together, independent of
that unpleasant dancing unsteady flame which is so harassing to the
sight.
The size, form and intensity of the gas flame, are regulated by simply
turning the stop-cock which admits the gas to the burner or lamp. The
flame may at command be made to burn with an intensity sufficient to
illuminate every corner of a room, or so low and dim, as barely to be
perceived. It is unnecessary to point out how valuable lights of this
description are in nurseries, stables, warehouses, and chambers of the
sick. From the facility with which the gas flame can be conveyed in
almost any direction, from the diversified size and shape which it can
be made to assume, there is no kind of light so well adapted for
ornamental illumination.
The flame of coal gas is of a pure white colour, and of a body full and
compact. In large masses, it becomes of the same flickering character
which is common to all flames of large dimensions, and is owing to the
agitation of the surrounding heated atmosphere.
The saving of labour connected with the employment of gas-light, may
seem on a small scale to be trifling; but when it is considered that in
large manufactories, it is not unusual to find several persons employed
for no other purpose than trimming the lamps or setting and snuffing the
candles of the establishment, the advantage gained on this head by the
use of a species of light which require no sort of attention whatever,
cannot but appear very considerable.
The cleanliness of the gas-lights is also a consideration of no small
importance, they are attended with none of that spilling of oil, and
dropping of grease, which makes the employment of oil-lamps and candles
so injurious in many warehouses, shops and private dwellings.
The flame of a gas-light compared in point of brilliancy to that of a
candle, is as the flame of a common oil lamp, compared to the flame of a
lamp of Argand. The difference between a street, on the night of a
general illumination, and any other night when the street is under the
dull glimmering light of the ordinary oil lamps, is scarcely more
remarkable, than the difference between a street lighted by gas, and one
lighted by oil. While the ordinary oil lamps may be said merely to serve
the purpose of making “_darkness visible_,” the gas-lights really dispel
the dominion of night, and diffuse a body of light so wide-spreading and
intense, as almost to rival the clearest moonshine.
The same brilliancy which makes the gas-lights of such utility out of
doors, in lighting the streets, has been found of equal advantage in
illuminating the interior of private dwellings, and large public
buildings, such as churches, and theatres, &c. From a cluster of
gas-lights, fewer by one-half than the number of oil lamps and candles
required for lighting up a public edifice of this description in the
most ordinary manner, a body of light is furnished which diffuses
through the whole, a degree of mellow clearness which is not to be
attained by the greatest number of oil lamps, or candles, which a due
regard to respiration will admit of being employed. As examples of this,
we have only to name the public theatres of the metropolis, all of which
are lighted with gas, and in a manner which excites universal
admiration.
It may perhaps be imagined that with a substance so inflammable, and
amidst the blaze of resplendent flame which produces such beautiful
effects, there is a peculiar risk of accidents by fire, but so far is
this from being the case, that gas-lights are the safest of all lights.
No danger can arise from these lights in any way, but what is common to
candle lights and lamps of all kinds, and is the fault of none of them.
The gas-lights are in fact a great deal less hazardous. There is no risk
of those accidents which often happen from the guttering of candles,
from sparks being detached, or from carelessly snuffing them. The
gas-light lamps and burners, must necessarily be fixed to one place, and
therefore cannot fall or otherwise become deranged, without being
immediately extinguished. And further, at any time by shutting the main
tube which conveys the gas to the burners and lamps, all the lights in
the house can be immediately extinguished. In short, where gas is used,
the master of the house, when he has turned the main stop-cock which
conveys the gas into the collateral branch pipes, may retire to rest
free from any of those apprehensions, which before harassed him, lest a
candle might have been left burning, of lest the accidental dropping of
a spark might become the cause of enveloping himself and family in
destruction.
But the best proof of the great safety of the new lights is, that
notwithstanding upwards of fifty-one thousand gas-lamps burn nightly in
London, we have not heard of a single accident occasioned by them,
though the lamps and burners are generally carelessly managed, while we
have too often occasion to lament the effects arising from sparks of
candles, or carelessness in snuffing them.
Hence the fire-insurance-offices engage to insure manufactories and
public works, at a less premium, where gas is used, than when lighted by
other means.
The excessive expence of insurance, arising from the numerous candles
employed in most of the first-rate manufacturing establishments, and the
combustible nature of the structure of the buildings; the great
difficulty of retrieving the injury resulting to a well-organised
business, from the accidental destruction of the machinery, are
considerations alone sufficient to furnish the strongest economical, as
well as political recommendations, for the adoption of the new lights in
all manufactories where work is done by candle-light.
