The weekly Union times. [volume] (Union C.H., South Carolina) 1871-1894, 1889-01-11
THE MANUFACTURE OF GAS.
Simple Explanation OF the Way Illu-
minatlng Gas Is Made.

a Simple Explanation OF tho Way Illu-
minating Gas Is Made.
How few people can intelligibly explain
some OF the most ordinary things In
every day life. An official of the city
gas works was heard to say not long ago
that If he might judge by the number OF
times he was asked for information, not
more than two people in ten know
how common Illuminating gas Is made.
Ihey all seem to understand, he said,
that 1t comes out Of soft coal, but they
are ignorant of the process by which it Is
extracted. We do not doubt this at all.
Tor 1T Is the common things that we are
apt to overlook in our search for infor.
nation.
Now, let us give you simple explana.
ton of gas making. Break up q piece OF
bituminous coal into small fragments and
I'LL the bowl of n clay tobacco pipe with
them. Cover tho mouth of the bowl
with wet clay and then thoroughly dry
it. Put the bowl of the pipe into a fire
where it will get red hot, and YOU will
soon see n yellowish smoke come out of
the stem, and if you touch light to the
smoke it will burn brightly, for it is
nothing more or less than the gas from
the coal
You can purify and collect this gas In
simple way. Fill a bottle with water
and turn it upside down in bowl of
water. You know the water will not
run out of the bottle because the air pres
sure on the water in the bowl will pre-
vent it. Put the end of the pipe stem
under the mouth of the bottle, and the
gas will bubble up through the water into
the bottle, gradually displacing the water,
and if the pipe were large enough to
make great deal of gas the bottle would
be entirely filled with it.
YOU nave seen rhc immense quantities
OF 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 n small part of what
was in the coal having gone off with the
gas. Take the clay covering off your
pipe and you will find the bowl filled
with this coke.
Now, that is precisely the way gas is
made in large quantities at tho gas works.
Instead of pipe bowls they use big re-
torts, and these arc heated red hot by
furnace, for the fire must DO outside of
the rctorts. Heating coal red hot in a
closed retorU is different from burning 1t
III the open air. a large pipe from the
retort carries of the product Of the coal, !
consisting of steam, tar, air and ammo
MIA, rs well as gas. The ammonia and |
the tar so 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 arc open at the bottom,
and stand. or rather swing, in tanks of |
water, being adjusted by means of |
weights. AS the gas comes into them
ylG.XE~ ~-Lsc up out OF the water, but the !
tho gas cannot escape. The large gas |
pipes, or mains as they are called, con-
ncct with the holders and conduct the |
gas through tho streets to the houses
where it is used. The pressure is given !
70 tito gas by ihe weight Of the iron hold
crs, which arc always bearing down on
the gas they contain.