Britain at Work
A Pictorial Description of Our National Industries

96 HOW GAS IS MADE. T JNPROMISING though it may appear, Lj the production of gas from coal presents some interesting and, indeed, weirdly picturesque features. I he essential principle is, of course, the subjection of certain classes of coal to great heat in a closed vessel, when a part of the substance passes off as gas, and can be collected to burn with a luminous flame at the end of a pipe. Imagine, therefore, long lines of small, black, round doors, one line set above another, in a long, black wall, having black pipes rising upward from near the doors, to a long black box at the top of the wall. The wide roof above is dark and clingy, and heaps of coal opposite the round doors add to the prevailing hue. From this big black cavern the magicians of manu- facturers produce the brilliant artificial light which is to illuminate so many hours of darkness. Suddenly a group of men come on duty. One of them swings open a door, and flames DRAWING THE RETORTS. burst \\ ildly forth, lighting’ up the dingy building with a weird and lurid glare ; but the three men—for there are three to a gang" or group who work together here—speedily rake out the fiery hot mass from within, and it falls through an opening in the floor— protected by a sheet of iron—to the shed below, where other men are waiting to quench it with water. Hissing and steaming, the stuff quickly cools, and is now known as coke. The small will be sifted from the large, the small cinder being known as “ breeze.” Coke is the coal from which the gas has been “distilled” or extracted ; the door whence it came is the entrance to the retort; while the building is known as the Retort House, in which the coal gas is actually produced. Having cleared out all the coke, the men proceed to re-charge the retort. If experi- enced and well up to their duty, they work with a swing and a rhythm of action which is good to see. Their object, of course, is to. get the door of that fiery furnace closed as soon as possible. While one man, with a regular sway of his body and a swing of his arms, throws one shovelful after another of coal into the white-hot opening, his comrades are filling the scoop. This in- strument is like a long pipe- cut lengthwise midway in two, and is fitted with a loner cross-handle at the encl. When it is full the leader of the group gives the word ; each of the three men throws a couple of shovelfuls to the 7^ end of the retort, the leader grasps the cross-handle, his companions lift the scoop in the middle by means of an iron rod placed underneath, and it is then run smartly into the retort over the