Minutes of Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers Volume 93, PT. 3

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1888 Excerpt: ...It was nearly sixty years since compressed oil-gas was commonly sold in London, and used in offices as a means of illumination, to replace candles and lamps. The mode in which it was. compressed was worthy of being remembered, for this reason, that as long ago as he had mentioned, the compressing pump, being of the plunger description, and, therefore, one that would ordinarily have been said to be one of a bad description, to effect compression without leaving large clearance spaces occupied by the compressed gas at the turn of the stroke, was made into an efficient pump by the expedient of introducing into it mercury, which filled up the whole of the otherwise vacant spaces, and caused an absolute delivery. The bottles in which the gas had been sold, were, for many years after it went out of fashion, to be found in what was now the Vauxhall Bridge Eoad, on a piece of waste ground, and many an apprentice in his day was glad to get one of these bottles, for the purpose of making model boilers and things of that kind, for which they were very valuable. He might mention that he had seen gas made from oil at an hotel near the great Adelsberg cavern, on the road from Vienna to Trieste. The hotel was illuminated by oilgas, not compressed, but the oil used was known as fusel-oil produced in the distillation of grain. He wished to ask the Author whether there was any difficulty from deposit in the retorts, also of what materials the retorts were made? Mr. Keith. Mr. James Keith said that on some of the points mentioned in the Paper a little more enlightenment and a few corrections appeared to be necessary. He had been actively engaged, during the past twenty years, in experimenting on the best mode of making a permanent and pure gas from mineral oils, and in applyi...