in which case it is compressed into large reservoirs placed on a boat.
The buoys employed are generally of from 90 to 285 cubic feet capacity,
affording a lighting for from 35 to 100 days.
To the upper part of the buoy there is affixed a firmly supported tube
carrying at its extremity the lantern, c. The gas compressed to 6 or 7
atmospheres in the body of the buoy passes, before reaching the burner,
into a regulator analogous to the one installed on railway cars, but
modified in such a way as to operate with regularity whatever be the
inclination of the buoy. In the section showing the details of the
lantern on a large scale the direction taken by the air is indicated by
arrows, as is also the direction taken by the products of combustion.
These latter escape at m, through apertures in the cap of the apparatus.
[Illustration: COMPRESSED OIL GAS FOR LIGHTING CARS STEAMBOTS, AND
BUOYS.]
The regulator, B, in the interior of the lantern, brings to a uniform
pressure the inclosed gas, whose pressure continues diminishing as a
consequence of the consumption. The lantern is protected against wind
and waves by very thick convex glasses set into metallic cross-bars, c.
The flame is located in the focus of a Fresnel lens, b, consisting
of superposed prismatic rings, and adjusted at its lower part with a
circle, d, while a conical ring, e makes a joint at its other extremity.
This ring is held by the top piece of the lantern through the
intermedium of six spiral springs, c' c''. Under the focus of the flame
there is placed a conical reflector of German silver, t.
The buoy is filled through an aperture, k, in the side of the upper
tube. This aperture is provided with a valve which allows of the buoy
being charged by connecting it with the accumulators located on a boat
built especially for this service. As soon as the gas reaches 6 or 7
atmospheres the cocks of the buoy and reservoir are closed, and the
connecting tube is removed. The consumption of gas in the lantern
is. 1,230 cubic inches per hour. This being known it is very easy to
calculate from the capacity of the buoy how often it is necessary to
charge it.
A large number of buoys on the Pintsch system are already in use.
The oil gas is likewise applicable to the illumination of lighthouses,
and among those that are now being lighted in that way we may cite the
one in the port of Pillau, near Königsberg. Several large steamers are
likewise being lighted on this plan. In such an application of oil gas
the management of the apparatus is very easy, and the permanence of the
illuminating power of the gas gives every facility for the lighting of
the boat, whatever be the duration of the trip.
Although Mr. Pintsch's process of manufacture has been but recently
introduced into France, it has received a number of applications that
permits us to foresee the future that is in store for it. The Railway
Company of the West has contracted for the lighting of 250 first-class
cars that run within the precincts of the city; the State Railways have
56 cars lighted in this way running between Nantes and Bordeaux and
between Saintes and Limoges; and the Line of the East has just applied
the system to 80 of its cars.
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