GAS-LIGHT. 47.
Encouragement given by the legislature to the new system of procuring
light.--Gas-light company, incorporated by charter, to apply the new
art of illumination by way of experiment, on a large scale, to
illuminate the streets and houses of the metropolis.--Power and
authorities granted to this corporate body.--are very restricted, and
do not prevent other individuals from entering into competition with
them.--Boundaries of their experiments.--limit of capital employed by
them.--Power of His Majesty with regard to the gas-light charter.
THEORY OF THE COMBUSTION OF COAL IN ELUCIDATION OF THE NATURE OF GAS-
LIGHT. 49.
Natural history of pit-coal.--Immediate constituent parts of coal.--
Their relative quantities--are different in different kinds of coal.--
Phenomena, which happen during the combustion of coal.--Analysis of
coal by distillation.--Great waste of matter capable of producing
light and heat, in the usual mode of burning coal.--Proofs of this
statement.--Theory of the production of gas-light, compared with the
production of light obtained by candles and lamps.--Place which the
discovery of lighting with gas occupies in the philosophical order of
knowledge.
HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE RISE AND PROGRESS OF THE APPLICATION OF COAL-
GAS AS A SUBSTITUTE FOR PROCURING ARTIFICIAL LIGHT. 55.
The discovery of the inflammable nature and application of coal-gas
for the production of artificial light, cannot be claimed by any body
now living.--Early notices of the inflammable property of the gas
obtained by distilling coal.--Attempts to substitute it for tallow and
oil.--Experiments made with coal-gas by Dr. CLAYTON, Dr. HALES, and
the Bishop of Llandaff.--First successful attempt of lighting manu-
factories with gas.--_Creditor_ and _debtor_ account concerning the
expence of this mode of illumination, when compared with the light
obtained by tallow candles.--Claims of Mr. MURDOCH with regard to the
economical application of coal-gas.--Claims of Mr. WINSOR.--Experi-
ments of Mr. NORTHERN, Mr. CLEGG, Mr. COOK, Mr. ACKERMANN.--Economical
statements of the gas-light illumination when compared with the cost
of the same quantity of light obtained by means of candles and lamps.
THEORY OF THE PRODUCTION OF GAS-LIGHT; AND DESCRIPTION OF A PORTABLE
APPARATUS FOR ILLUSTRATING, IN THE SMALL WAY, THE GENERAL NATURE OF
THE NEW SYSTEM OF PROCURING LIGHT. 77.
Philosophy of the production of coal-gas.--Characters of the various
products which the gas-light process affords, their quantities, and
modes of obtaining them.--Quantity of gas obtainable from a given
weight of coal.--Illuminating power of a given bulk of coal-gas
compared with the illuminating power of a given weight of tallow
candles.--Practical directions with regard to the production of the
gas from coal.--Its chemical constitution and analysis.--Pit-coal is
not the only substance which affords carburetted hidrogen gas.--This
gas exists ready formed in nature.--Mode of collecting it when found
native.--Is given out by all kinds of vegetable matter, submitted to
distillation in close vessels.--Other sources of obtaining this
gazeous fluid.--Practical directions with regard to the method of
obtaining from coal, this gazeous substance, as best suited for
illumination.--Chemical constitution of coal-gas.--How ascertained.
UTILITY OF THE GAS-LIGHT ILLUMINATION WITH REGARD TO PUBLIC AND
PRIVATE ECONOMY. 99.
Objects to which the new system of lighting with gas may be
beneficially applied.--Capital advantages of the gas-light illumina-
tion.--Places and public edifices lighted with coal-gas in this metro-
polis.--Situations best suited for the application of gas-lights.--
places where it cannot be used to advantage.--Illumination of
barracks, arsenals, dock yards, &c. with coal-gas.--Further observa-
tions on this subject.--Great heat produced by gas-lights.--Reason why
the flame of coal-gas produces more heat than the flame of candles and
lamps.--Admeasurement of the comparative degrees of heat produced by
gas-lights, oil lamps, tallow and wax candles, &c.--Gas lamps and
burners, various kinds of.--Ornamental chandeliers and candelabras,
for applying coal-gas as a substitute for oil.--Other products obtain-
able from coal besides gas.--_Coke._--Its nature.--Combustion of it.--
Produces a more strong and lasting heat than coal.--Explanation of
this fact.--Advantages resulting from the use of coke as fuel.--Disad-
vantages of its application in certain circumstances.--Relative effect
of heat produced by equal quantities of coke and charcoal.--Method of
measuring the comparative effect of different kinds of fuel in pro-
ducing heat.--Capital advantages resulting from the application of
coke, as fuel, in the art of burning lime.--Plaster of Paris, bricks,
&c.--Quantity of coke obtainable from a certain quantity of pit-coal.
