Britain at Work
A Pictorial Description of Our National Industries

HOW GAS IS MADE. 99 vapour, there is, of course, no fraud in thus producing the illuminant. More than a hundred years ago Lavoisier showed that hydrogen and carbonic-oxide could be produced by passing steam through fiery hot coke, air being supplied at intervals to maintain the coke in a radiant glow. The hydrogen gas and carbonic-oxide mixed to- gether make the popularly called water-gas. Burnt alone, it is very hot, but its illuminating power is slight ; it is, therefore, enriched or “ carburetted ” by mingling it with gas made from mineral oil. The process consists essentially in passing the water- gas through receptacles called “ car- buretters ” containing intensely hot bricks with the oil sprayed on them. Waste fat is used in some parts of the world as a source of oil "as. o So largely is this process employed that a firm in London has constructed suitable apparatus, for use in Great Britain and other parts of the world, capable altogether of producing the un- thinkable quantity of nearly 406,000,000 cubic feet daily. Not only do mammoth concerns like the Gas Light and Coke Company of London use it, but much smaller undertakings in different parts of the country, while it has made its way to Shanghai, in China. Gas differs, however, very widely in price. The Gas Light and Coke Com- pany, for instance, which is said to manufacture the brain-bewildering quantity of 22,000,000,000 cubic feet annually, charges 3s. per thousand cubic feet—and this is a reduction from a previous charge; but the South Metropolitan, which is said to manu- facture little more than half that gigantic quantity, charges 2s. 3d., the same price which rules at Plymouth, while in some places the cost is as high as 4s. 6d. The gas industry is, no doubt, still one of the great trades of the country. It is useless to quote figures, which may change from year to year, as to numbers of works in existence or the multitude of men employed ; but the round, familiar gas-holder may be seen almost everywhere. Has this large industry a future, or is it destined to decline ? No man can say. Electricity is a powerful rival ; but the brilliant results of compressed incandescent gas and the immense use of gas for purposes of heating indicate that it will not yield without a struggle. The grounds of the great Glasgow Exhibi- tion in 1901 were radiant at night with a soft, white light, which experts declared to be the perfection of artificial illumination on a large scale. The light was not electric, but was produced by gas ; it was used on the new high-pressure principle, and with incan- “ WASHER AND SCRUBBER.” descent burners. Four of the Keith burners grouped in one lamp yielded a resplend- ent light equal to at least 1,200 sperm candles, ^nd quite threw into the shade the electric arc lamps by the water-chute, which were each supposed to be equal to 1,000 candles. So successful, indeed, were the results that the authorities of the Turin Exhibition in the following year decided to illuminate their grounds in a similar manner ; and during- the winter of 1901-2 the south nave of the Crystal Palace at Sydenham was made re- splendent by gas used on the same system. Intensified gas-lighting—that is, the high- pressure system—was invented by M. Greyson, a Belgian gas engineer, in 1896; the incan- descent mantle gas-lighting having been invented by Baron Welsbach, an Austrian,