We have as yet only adverted to the application of gas in the more
ordinary cases where light is wanted, but among other special purposes
to which gas-lights may be applied, it would be improper to overlook the
peculiarly advantageous use which may be made of them in the supplying
of light-houses. From the splendour and distinguishing forms which the
gas-light flame is capable of assuming, nothing can possibly be better
calculated for such a purpose; and in point of economy, the employment
of it would be attended with a saving of at least one half of the
ordinary expence of oil lights. By means of a single furnace, as much
gas may be produced in three hours, as will furnish during the longest
winter night, a flame of greater brilliancy than is now furnished by any
lighthouse in Britain, or indeed in the world. The body of flame may be
increased to any size, merely by increasing the number of burners; and
whatever may be the magnitude of the flame, it will continue to burn,
without becoming in the least clouded by smoke, or the reflectors being
in the least obscured. Should these considerations lead, as it is to be
hoped they will, to the actual employment of gas in the lighthouses
around the British islands, it will readily occur, that in proportion as
the gas would be found attended with less expense than the present mode
of lighting by oil, it would enable the commissioners for light-houses,
out of the surplus means which would be thus placed at their disposal,
to multiply the number of lighthouses, and thus to add most essentially
to the security of British navigation. Nor is it in the case of maritime
signal-lights alone, that the use of gas is applicable, by its superior
efficacy and cheapness. The saving of expences to the country which
would be effected by the substitution of coal gas, for oil and tallow in
these and other public establishments, is a consideration which cannot
be too much pressed on public attention. The annual expenditure for
lighting the barracks of Great Britain alone, is said to fall little
short of fifty thousand pounds; for less than one half of which sum,
they might be lighted by means of gas much better, and a great deal more
safely. Some idea may be formed from the practical saving in this
department--how great might be the total saving, were this new mode of
lighting adopted in all our national establishments.
In the case of the public arsenals, however, the saving from the
employment of coal gas is a consideration of far inferior importance to
the _superior security_ attending it. On the preservation of the stores
which they contain may depend in a time of war the whole chance of
success against the enemy nor can any body who has lived in this
country at such a time have forgot the feverish alarm with which the
people have frequently seen this security endangered by accidents
arising from the use of moveable lights. Were coal gas exclusively
employed in such establishments, the fixed position which can be given
to the burners, and the absence of all danger from sparks must give a
degree of security to those places from fire, far beyond what they at
present possess, even when superintended with the greatest possible
caution and fidelity.
The same remark is equally applicable to the government offices, public
libraries, museums, in short, to all public establishments where the
national value of the articles preserved is such that no _possible_
means of increasing their security from destruction should be neglected.
We have now to turn our attention to another general point of view in
which the introduction of lighting by gas is not less an object of
interest to the public; we allude to the application of gas as a means
of _heating_ as well as lighting. Mr. Maiben[1] was the first who
directed the attention of the public to this subject; he ascertained
that gas from coal gives nearly the same heat when put into combustion,
which is yielded by a third part of the coal from which it is extracted.
In other words, it has been found that a quantity of fuel giving a
particular degree of heat, may be employed so as to produce at the same
time another substance yielding nearly an equal degree of heat in a
different and more manageable form; a form in which it can be preserved
for any length of time, divided into any portions, distributed in any
direction, consumed in an open fire-place, or in a stove concealed in
any shape; a form in which the flame may issue equally well from iron or
from stone-ware, be instantly lighted up and instantly extinguished, be
made to burn as long or as short a time as may suit us, and in any
degree of intensity between the most animating and brilliant blaze and
its total extinction; be extinguished in one room, and the next moment
lighted up in any other; in short such a form, that by one proper
arrangement from the beginning, with the same portion of fuel, we may at
any time have the command of a chearful fire, an adequate and
comfortable warmth in any part of our dwelling to which we may have
occasion to move, as manageable, and in this way as portable, as the
taper by the touch of which it is kindled. To those who have been
accustomed to see before them a solid mass of burning fuel, this gas
flame may at first have the less satisfactory appearance of a fugitive
blaze which we perceive nothing to support. But its uniformity and
permanence will soon banish this impression, while it is attended with
other advantages not inconsiderable with respect either to comfort or
convenience. There are no coals to be carried in, no ashes to be carried
out; there is no blowing, no sweeping of cinders, no dust, no
interruption of servants; there is no excessive heat in one stage, no
sudden damping at another: we have the choice of any temperature, and
which we can regulate with the utmost ease. The fire itself is lively
and pleasant to the eye: inclosed in transparencies it receives a degree
of splendour not easily imagined. Numerous applications of gas, as a
source of heat for airing rooms, and other purposes, have already been
adopted. It is used in kitchens for keeping meat warm, and for boiling
water; in store rooms, in picture galleries, in libraries, for
maintaining them at an equal temperature. By copper-plate printers, it
is used for warming their plates; and by jewellers and other artists,
for soldering.