--Kind of coke best suited for metallurgical operations.--Mode of
obtaining it in the gas-light process.--Sort of coke best adapted for
kitchen and parlour fires.--Manufacture of it.--_Coal tar._--How
obtained.--Its properties.--Earl of Dundonald’s method of manufac-
turing tar from coal.--Quantity of coal-tar produced in the gas-light
process from a given quantity of coal.--Characters of coal tar
obtained from Newcastle coal, differ from that produced from canel
coal.--_Coal pitch._--Process for obtaining it.--Properties of coal-
pitch.--Use of it in the arts.--quantity of coal-pitch obtainable from
a given quantity of tar.--_Ammoniacal liquor_ produced during the
distillation of coal.--Its chemical constitution.--Quantity obtained
from a given quantity of coal.--General observation respecting the
scheme of applying coal-gas as a substitute for candles and lamps.--
Effects which it must produce upon the arts and upon domestic economy.
--Its views.--Primary advantages.--Resources which it presents to
industry and public economy.--In what respect it is entitled to public
approbation and national encouragement.--Effects of prejudice against
the introduction of new and useful discoveries.--Have operated
strongly in retarding the gas-light illumination.--Remarkable slowness
with which improvements of extended utility make their way into common
use, contrasted with the rapid adoption of fashionable changes.--Other
causes unfavourable to the adoption of new and useful plans.--Further
observations on this subject.--The new system of lighting with coal-
gas can never supersede the use of candles and moveable lights.--Gas-
light illumination cannot prove injurious to the Greenland fishery--
nor can it diminish the coal trade--must prove beneficial to it.--The
price of coal even when it is the highest cannot materially affect the
beneficial application of gas-lights.--Striking advantages to be
derived from the introduction of gas-lights into manufactories.--
Principal expense which must always attend the gas-light illumination.
--Is the dead capital employed for erecting the machinery.--Floating
capital is small.--Advice to private individuals with regard to the
erection of a gas-light apparatus calculated for their own use.--
Expence which must attend the application of the new system of
lighting under different circumstances.--Entire new scheme of
illuminating streets, or small towns, with gas-lights; which would
save all the main pipes for conveying the gas through the streets as
well as the branch pipes which conduct the gas to the lamps.--Manage-
ment of the gas-light machinery is extremely simple and easy.--The
apparatus not liable to be out of order.--Observations on the safety
of the gas-light illumination.--Misapprehension of the public con-
cerning it.--Causes that have alarmed the public concerning the
application of the new lights.--Gas-lights cannot give rise to those
accidents which have so often arisen from the careless snuffing of
candles, &c.--Produce no embers or sparks.--Cannot fall, or be dis-
turbed without becoming extinguished.--Are the safest of all lights.--
Impossibility of streets or towns lighted with gas to be thrown
suddenly into darkness by the fracture of the gas-pipes conveying the
gas to the lamps--or by the destruction of one or more of the gas-
light machineries employed for preparing the gas.--Illustration
showing the absurdity of such mistaken notions.--Curious self-ex-
tinguishing lamp, invented by Mr. CLEGG.--His machine which measures
and registers in the absence of the observer, the quantity of gas
delivered by a pipe communicating with a gas-light _main_.--Leading
characters of the new lights.--Objects and views which this art
embraces.--It must lessen the consumption of oil.--Occasion a
defalcation in the revenue.
TABULAR VIEW, Exhibiting the quantity of GAS, COKE, TAR, PITCH,
ESSENTIAL OIL, and AMMONIACAL LIQUOR, obtainable from a given quantity
of COAL: together with an estimate of the quantity of Coal necessary
to produce a quantity of Gas, capable of yielding a Light equal in
duration of time and intensity to that produced by Tallow Candles of
different kinds. 164.
DESCRIPTION OF THE GAS-LIGHT APPARATUS. 166.
METHOD of correcting the relative pressure of the Gasometer, so as to
cause the gas which it contains to be uniformly of an equal density.
181.
DIRECTIONS TO WORKMEN ATTENDING THE GAS-LIGHT APPARATUS. 182.
ESTIMATE of the price of a Gas-Light Apparatus. 185.
LONDON Price List of the most essential articles employed in the
erection of a Gas-light Apparatus. 186.
ERRATA.
Page 24, line 11, _for_ too, _read_ two.
48, 22, _for_ corporated, _read_ incorporated.
53, 7, _for_ this combustion, _read_ the combustion.
64, 24, _for_ CLEG, _read_ CLEGG.
_ibid_ 25, _for_ communicates, _read_ communicated.
65, erase the * and put it after the word CLEGG, line
24, p. 64.
_ibid_ 17, _for_ attemps, _read_ attempts.
125, 23, _for_ degree, _read_ degrees.
132, 25, _for_ coal, _read_ coal-tar.
DIRECTIONS TO THE BINDER:
Plate I. facing the title; plate II. facing page 79; plate III. facing
page 115; plate IV. facing page 119; plate V. facing page 120; and
plates VI. and VII. at the end of the book.
