Читать книгу Description of the Process of Manufacturing Coal Gas. For the Lighting of Streets Houses, and Public Buildings онлайн

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The gas flame is entirely free from smell. The gas itself has a disagreeable odour before it is burnt, and so has the vapour of wax, tallow and oil, as it comes from a candle or lamp newly blown out. This concession proves nothing against the flame of gas, which is perfectly inodorous.

The gas-light flame is perfectly steady; a benefit which persons accustomed to read or write by candle-light, are particularly capable of appreciating. With the other modes of illumination we have never the light of the same intensity for two minutes together, independent of that unpleasant dancing unsteady flame which is so harassing to the sight.

The size, form and intensity of the gas flame, are regulated by simply turning the stop-cock which admits the gas to the burner or lamp. The flame may at command be made to burn with an intensity sufficient to illuminate every corner of a room, or so low and dim, as barely to be perceived. It is unnecessary to point out how valuable lights of this description are in nurseries, stables, warehouses, and chambers of the sick. From the facility with which the gas flame can be conveyed in almost any direction, from the diversified size and shape which it can be made to assume, there is no kind of light so well adapted for ornamental illumination.