The Sun.
London, England, 1850-09-12 00:00:00

PROGRESS OF SCIENCE.-THE

WA lER GAS.

We can conceive of few subjects more gratifying
to a contemplative idnd than observing the vast ins
provements constantly taking place, both in science
and art, calculated so largely to increase our personal
and social comfort, and to bring not only the neces-
saries, but even the luxaries of lre, within the reach
of the great mass of the community. In this respect
steam, railways, and the penny postage, have bound
friends and relatives within the range of a family
circle, although separated by hundreds c f miles ;
and, last of all, that miracle of miracles, the electric
telegraph, not only conveys our thoughts and wishes
in an instant, as if by magic, from one extremity to
another of our sea girt isle ; but, despite of winds
and wave?, has ben made to span the English
Channel, and thus enabled us to converse with our
warm-hearted friends in the centre of Pari3, while
sitting at our ease, sipping our coffee or smoking our
cigar, in the metropolis of England. Certainly, were
our forefathers, of even thirty years ago, permitted
to revisit the scenes of their nativity, they would
hardly believe this was the world they had left ; and
what more startling improvements the next thirty
years may produce we shall leave to more fertile
imaginations than ours to hazard the conjecture, con-
fident only that past attainments will stimulate to
greater efforts in the accomplishment of still greater
end

11Te well remember the exuberant delight it afforded
us, when only entering our teens, to ace our streets
and public buildings tir.t lighted with gas, and the
dingy oil lamps laid aside for ever. Tnis was an era
in our life which we are not likely to forget.
It was the prelude of a mighty social improve-
ment, which we may not even now sufficiently
appreciate. But in these days this was likely to have
been altogether outdone. The electric light threatened
to entomb every rival, and virtually, at almost a no-
minal expense, to change night into day. This was,
i,ovvever, highly patronised, rather too much to be-
lieve, and beyond that of a mere pleasing exhibition

in a lecture-room, it has now ceased to make any
pretensions. Then our go-ahead friends across the
Atlantic startled us by their daring announcements of
converting the elements of water alone, by means of
electricity (obtained for nothing), into so splendid a
light that you could read the smailest print a mile off.
Millions of dollars hung upon the issue. Every
newspaper was full of it, as the greatest discovery
of this or any age. The day of trial came, and
in one hour Payne was denounced as an
arrant deceiver, and his mighty pretensions le•
veiled in the dust. The very important subject of
obtaining a supply of cheap and good gas, free from
the usual contaminations of sulphur and ammonia,
has for a length of time engaged the attention of the
first scientific men of our day, who suggested mani-
fold improvements, some of which have been valuable,
but as their whole efforts were directed to neutralise
or absorb the noxious compounds inevitably contained
in all gas prepared from coal, they have been only
partially successful, much of the contamination still
remaining, in spite of every precaution. It seemed es-
sential that, to obtain a pure gas, a pure material should
be employed ; and sceptical as we have been as to this
being obtainable, or that any substitute fur coal, in the
production of gas, could ever be made available in this
kingdom at least, we were recently induced, by the re-
presentations of a friend, to ascertain the result of the
lighting of the town of Southport, and other important
places, by Mr. Stephen White, of Manchester's patent
" ilydro-carbon gas," where no coal is required ex-
cept to heat the furnace. We confess we were any-
thing but sanguine as to the result, having been al-
most sickened of the gas question altogether. How-
ever, a visit to this lovely watering place soon satisfied
us that this " water gas," as it has been called, was no
phantom, but a blazing reality of the greatest
brilliancy, throwing a fine, beautiful, soft light,
perhaps unequalled in the kingdom, over the length
and breadth of their principal street, which is about a
mile long; and a l Jolt into the first-rate shops and
hotels will satisfy any observer of its superior bril-
liancy to any coal gas he has ever seen—the ceilings,
too, after nine months' use, being untouched and
untarnished, naturally excites no little surprise,
proving that, unlike coal gas, it emits no smoke
whatever.

A visit to the gas-house is of itself a great treat ;
it is a handsome erection, admirably arranged, and
ought to he taken as a model; it is like going into a
comfortable kitchen—neither smell nor filth of any
kind ; and the man who has the charge of making all
the gas for the town not only does the whole himself;
but could attend, he says, to three times the quantity
required, if needful ; and so simple does it seem, that
it is almost self-acting. The retort into which the

liquid rein is constantly running in a small stream
only requiring being cleared of any so:Ay depo3it
every six or eight hours, and the water retort only
every few days; while the large station meter satis-
fies you that, notwithstanding the quietude and still-
ness of the place, more than 300 feet of gas passes
through it in the same time that coal retorts of an
equal size would produce 100 feet. This is a
most striking circumstance to every observer. The
ordinary filthy process necessary to purify coal gas, so
nauseating to all engaged, is altogether avoided ; and
as we found, on the most strict inquiry, that while
the brilliancy of this gas is decidedly superior to that
from the best Cannel coal, it is produced at a much
cheaper rate, it can be no surprise that its adoption is
rapidly spreading, both in Lancashire and Yorkshire,
where large establishments are now lighted up by it.
Having thoroughly satisfied ourselves as to the
value of this invention, and the certainty of its suc-
cess, we were gratified to find that, instead of in-
juring gas property, it would materially enhance it,
as, by merely changing their retorts, they can adopt
this at once, at a comparatively small cost.
We have entered into this subject very much more
at length than we at all contemplated when com-
mencing this paper, but believe our readers will be
satisfied that its importance demands it. We hope at
no distant date to bring the subject again before them.
We have not the pleasure of knowing the ingenious
inventor, but cordially wish him the success he so
richly deserves.—Standard of Freedom.