The Democrat. (Scotland Neck, Halifax Co., N.C.) 1884-1896, 1888-11-22
HOW GAS IS MADE.
Extracting an Illuminating Fluid
From BituminouS Coal.
The Gas is Generated in a Red
Hot RetOrt.

How few people can intcjIigibly OK
plain some Of the most or iiuary things
il everyday life. An official Of the city
gas works was hearI to say not long
ago that if he might JUICE by the mum
Der of times he was asked for iEforma-
ton not more than two people in ten
know how common Illuminating gas Is
made. They all seem to understand,
he said, that it comes out Of the soft
coal but thy are ignorant Of the process
by which it is extracted. We do not
doubt this at all, for, as we have said
to you evcral times, it Is the very com
mon things that we are apt to overlook
in our search for information. Yor
will understand, therefore, why we
select subjects to talk about with which
you and everybody else ought to be
familiar.
Now, let US give you very simple
explanation Of gas making. Break up
a piece of bituminou3 coal into small
fragments aud fill the bowl of a clay
tobacco pipe with them. Cover the
mouth of the bowl with wet clay and
then thoroughly dry it. Put the bowl
of pipe into fire where it will get
red hot and you will soon see a yeilowish
smoke come out of the stem, and if you
touch a light to the smoke it will burn
brightly, for it is nothing moro nor less
than tho gas from the coal.
You can purify and collect this gas in
a very simple way. Fill a bottle with
water and turn it upside down ia a bow
of water. You know the water will not
run out of the bottle becau3o the air
pressure on the water in the bowl will
prevent it. Put the end Of the pipe
stem under the mouth of the bottle and
the gas will bubble up through tho
water into the bottle gradually dis
placing the water, and if the pipe were
large enough to make a great deal OF
gas the bottle would be entirely filed
with it.
nu have seen the immense quanti-
tics coke which they have at the gas
works; that is what is left Of the coal
after the gas has been burned out of it.
Coke is carbon, only small part of
what was in the coal having gone off
with the gas. Take the clay covering
eff your pipe and you will find the bowl
filled with this coke.
Now, that is precisely the way gas /:
made in large quantities at the gas
works. Instead of pipe bowls they use
Zig retorts and these are heated red hot
by furnace, for the fire must be outside
of the retorts. Heating coal red hot in
a closed retort is very different from
burning it in the open air. A large pipe
from the retort carries off the product
of the coal, con insisting of steam, tar, air
and ammonia, as we'll as gas. The am
monia and the tar 60 into tanks and the
gas into coolers and then over lime,
which takes up the acids in it, into the
immense iron gas-holders which you
have seen at the works.
These holders are open at the bottom,
and stand, OF rather swing, in tanks Of
water, being adjusted by means Of
weights. As the gas comes into
them they rise up out Of the water,
but the bottoms are always submerged
SO that the gas cannot escape. The
large gaspipcs, or mains, as they are
called, connect with the holders, and
conduct the gas through the streets to
the houses where it is used. The pres
sure is given to the gas by the weight
Of the iron holders, which are always
bearing down on the gas they contain.