A NEW ILLUMINANT.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 379, 22 June 1889, Page 6

A NEW ILLUMINANT.

There is now being shown at one of the Sydney foundries an apparatus for the manufacture of gas from water, the patentees being Messrs Rock and Moore. Considerable interest) is felt both in England and America in the fact that for heating and illuminating purposes there exists an agency far cheaper, than either coal or coal-gas. A late cable informed us that a powerful syndicate had been formed to. work the discovery. The plant is simple when compared with the ordinary gasmaking paraphernalia, and consists of a gasholder, gas generator and steam-producer and carburetter, with, the necessary pipes and connections. In addition to these main portions may be added wet and[ dry scrubbers, and in the larger sizes automatic watertaps and steamtaps. The gas is made by passing a small jet of .superheated steam downwards through red-hob gas-coke contained in the generator. There is no exterior Sre, and the apparatus is simple and easily kept in order. The gas is' purified by passing through a scrubber and washer. The patentees say that the most striking, fea? ture in water gas is the extremely low figure at which it can be made. The largest plant in use is at a place called .Weesp, in Holland, where 1,000,000 cubic feet of this gas is made daily at a cost of a' fraction over l^d per 1,000 cubic feet, the anthracite used costing 16s per ton. The uses to which this cheap fuel are put are many, and it is stated to be employed in about 50 different ' trades and (especially in America) in • a: large j number of private houses. One advantage of the gas is

its' cleanliness, 1 -,Being*free from tar, and ib cannob, Durn'^ith^a.smok^flame,-' e.ven when , the objecb,,tq be heated is' placed "oyei or- in the' flame. \ It remained to Ne,w 'SoutH Wales to discover 'a r material : with'which to' illumi*-" nate what was hitherto known only asSa colourlees gas with no ligbtrgiying proper- " ties, 'producing J ftf flame of' brilliancy surpassing the 'best' ordinary l gas how'used in our cities and; towns; -. The invention will allow, of,, gas in ; country, towns and remote places" being supplied at about the same price per thousand as is'now charged in the principal Au'straliahcitiesi ' The'represehta' tiv.e of the syndicate candidly says that there is no idea of competing with established companies in the capitals, bub that the problem of cheaply 'and effectively lighting such places as Huhter's-hill, North Shore and other suburbs of Sydney, as well as distant country places, is practically solved. Country stations, it is . prophesied/ will be placed on a par with Sydney and Melbourne in respept of lighting, and gas stoves and gasaliers will be. found where the wopd-fire and kerosene lamps now reign supreme. It may.be added that the invention ha 3 been patented through the colonies and England.