LIGHTING WITH GAS.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 14, 29 April 1871, Page 5

LIGHTING WITH GAS.

Gas will be turned on and lit for the first time in Wellington this evening. This will not include the street lamps, all of which are not yet ready to play their part in enlightening the dimness of our streets. The following extracts from a lecture recently delivered at Sydney by Mr John’ Wark on the manufacture of coal gas, may have some interest tor our readers at this particular time.—“ At the commencment of the lecture Mr Watt alluded to the early history of gas-lighting, and stated that Mr Murdoch, generally admitted to be the first person who brought the coal-gas into use, made his earliest trial of its capabilities in 1792, at Redruth, in Cornwall, in the lighting of his premises: a further experiment in Ayreshire, Scotland, in 1797, and a still more extensive application of the gaß in 1798 in lighting the large premises of Messrs Boulton and Watt, of Soho, near Birmingham, on his becoming connected with that firm. He then spoke of. the first introduction of gas into London in 1813 —at first on a very limited scale ; and narrated a number of anecdotes, most of which were not a little amusing, of objections and objectors to the new mode of lighting, among the latter being particularised the eminent chemist, Sir Humphry Davy. As proving the fears that were entertained of gas at the time of its introduction, the lecturer stated that the projectors were not allowed on the grounds of public safety, to have gasometers, or as they were then called gasholders, of greater capacity than 6000-cubic feet; and even then they were compelled to enclose them in strong stone buildings. These views, he contended experience had shown to be entirely erroneous; and the latter—that of placing over the holder a massive structure —to be positively dangerous. Mr Wark strongly pointed out the differences between the very imperfect light, especially in streets of the old oil lamps, and the brilliant display everywhere seen in a city that has had extended to it the advantages of gas. He wished to disprove a prevalent but erroneous popular idea, that gas was in itself explosive ; it only became so when forced into contact with a large proportion of common air or oxygen ga9. Mr Wark proceeded in very concise terms, to give a description of the various processes in the manufacture of gas, from the time of the coal being placed m the retorts, through the operations of cooling and purifying, to its reception into the gasometer, a vessel the form and use of which was clearly explained, and thence its progress through the supply pipes to the houses of citizens. In connection with the supply through the gas mains, allusion was made to an appreciable loss of gas, through its tendency to rise, in being conveyed through towns, the natural j aspects of which were very undulating. The impurities which had to be detached ! from the gas before it became fit for eon- I sumption were next touched upon, special ; mention being made of ammonia, bisulphate of carbon, hydrogen, and sulphuretted oxygen, i the natures of which, together with those of 1 the. component parts of common air and of ■> pure gas, were fully explained, in addition to j the remarks of the lecturer, by experiments I conducted by Mr J. Wark, jun.', lately arrived from England. The best means for freeing the gas from noxious gases and other deleterious and impure ingredients, the lecturer said,.were now decided to be lime and the oxide or peroxide of iron. We learn from the “ Southern Cross” that the business of the Gas Company is increasing, as they are now laying down larger pipes. The “Cross” says: “ Observing that the new pipe was being bedded in kauri gum refuse, we made inquiry regarding the reason for such a singular proceeding, and learned that the salt water used for watering the streets tends to rapidly corrode the pipes. A short time ago it was accidently discovered at the gas works that coal tar was a chemical solvent of kauri gum : its solvent action was not rapid, but sure, and all pipes laid down since then have been placed in a bed of pounded gum saturated with coal tar. Thus a thick coat of a sort of pitch is formed around the pipe which is impervious to moisture.