[1] _A Statement of the advantages to be derived from coal gas._--p.
42.
It remains further to be observed that the coal, by yielding gas and
other products, namely, tar, pitch, and ammoniacal liquor, is not
entirely lost. It produces, besides light, an excellent fuel, namely,
coke; and as a manufactory, or workshop, generally requires heating as
well as lighting, there is a gain both ways. The manufacturer, by
distilling his coal instead of burning it as it comes from the pit,
saves his candles and improves his fuel. One effort at the outset in
erecting a gas apparatus, will reduce his annual disbursement for those
two articles of prime necessity, much in the same manner, though in a
greater degree, as the farmer gains by building a thrashing machine and
laying aside the use of the flail.
The coal is so far from being reduced in consequence of the gas-light
process, to an useless mass, that in many places immense quantities are
reduced to the state of coke for the purpose of rendering the coal a
better fuel than it was in its natural state; for coke gives a strong
and lasting heat. It is equally valuable for kitchen and parlour fires,
and still more as a necessary requisite in some important branches of
manufacture, so that in whatever quantity coke may be produced, it can
never want a good market. The demand for coke in this capital, since the
establishment of the gas-light works, has prodigiously increased.
Numerous taverns, offices, and public establishments, which heretofore
burnt coal, now use coke to the total exclusion of coal; and in almost
every manufactory, which requires both extensive lighting and heating,
gas and coke are now the means jointly employed. A coke fire emits a
very uniform and intense heat; it produces no sparks, and burns free
from soot and smoke; it requires no trouble in managing, and to those
who have the misfortune of being plagued with a smoaky chimney, affords
the only certain cure.
Another valuable product is the tar which is deposited during the
production of the gas, this tar when rectified by a slight evaporation,
has become an article of commerce. Large establishments, both of coal
tar, coal oil, and pitch, are in full action, and the commodities which
they furnish have become in great demand. The ammoniacal liquor which
the gas-light process affords, has of late given rise to very important
branches of chemical manufacture, carried on upon a large scale. But as
the gas is at present supposed to be the only object in view, for the
sake of the light which it yields, the other products being only
accidentally connected with its extraction, let us leave the idea of
profit on them out of the question, and with the utmost latitude of
concession, require them only to stand as in part for a portion of the
coal employed in the process, we have still the gas, an article which
performs the functions of the oil, the tallow, or the wax for which it
is substituted; and to the price of which we have no need to call the
attention of those who make use of them. There remains only to be
opposed on the other side, the expence of the apparatus by which the gas
is to be prepared, and the lights maintained. From the materials and the
workmanship, with the interest of the capital sunk, the expence in the
first instance, must be very considerable. But where the quantity of
light must be great, even from cheap substances, or where, with a less
quantity of light, the substances from which it is derived must be of
the costliest kind; such is in either case the enormous expence of these
materials, that by superseding them and making every reasonable
allowance to the engineer who erects the gas apparatus, the sum it
costs, both principal and interest, is soon liquidated, leaving at last
a total saving, excepting the expence of accidental repairs, which, from
the durability of the materials employed, seldom exceeds a trifling sum.
The principal expence in the pursuit of this new branch of civil and
domestic economy, is therefore, the dead capital employed in erecting
the machinery for obtaining and conveying the gas. The floating capital,
after the first cost incurred in erecting the apparatus, is
comparatively small; even if usurious interest is allowed for the first
cost of the apparatus, and its deterioration, the saving must always be
considerable, especially if the number of lights furnished are
comparatively in a small place.
At the same time were we to offer advice to the public on this subject,
it would be, that no private individual resident in London, should
attempt to light his premises, for the sake of economy, with coal gas by
means of his own apparatus, whose annual expence for light does not
exceed forty pounds. But when a street, or small neighbourhood is
required to be lighted the operation may be commenced with safety; the
sum required for erecting the apparatus, and the labour attending the
process, together with the interest of money sunk, will then soon be
liquidated by the light and other products.
Individuals have accordingly engaged successfully in the distillation of
coal, and trade with advantage in the articles produced by the process.
In like manner may the lighting of cities be accomplished without the
aid of incorporated bodies; and parishes may be lighted by almost as
many individuals as there are streets in a parish.
The supplying of light to the street or parish lamps alone, of any
district of street lamps only, can never be undertaken with economy in
this capital, nor indeed in any other; for the money sunk in furnishing
the mains or pipes only, must always greatly exceed what any revenue
from the lighting of the streets alone can compensate.
