The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1884-09-06
EXPERIMENTS With Gas.


'sGas can be burned most efficiently
Tor heating purposes without any flame
or visible combustion; in fact. flame is
only sign of incomplete or imperfect
combustion, and. looking forward to a
possibly near future, believe that all
fuels, both solid and gaseous, will be
burned for heating purposes without
any flame. l will show you how decep-
tive appearances are by making an
enormous flame, In which l am burn
ing, probably, at the rate of 100 cubic
feet of gas per hour. This flame is q
delusiOn; like an empty bottle, it is all
outside and of very little use. Passing
through the thin film of flame on the
outer surface it is quite cold inside, and
this will easily prove. If it were large
enough / should not have the slightest
objection to walk into the middle of it
and remain there; not being large
enough for myself will protect the
stem of this thermometer from the
outer film of flame, and put the bulb
inside, 1t will register about l20 de-
grees Fahrenheit. | will replace the
thermometer bulb by ball of tissue
paper, and you see it is unchanged. l
will protect part of my hand from the
outer film of flame and pick the paper
out with my bare fingers; and, lastly,
will place small paper of gunpowd-
err in the center of the flame and
let it remain there. Such flame as
this, Notwithstanding its apparent
iierceness and size, is of little use. If
you place cold vessel in 1t, it makes
an abominable smell 1t is mixture
of gas and air, but in incorrect proper
tons, owing to the faulty construction
of the burner, and the mixture can
only burn on the surface where il comes
In contact with the external air. BY
increasing the air supply to the correct
proportion, as you see, the flame is re-
duced in size, becomes solid to the
center, and explodes the gunpowder.
Carrying on my experiments still fur
Their, l now use different burner of
much smaller size, and use air under
pressure from small foot blower-as
the burner | have been using would.
with an air blast, require about 1000
cubic feet of gas per hour to work it
and wish to show you. as near as
possible, the same quantity of gas being
burned under different conditions.
This burner you now see is only two
and three-quarter inches across the
surface, yet, with the assistance of a
small blower, it may be made to burn
perfectly up to 200 cubic feet or more
per hour-suificient to make steam for
two. or three horse power engine. You
can judge of the heat of the flame by
the iron wire put in it, which you see
burns almost like paper. Changing
the burner once again, use a large
blowpipe, which gives most intense
flame; in fact, the advantage of blow
pipe consists in its burning as much gas
as possible in an exceedingly small
flame of great intensity. Now, if you
will watch me carefully, | will direct
the flame on this ball of fine scraps of
wrought iron, a metal which is prac-
tically infusible in an ordinary furnace,
and without turning o / the gas l will
pinch the gas-supply pipe so as to ex-
tinguish the flame. The gas is still
there, burning as before, but burning
entirely without flame, and, as you see,
the iron melts and runs like water in
'stantly. That there is no fame | will
prove to you by putting slip of paper
before the blowpipe, which. as you see,
is not burned nor dscolored; that the
gas is burning and has been interfered
with l will prove by stopping the
blower. and allowing the gas
to burn with fame. as at first
| have now taken you from a cold
flame, Into the center of which put my
fingers to an intense heat without any
flame, and, as you see, the heat in
creases as the fame reduces, until at its
maximum the fame disappears alto
gether. The combustion of gases ap-
pears to be succession of explosions,
either so qui * as to be silent to human
ears or so slow as to make, if contin-
ued, I. musical sound. To enable you
all to hear this | shall, as you will no
doubt admit, pass the bounds of what
may be considered classical music, but
| will make these two burners speak in
their own natural tones If they are
not charming as musical instruments
they have the one great advantage that,
a little of it goes a very long way, and
you will not desire that my musical
performance shall be long one. The
quantity is amply compensated for by
the .qnality, which is certainly not ex-
celled by anything from donkey to a
fog horn. Bear in mind that the APP
plication of gas to music is in its in
fancy, and there is certainly room for
improvement in the future.
Lecture By Thomas Fletcher, Cheiten.
ham, England.