The gas question : economic and sanitary / by James Adams, M.D.
- James Maxwell Adams
- Date:
- 1882
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: The gas question : economic and sanitary / by James Adams, M.D. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.
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![inuterially with the quality uf the gas, but the pruportiou of carbon differs very considerably. I request particular attention to this point, as it bears witli great importance on the entire “Gas t,>ue.stion,” and to illustrate it 1 have selected three coal gases analysed by three chemists of the very foremost class in all that relates to the chemistry of gas—viz., the late Dr. Lctheby, Professor Punsen, and Dr. Frankland. 1 have cai’cfully calculated from their analyses the relative proportions of the essential constituents, and otherwise e.vtracted and fashioned in a foi m easily understood the most important facts deilucible. ihese facts I will present in two tables, the first of which deals with the weight of material contained in the bulk of one cubic foot of gas. In each cubic foot of the givses as under there were :— Candle Grains weight Grains weight power. of Carbon, of Hydrogen. 1^ ... 12!» 51 90 . . 147 61 . ... 240 08 Here it is at once made apparent that carbon is the pr constituent. But it is not mere quantity as carbon that makes it the factor of chief value in coal gas. It is the number and manner in whicli the molecules of carbon are proportioned and held together in various groups, and associated with the molecules of hydrogen, that is most material. The molecules are not chi.se together, but according to their manner of arrangement they are compres.sed at one time to une-half or one-fourth of the bulk they occupy at another. Thus, while stone and lime may be combined to form a mere shecpfold, they may also be put together to form a t(!inple or a fortress, and with like amdogy the molecules of carbon and hydrogen may be—or, 1 should rather say, are—grouped in a number and manner undetermined, each group ])0ssessing a distinct value as a factor in generating heat and light. These facts 1 merely refer to in this place, as the consideration which is pro^wrly their due would lead me into a disquisition far beyond the apprehension of a popular audience, and beyond the actual nece.ssities of my argument. For pressent jmrposes it will suflice to state that the carbon compounds of highest value are more abundant in cannel than in common coal. Meanwhile it is shown in the foregoing table that a cubic foot of one gas may contain 180 grains weight of heat and light generating material:](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b24919792_0019.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