The most beneficial application of gas-lights unquestionably is in all
those situations where a great quantity of light is wanted in a small
place; and where light is required to be most diffused, the profit of
this mode of illumination is the least. Hence, the lighting of the
parish, or street-lamps alone, without lighting shops or houses, can
never be done with economy.
It may be objected to the universality of our conclusion that the price
of coal differing very much in different places will occasion a
variation in the expence of the new mode of lighting.
The price of coals can however have but little effect upon the cost of
the gas-lights; because the very refuse, or small coal, which pass
through the screen at the pit’s mouth, and which cannot be brought into
the market, nay, even the sweepings of the pit, which are thrown away,
may be employed for the production of coal-gas. It makes no difference
in what form the coal is used. This circumstance may contribute to
enable coal-merchants to furnish coals in larger masses, and as they
come from the mine, instead of increasing the bulk by breaking them into
a smaller size, which is a practice commonly followed.
The demand which the gas-light occasions for inferior sorts of coal may
hereafter contribute to lower the price of the superior kinds, and keep
a level which cannot be shaken under any circumstances. It may
contribute to prevent combinations which do certainly operate to the
prejudice of the public, and sometimes put this great town at the mercy
of a few proprietors in the north, who deal out this commodity in any
way they please. The competition thus produced, it is impossible not to
consider as an advantage, which would tend to prevent such combinations,
and put the inhabitants of London out of the reach of them.
The advantages which the coal trade must reap from the introduction of
the gas-light must be very considerable. There is already less waste,
but a greater consumption of coal than formerly. The lower classes of
the community are scantily supplied with firing; and nothing but a
reduction of price is necessary to increase to a very large amount the
average quantity of fuel consumed in the country. The lightness of the
coke produced by the gas-light manufacture diminishing the expence of
land carriage, facilitates its general diffusion--the comforts of the
poor are becoming materially augmented, and a number of useful
operations in agriculture and the arts are beginning to be carried on,
which have been hitherto checked by the extravagant price of fuel. If
any additional vent were wanted for the coke, it would readily be found
in the continental market; coke being better suited than coal to the
habits of most European nations.
Many, and unquestionable as are the advantages of this new mode of
procuring and distributing light, it was not to be expected that an
invention which went to impair a branch of trade, in which a large
portion of skill and capital had hitherto been successfully employed
should escape encountering very considerable opposition. On the first
introduction of the gas-lights, great but happily unsuccessful
endeavours were made to alarm the public mind by dismal forebodings of
the destruction which would ensue to the Greenland trade, and the
consequent loss of a valuable nursery of British Seamen. When
impartially considered it will be found that there was nothing more in
this objection than the common clamour that is always set up against
every new means of abridging labour, to which had the public listened,
an interdict would have been laid upon the spinning and threshing
machines, the steam engine, and a thousand other improvements in
machinery.
Such clamour scarcely ever fails to be made when the extension of
machinery, the application of inanimate power, and the abridgment of
labour consequent on either, is a matter proposed. We are then sure to
be told that the scheme of mechanical or chemical improvement is pointed
against the human species, that it tends to drive them out of the system
of beneficial employment and that, on the whole, the sum of the
improvement is not only a less proportion of good to society, but a
positive accession of misery to the unemployed poor.
The misfortune of this argument is that to be good for any thing, it
would prove a great deal too much. It is not confined in its scope to
any particular species or defined extent of improvement, but is equally
proscriptive of all improvements whatever. It is a principle for savage
life, not for a state of civilization. It takes for its basis that it is
an advantage to perpetuate that necessity for hard and incessant labour
under which man finds himself originally placed by nature, with all the
wants, privations, ignorance and ferocity, which are attendant on that
condition, and that every discovery, invention, or improvement which
tends to abridge the quantity required of human labour, and to augment
the resources for living and enjoyment is a serious injury to society.
The advocates of this narrow theory do not go the whole length of
maintaining that diminishing labour, and increase of substance, are in
themselves positive evils, a position too absurd perhaps for any one to
uphold; but they maintain what ends in a consequence nearly as untrue,
namely, that neither the one nor the other is of any advantage to
society at large. The palpable error of this theory is, that it supposes
that all improvements which tend to supersede human labour, are
necessarily made for the benefit of a few, and not for the common
benefit of the many; that instead of lessening to each individual the
share of labour requisite to obtain the means of his subsistence, their
only tendency is to lessen the value of each personas labour, and to
oblige him to work more in order to live equally well.
