A Practical Treatise on Gaslight (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1815 Excerpt: ... it in preference to the latter, because it affords a larger portion qf gas, and gi2es a much more brilliant light.-Another manufacturer who was one of the first that adopted the use of this method of illumination in the small way, and who gave a statement of its advantages to the puplic, is Mr. Cook, a manufacturer of metal toys, at Birmingham, a clear-headed prudent man, not apt to he dazzled by a fanciful speculation, but governed in his transactions by a simple balance of profit and loss. There is a naivete in his own account of the process which will amuse as well as instruct the reader. r " My apparatus is simply a small cast-iron pot, " of about eight gallons, with a cast-iron cover, " which I lute to it with sand. Into this pot I put " my coal. I pass the gas through water into the Balance in favor of the gas for one year 119 15 0 Strand, March 13, 1815. I am with respect, Yours, R. ACKERMAN. " gasometer or reservoir, which holds about 400 " gallons; and, bymeans of old gun-barrels, con" vey it all round my shops. Now, from twenty " to twenty-five pounds of coal, I make, perhaps, " six hundred gallons of gas; for, when my re" servoir is full, we are forced to burn away the " overplus in waste, unless we have work to use ' it as it is made: but, in general, we go on " making and using it, so that I cannot tell to fifty " or a hundred gallons;--and, in fact, a great " deal depends on the coals, some coals making " much more than others. These twenty-five " pounds of coal put into the retort, and say " twenty-fire pounds/ more to heat the retort, " which is more than'it does take one time with " another, but I am willing to say the utmost, " are w...