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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![the object referred to was “ about as big as a lump of chalk.” For what is the pressure that can be emured and will prove effective with the proposed low quality of gas and at the same time ohjectimaUe with the present gas, or gas of still better quality ? In words often familiarly quoted—I pause for a reply. And I pledge the entire value of my argument that the pause—so far as any intelligible, reliable, or conclusive answer can be given—will last to the time that our coalfields are exhausted. Still pressing this straw dummy of an argument, it may be asked if it is the fact that gas of high quality—i.^., Glasgow gas—requires to be delivered at the gas burner under a high pressure to prevent smoking. This question has been very ably handled by Dr. Wallace (op. cit.) and his experiments on this point are numerous, exhaustive, and thoroughly conclusive. In public demonstrations, while admitting that in every-day practice it is impracticable to obtain the most perfect re^svlts that can he obtained by ]>erfect testing appliances, he never- theless “ had no hesitation in stating that icithmd diffievlty from 20 to 23 candle-power might be obtained in every-day life from 26 candle gas,” and that very fair values can be obtained even with very small burners “ provided the pressure is reduced sufficiently low to allow the gas to pass very gently into the air.” With a No. 4 Bray’s burner at only half-inch pressure, and burning only 2-4 cubic feet per hour, he got 23 candle illuminating power, and with a No. 8 jet consuming 4*7 cubic feet per hour he got 28 candle illuminating value—the full illuminating power of the gas with which he experimented. At a pressure not exceeding 1 inch, and with an extensive series of Bronner’s burners, consuming from 1-2 to 4’3 cubic feet per hour, the average illuminating power was 25'7 candles, or nearly 26. And he lays it down as a rider or general axiom, while discussing high-quality gas averaging 28 candles, that “ the lower the pressure the better is the result.” In like manner, Mr. Stewart, of the Greenock Gas Works, exq)eri- menting with a very high quality of gas, burning only 2 cubic feet per hour, and at a pressure of less than 5-lOths, obtained an illumi- nating value of of 31’2.5 candles. It is with a high pressure that the very poorest results are obtained, and the facts have been established by many observers, while the axiom I have quoted has since been endorsed by the special committee of able chemists formerly referred to. The pressure at which gas of high quality can be burned without smoking at the burners is therefore not a](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b24919792_0029.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
