CONCLUSION.
The burners last mentioned may be said to mark the extent of the
progress that has been made, down to the present time, in the
construction of apparatus for developing light from coal gas; and they
remind me that I have arrived at the conclusion of my subject. From
the unpretending gas-jet described by Accum--burning, with
wonder-provoking steadiness and constancy, "so long as the supply of
gas continued"--to the complicated apparatus of M. Clamond, is a long
stretch of invention; embracing the labours of many distinct and
original workers in the same field, and including numerous variations
in the details of burners that have not been touched upon in the
foregoing remarks. As was announced in the introduction, I have dealt
in this treatise only with the more important or the more successful
of the modifications that have been made from time to time in the
construction of the gas-burner. In addition to the burners that have
been referred to, there have been invented many others, which could
not be adequately noticed without prolonging the treatise to an undue
length. Some of these (the fruit of much thought and careful
experiment) have obtained, in the commercial success that has attended
them, no more than their merited reward; others (devoid of any real
merit, and in their construction disregarding the most elementary
principles of economic combustion) have been brought into somewhat
extensive use by the misleading statements and false representations
of their inventors, and are only tolerated through the ignorance of
the public; while not a few of the latter class of burners have
speedily found the oblivion which they richly deserved. Sufficient,
however, has been said to show that many real improvements have been
effected in the construction of gas-burners, and to prove that, with
the apparatus now available, a far higher duty may be obtained from
the gas consumed than was possible only a few years ago.
But although the great advance that has been made in the construction
of gas-burners is undoubted, the benefits which ought to result
therefrom have not been realized by the gas-consuming public; nor are
they likely to be to their full extent. While the ingenious and
effective inventions for utilizing the waste heat of combustion, and
for lighting by incandescence, may, and doubtless will, in the course
of a few years, be far more extensively adopted than at present, it is
hardly to be expected that they will be generally employed. Two causes
operate to preclude the latter result--namely, their first cost, and
the care and attention demanded in their employment. It seems
tolerably certain that for a long time yet the great bulk of coal gas,
used for lighting purposes, will be consumed through the simple
flat-flame burners that have done so much hitherto for the furtherance
of gas lighting. Fortunately so much has been done towards the
perfection of this class of burners, that, for a very slight
expenditure, results may now be obtained far in advance of what could
formerly be produced only by the most costly and delicate apparatus.
For ordinary situations and requirements, the improved flat-flame
burners produced by Bray, Broenner, and Sugg, when intelligently
employed, leave scarcely anything to be desired. _When intelligently
employed_, I repeat, and with cautious emphasis; for the best of
burners will be extravagant and ineffective if employed without due
regard to the conditions for which it was made. That which is most
needed at the present day, and which will best ensure the continued
use of coal gas for the purposes of illumination, is the more general
diffusion amongst gas consumers of a knowledge of the principles of
combustion, and of the simple precautions to be taken and conditions
to be fulfilled in the employment of gas-burners. The apparatus that
is available is both varied and effective; what is wanted is the
knowledge to use it aright. By contributing to the freer dissemination
of that knowledge, purveyors of gas will confer no inconsiderable
benefits upon their customers, and, at the same time, will assuredly
promote their own interests.