The field on which I propose to enter can hardly be said to be already occupied. Nowhere that I know of is the subject of gas-burners fully treated of in a manner available for the general reader. With the exception of the admirable chapter contributed by Mr. R. H. Patterson to "King's Treatise on Coal Gas," I am not aware that the subject has been dealt with to any complete extent by recent writers. But, admirable as is that contribution to the literature of the subject, being written for technical readers, it is neither so popular in style nor so elementary in character as to fulfil the purpose which I have in view in writing the present series of articles. Briefly stated, my sole purpose is to make the subject of the combustion of gas for the production of light intelligible to the simplest; and to present an interesting account of the progress of invention in the perfection of gas-burners. While passing lightly over many modifications of apparatus which have been of but limited or temporary service, I shall not scruple to dwell at length upon such burners as have done much to further the extension of gas lighting, or whose construction exhibits a considerable advance upon previous attainments. And while it will be my endeavour to clothe my remarks in such language as shall be "understanded of the people," in speaking of the theory of combustion I hope to be sufficiently explicit to enable my readers to form a clear conception of the scientific principles underlying the phenomena of which I treat.
A further justification—if such, indeed, were needed—for the Progress of gas lighting. appearance of this treatise might be found in the remarkable impetus which has been given, within recent years, to the perfection of the details of gas manufacture and the improvement of gas-burners. Of course, I refer to the beneficial consequences to the gas industry which have followed the brief, if conspicuous, career of electricity as an illuminating agent. That the interest in improved illumination which has been aroused by the short-lived popularity of the electric light, and the extravagant claims put forward on its behalf, have stimulated to the development of the resources of gas lighting, is sufficiently obvious to the most superficial observer. And not only has the manufacturer of gas been benefited, but the public have reaped no inconsiderable advantage. At the present day, gas is sold at a far cheaper rate, as well as of a higher quality, than at any former period. Nor is the advent of cheap gas the only direction in which the public have gained. Although not so patent to the majority, the improvements that have been effected in the methods of burning gas, so as to obtain the fullest advantage from its use, are calculated to confer benefits equally real, and not less valuable. It is hardly too much to say that the last few years have witnessed a greater advance in the apparatus employed in the combustion of gas than had been effected during the whole previous history of gas lighting. This being so, it may not be unacceptable if I attempt to pass in review some of the various burners that have been invented and used for obtaining light from coal gas; showing the successive improvements that are exhibited in their construction, and the extent to which they apply the principles of combustion. It may be that what I have to relate will awaken some minds to the consciousness that gas lighting has not altogether retired into obscurity on the advent of electricity—nay, that it has even assumed a bolder front; and, with increased resources and accession of strength, is prepared firmly to maintain its position as at once the most convenient, economical, and reliable of artificial illuminants.
CHAPTER II.
THE FIRST GAS-BURNER.
The first gas-burner was a very simple and unpretentious contrivance. In one of the earliest works on gas lighting[ [1] we read: "The extremities of the pipes have small apertures, out of which the gas issues; and the streams of gas, being lighted at those apertures, burn with a clear and steady flame as long as the supply of gas continues." Familiar as it is to us, and from its familiarity unnoticed, the phenomenon presented by the flame thus produced continuing to burn "as long as the supply of gas continued," was doubtless, to the first experimenters, a wonderful sight. Though we may smile at the question, it is not difficult to understand the incredulity of the honourable member who, when Murdock was examined before a Committee of the House of Commons, in 1809, asked the witness: "Do you mean to tell us that it will be possible to have a light without a wick?" "Yes; I do indeed," replied Murdock. "Ah, my friend," replied the member, "you are trying to prove too much."
It was but natural, seeing that oil-lamps and candles were the only The dawn of gas lighting. forms of artificial illumination in use prior to the introduction of gas lighting, that the earliest attempts at illumination by gas should be in imitation of the effects produced by those means. Accordingly we find that one of the first gas-burners employed was the Argand, modelled upon the oil-lamp of that name, which had been found to give superior results; while in more general use, and for some time almost the sole apparatus available, were single jets, giving a flame similar in appearance to that of a common candle, together with various combinations of these jets. A fair idea of the mode of illumination practised during the earliest period of gas lighting may be gleaned from the following extract from a paper describing the lighting of Messrs. Phillips and Lee's cotton-mill at Manchester, read before the Royal Society, in 1808, by Mr. William Murdock:—
The gas-burners are of two kinds. The one is upon the principle of the Argand lamp, and resembles it in appearance; the other is a small curved tube with a conical end, having three circular apertures or perforations, of about 1-30th of an inch in diameter, one at the point of the cone, and two lateral ones, through which the gas issues, forming three divergent jets of flame, somewhat like a fleur-de-lis. The shape and general appearance of this tube has procured for it, among the workmen, the name of the "cockspur" burner.
