The Auer burner has re-established the equilibrium, and the Denayrouse burner is perhaps going to decide the fate of electricity.
As naturalists say, the function creates the organ, and it is truly interesting to observe that in measure as the need of an intenser and cheaper light grows with us, science makes it possible for us to satisfy it by giving us new systems of lighting or by improving those that we already have at our disposal.
What a cycle traversed in twenty years! What progress made! Let us remember that the electric light scarcely became industrial until the time of the Exposition (1878), and that the Auer burner obtained the freedom of the city only five or six years ago. Is there any need of recalling the advantages of these two lights? In the first, a feeble disengagement of caloric, automatic lighting and a steadier light; in the second, a better utilization of the gas, which gives more light and less heat.
A description of the Auer burner will not be expected from us. It is now so widely employed as to render a new description useless. As an offset we think that our readers will be more interested in a description of the Denayrouse burner, the industrial application of which has but just begun. This burner has been constructed in view of the best possible utilization of the gas, in approaching a complete theoretical combustion. In order that it may give its entire illuminating power, gas, as we know, must be burned in five and a half times its volume of air. In the Denayrouse burner the gas burns in four and four-tenths its volume of air. The result reached is, consequently, very appreciable.
SECTION OF THE LAMP
A, entrance for the air; G, entrance for the gas; V, mixer; M, electric motor.
The apparatus consists essentially of a bronze or brass box in which revolves a fan keyed upon an axle that passes through the box. The axle is revolved by means of a small electro-magnetic machine mounted upon one of the external sides of the box. The motor may also be a hydraulic or compressed air one. Upon the axle is arranged a speed regulator. The air enters at the bottom of the box and the gas at the center. The exit of the mixture takes place through a chimney arranged at the top and to which is fixed a luminous mantle. The apparatus operates as follows: The motor causes the fan to make about 1,200 revolutions a minute. There is thus formed a strong draught of air, which mixes with the gas that enters at the side. The ignition occurs at the upper aperture of the chimney.
Although in this competition of gas and electricity the intensity of the light and, its quality are important factors, it is certain that what will decide the victory will be the price. This is why we are going to establish the net cost of the different lights; for, although up to the present the contest has seemed to be limited to gas and electricity (oil and kerosene not being capable of having any other pretension than to preserve their position), a new competitor—acetylene—will perhaps soon put gas manufacturers and electricians in accord, to the great benefit of the public, by furnishing a brilliant light at a price that defies competition.
THE DENAYROUSE LAMP