MINIATURE GAS-LIGHTING.
Bicarburetted hydrogen is the principal constituent of the gas burned in the streets: it is procured from coal, and the process may readily be performed on a small scale. Put about two ounces of pounded coal into an earthen retort, and fix a glass tube into the neck, terminating in an aperture of one-fifth of an inch in diameter; heat the retort red-hot, and apply the flame of a taper to the orifice of the tube, when the gas will burn with a bright white light, very different from that afforded by the combustion of hydrogen; a circumstance owing to the presence of particles of carbon in the carburet, which being intensely ignited, are highly luminous.
It is no less strange than true, that bicarburetted hydrogen, the substance which we so largely consume to illuminate our towns, is ether when united to water in one proportion, and spirit when combined with it in another; a fluid which constitutes the strength of all wines, beer, and fermented liquors.