A
PRACTICAL TREATISE
ON
GAS-LIGHT.
INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATION.
INFLUENCE OF THE PROGRESS OF THE ARTS UPON THE MORALS AND CONDITION OF
MAN.
It is an undoubted truth, that the successive improvements in the
condition of man, from a state of ignorance and barbarism, to that of
the highest cultivation and refinement, are usually effected by the aid
of machinery and expedients, calculated to procure the necessaries, the
comforts, and the elegancies of life; and that the pre-eminence of any
people in civilization is, and ought ever to be, estimated by the
proportional state of industry, and useful labour existing among them.
In proof of this great and striking truth, no other argument requires to
be offered, than an immediate reference to the experience of all ages
and places: the various nations of the earth, the provinces of each
nation, the towns, and even the villages of the same province, differ
from each other in their accommodations; and are in every respect more
flourishing, the greater their activity in establishing new channels of
useful employ, calculated to procure the necessaries and comforts of
life. Hence the nations which have shewn the most ingenuity in this way,
are not only the richest, but also the most populous and the best
defended: the provinces of those nations, are seen to flourish likewise
in proportion to their respective degrees of activity in this respect,
And from these exertions it is, as SMITH[1] emphatically remarks, that
“the accommodation of an European prince does not always so much exceed
that of an industrious and frugal peasant, as the accommodation of the
latter exceeds that of many an African king, the absolute master of the
lives and liberties of ten thousand naked savages.”
[1] Wealth of Nations, chap. 1.
It was a strange notion of Rousseau to maintain that mankind were
happier when they resembled wild beasts, than with all the expanded
knowledge of civilized life; and that the cultivation of their
understanding had tended to degenerate their virtues. There can be no
virtue but what is founded on a comprehensive estimate of the effects of
human actions, and an animal under the guidance of instinct can form no
such estimate.
The variety of production, of wants, and fabrication of a civilized
society, has given rise to barter or exchange; mutual supply has
increased the sub-division of labour, and improved the means of
conveyance. Streams, roads, ships, and carriages have extended their
beneficial intercourse; confidence between man and man has advanced the
moral principles of society, and afforded a progression, of which the
past gradation may indeed be traced, but to the future part of which
the imagination can scarcely form a probable outline. And as the moral
and physical powers of man expand, new resources and new agencies are
made subservient to our commands, which, in an earlier state of society,
would have appeared altogether visionary.
Who among the ancients would have listened to the extraordinary scheme
of writing books with such rapidity, that one man, by this new art,
should perform the work of twenty thousand amanuenses? What philosopher
would have given credit to the daring project of navigating the widest
ocean?--or imagined the astonishing effect of gun-powder--or the
extended application of the steam engine? What mortal would have dared
to dive to the bottom of the sea--or to soar aloft into the air--or bid
defiance to the thunder of the clouds? Discoveries which have changed,
as it were, the course of human affairs, and the effects of which have
already carried the intellectual operations of the human mind, to a
height they could by no other means have attained. The men of those
early ages, in the confidence of their own wisdom, might have derided
these discoveries as impossible, or rejected them as visionary; but to
those, who enjoy the full effects of such, and numerous other successful
inventions, it becomes a duty to reason upon different principles, and
to exert all means in their power to give effect to the progress of
useful knowledge.
The artificial production and supply of light during the absence of the
sun, unquestionably holds a distinguished rank among the most important
arts of civilized life.
If we could for a moment suppose the privation of artificial light, 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 powers, in the
common affairs of life, 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
respects, 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
illumination, a train of ideas has slightly been hinted at, which cannot
fail to show its magnitude and importance. The methods of procuring and
distributing light, during the absence of the sun, have not hitherto
attained the extent of their possible perfection: there is yet a wide
field for improvement in the construction of the instruments of
illumination, and the subject is highly deserving the attention of every
individual.
The scheme of lighting houses, streets, and manufactories, by means of
the inflammable gas, obtainable by distillation from common pit-coal,
professes to increase the wealth of the nation, by adding to the number
of its internal resources, and on this ground it is entitled, at least,
to a candid examination.
The apparent slight that has been thrown upon this new breach of civil
economy by some individuals, who appear to be incapable of judging of
its nature, has contributed to deter sensible and well disposed persons
from wishing it success. It is the more necessary to state this fact,
because, when a mistaken notion once becomes diffused, concerning the
nature of a new project, persons of the best intention are liable to
become affected with wrong impressions on their mind. I am neither a
share holder, nor a governor, nor am I directly or indirectly concerned
in any gas-light association.
The object of the succeeding pages, simply is to rescue the art of
illumination with coal-gas from misconception and misrepresentation, and
by a fair, and not overcharged statement of its merits and its
disadvantages, to appeal from prejudice and ignorance, to the good sense
of the community.