POWER FROM AIR-GAS.

King Country Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 383, 2 August 1911, Page 5

POWER FROM AIR-GAS.

With a desire to have every possible light thrown on the question, the Mayor has asked us to publish the letter given below from Mr VV. A. Chambers, Chairman of the New Zealand Dreadnought Gas Co., which he received this morning:—"lt no doubt will seem strange at this stage of the proceedings for us to turn round and now say that our gas is good for power, but to-day we have proved it without any doubt. An engineer of standing informed me two years ago that, though our gas was a good light, it would be of no use for power as it would not give an explosive mixture. Upon this we relied and did not try it till this morning, when I coupled the town supply on to my oil engine to see if it would drive it. The whole operation did not take half an hour, and to my surprise the engine went of! and worked perfectly, giving a better explosion than ever it did with the oil. The reason of this is of course that, though we cannot get an effective explosion in the ordinary case, yet under the compression of the cylinder the explosion is perfect. Holding a white paper over the exhaust showed that there was no sign of any marks on the paper, showing that there was perfect combustion in the cylinder. I ran the engine loaded for four hour 3 on and off, testing the consumption of gas per hour, and can complete the comparison that I sent you before. An Sh.p. engine run with Dreadnought at 3s per 1000 feet would cost acording to the meter between lOd and lid per hour. Three users of power have this afternoon asked me to convert their engines so as to enable them to use the town £as, as they were delighted with the way mine ran. We can fixeither gas or oil engines to work with the gas. If your Council will engage an expert to come here and see an engine running with the town gas, we will pay all expenses."