Now, however the existing state of things may be in this country, or in
other countries, arising out of a variety of arbitrary circumstances,
foreign to the natural, and in all cases the ultimately inevitable
course of industry, it is a matter of justice, clear and undeniable,
that every improvement in society ought to be the property of the many,
and not of a few; and that it ought either to lessen the quantity of
labour necessary for acquiring the means of living, or to increase the
profit to be gained by continuing the same quantity of labour. Nor does
there seem any reason for believing that, in point of fact, the actual
distribution of things is so far from according with this principle of
justice as some superficial and prejudiced observers are fond of
representing. The labourer, or artizan, may now work a greater number of
hours daily than he did years ago; but how seldom do we find this to be
the case without his comforts being more than proportionally multiplied,
and his ultimate independence from labour essentially promoted. In
general, however, the fact is, if we may give credit to well informed
economists, that the working classes do not labour more than formerly,
and yet live, or at least have the means of living better; and that by
working even less than formerly, they can obtain the means of living
quite as well.
Let the real state of matters in this respect, however, be as it may,
the question comes to be one merely as to the distribution of the
produce of nature and of art, and instead of opposing improvements
because they tend to encrease that produce, the object of those who have
really the good of their fellow-creatures at heart, ought to be, to
encourage such improvements as much as possible, but at the same time to
obtain a correction of any partiality or injustice which may have crept
into the distribution of their beneficial consequences. It is not to be
denied that all new improvements which interfere with and change the
occupations and habits of the working classes of people, must at first
expose them to inconvenience and distress, against which it is in
fairness the duty of society to protect them; but let not that temporary
inconvenience and distress which can and ought to be provided against,
be held as an insuperable obstacle to the adoption of an improvement the
ultimate tendency of which it is to better the condition of mankind.
It is likewise true that the manufacturing classes often suffer great
want by the occasional suspension of employment, and sometimes actual
oppression, by the demand for labour; but that involves a question more
immediately connected with political economy than the present subject.
It is not the machinery that is in fault in such cases, but those
speculators who occasion an inordinate excess of employment, or those
statesmen who, with their folly, derange the great machine of human
interests and intercourse.
Every invention which tends to diminish the labour of men must be a
benefit to the species; and it is wicked to argue against the use of any
thing from its occasional abuse.
If the application of mechanical inventions thus tends to improve the
humanity of the public, if it reduces the necessity of hard labour, and
diminishes the danger of many occupations which we contend it does, they
who contribute to this object deserve our respect and gratitude.
It may be true that we have now no such minds as those of Homer, or
Bacon, or others of their stamp; but we should reflect that the
circumstances which produced such characters are gone by, and great
faculties have found other objects and other materials to work with.
The use of mechanical industry not only improves and augments the
comforts of domestic life, but it also, perhaps, does as much to soften
the feelings of mankind towards one another as the precepts of
philosophy. It tends to engender a detestation of hard labour, and to
make the world consider not what the labourer may be able to do in
tasking him, but what he ought to do without detriment to himself. It
effects this by withdrawing, to a great degree, from observation, the
distressing spectacle of men and animals toiling beyond their strength.
It ought never to be forgotten, that it is to manufactories carried on
by machinery, and abridgment of labour, that this country is indebted
for her riches, independence, and prominent station among the nations of
the world.
Authentic estimates have shewn, that the use of machinery in Great
Britain, is equivalent to an addition to the population of upwards of
_one hundred millions of adult persons_.
This immense accession of power, has enabled this country to withstand
assaults, and to achieve objects of political ambition, that appear
almost miraculous when compared with the geographical extent and
numerical population of the kingdom.
With respect to what has been advanced as to the probable injury that
would result from the general adoption of the gas-lights all over the
country, to the Greenland trade, it may be observed that the traffic
might with more propriety be called a drain than a nursery of the naval
force. The nature of the Greenland service requires that the crew should
consist of able bodied sailors; and being protected men, not subject to
the impress law, they are rendered useless for national defence. The
nursery of British seamen is the coasting trade; and as the gas-light
illumination becomes extended it will increase that trade as much as it
diminishes the Greenland fishery.
Even on the extreme supposition that it would annihilate the Greenland
fisheries altogether, we should have no reason to regret the event. The
soundest principles of political economy must condemn the practice of
fitting out vessels to navigate the polar seas for oil, if we can
extract a superior material for procuring light at a cheaper rate from
the produce of our own soil. The consequence of lighting our dwellings
and manufactories with gas can in fact prove injurious only to our
continental friends, one of whose staple commodities, tallow, we shall
then have less occasion to purchase, although the new lights can never
supersede entirely the use of candles and moveable lights.