introduced in which by keeping the amount of petroleum vapour
at 2% and burning the gas under pressure in a specially constructed
non-aerating mantle burner, not only has it been found possible
to produce a very large volume of gas per gallon of spirit employed,
but the gas is itself non-explosive, increase in the amount of air
taking it farther away from the explosive limit. The Hooker, De
Laitte and several other systems have been based upon this principle.
In all measurements of illuminating value the standard of comparison used in England is the light yielded by a sperm candle of the size known as “sixes,” i.e. six to the pound, consuming 120 grains of sperm per hour, and although in photometric work slight inequalities in burning have led to the candle being discarded in practice, the standard lamps burning pentane vapour which have replaced them are arranged to yield a light of ten candles, and the photometric results are expressed as before in terms of candles.
When William Murdoch first used coal-gas at his Redruth home in 1779, he burnt the gas as it escaped from the open end of a small iron tube, but soon realizing that this plan entailed very large consumption of gas and gave a very small amount of light, he welded up the end of his tube and bored three small holes in it, so arranged that they formed three divergent jets of flame. From the shape of the flame so produced this burner received the name of the “cockspur” burner, and it was the one used by Murdoch when in 1807 he fitted up an installation of gas lighting at Phillips & Lee’s works in Manchester. This—the earliest form of gas burner—gave an illuminating value of a little under one candle per cubic foot of gas consumed, and this duty was slightly increased when the burner was improved by flattening up the welded end of the tube and making a series of small holes in line and close together, the jets of flame from which gave the burner the name of the “cockscomb.” It did not need much inventive faculty to replace the line of holes by a saw-cut, the gas issuing from which burnt in a sheet, the shape of which led to the burner being called the “batswing.” This was followed in 1820 by the discovery of J. B. Neilson, of Glasgow, whose name is remembered in connexion with the use of the hot-air blast in iron-smelting, that, by allowing two flames to impinge upon one another so as to form a flat flame, a slight increase in luminosity was obtained, and after several preliminary stages the union jet or “fishtail” burner was produced. In this form of burner two holes, bored at the necessary angle in the same nipple, caused two streams of gas to impinge upon each other so that they flattened themselves out into a sheet of flame. The flames given by the batswing and fishtail burners differed in shape, the former being wide and of but little height, whilst the latter was much higher and more narrow. This factor ensured for the fishtail a greater amount of popularity than the batswing burner had obtained, as the flame was less affected by draughts and could be used with a globe, although the illuminating efficiency of the two burners differed little.
In a lecture at the Royal Institution on the 20th of May
1853, Sir Edward Frankland showed a burner he had devised
for utilizing the heat of the flame to raise the temperature
of the air supply necessary for the combustion
of the gas. The burner was an Argand of the type
Regenera-
tive burner.
then in use, consisting of a metal ring pierced with
holes so as to give a circle of small jets, the ring of flame being
surrounded by a chimney. But in addition to this chimney,
Frankland added a second external one, extending some distance
below the first and closed at the bottom by a glass plate fitted
air-tight to the pillar carrying the burner. In this way the
air needed for the combustion of the gas had to pass down the
space between the two chimneys, and in so doing became highly
heated, partly by contact with the hot glass, and partly by
radiation. Sir Edward Frankland estimated that the temperature
of the air reaching the flame was about 500°F. In 1854
a very similar arrangement was brought forward by the
Rev. W. R. Bowditch, and, as a large amount of publicity was
given to it, the inception of the regenerative burner was
generally ascribed to Bowditch, although undoubtedly due to
Frankland.
The principle of regeneration was adopted in a number of lamps, the best of which was brought out by Friedrich Siemens in 1879. Although originally made for heating purposes, the light given by the burner was so effective and superior to anything obtained up to that time that it was with some slight alterations adapted for illuminating purposes.
Improvements followed in the construction and design of the regenerative lamp, and when used as an overhead burner it was found that not only was an excellent duty obtained per cubic foot of gas consumed, but that the lamp could be made a most efficient engine of ventilation, as an enormous amount of vitiated air could be withdrawn from the upper part of a room through a flue in the ceiling space. So marked was the increase in light due to the regeneration that a considerable number of burners working on this principle were introduced, some of them like the Wenham and Cromartie coming into extensive use. They were, however, costly to install, so that the flat flame burner retained its popularity in spite of the fact that its duty was comparatively low, owing to the flame being drawn out into a thin sheet and so exposed to the cooling influence of the atmosphere. Almost at the same time that Murdoch was introducing the cockscomb and cockspur burners, he also made rough forms of Argand burner, consisting of two concentric pipes between which the gas was led and burnt with a circular flame. This form was soon improved by filling in the space between the tubes with a ring of metal, bored with fine holes so close together that the jets coalesced in burning and gave a more satisfactory flame, the air necessary to keep the flame steady and ensure complete combustion being obtained by the draught created by a chimney placed around it. When it began to be recognized that the temperature of the flame had a great effect upon the amount of light emitted, the iron tips, which had been universally employed, both in flat flame and Argand burners, were replaced by steatite or other non-conducting material of similar character, to prevent as far as possible heat from being withdrawn from the flame by conduction.
In 1880 the burners in use for coal-gas therefore consisted of flat flame, Argand, and regenerative burners, and the duty given by them with a 16-candle gas was as follows:—
| Burner. | Candle units per cub. ft. of gas. |
| Union jet flat flame, No. 0 | 0.59 |
| ” ” 1 | 0.85 |
| ” ” 2 | 1.22 |
| ” ” 3 | 1.63 |
| ” ” 4 | 1.74 |
| ” ” 5 | 1.87 |
| ” ” 6 | 2.15 |
| ” ” 7 | 2.44 |
| Ordinary Argand | 2.90 |
| Standard Argand | 3.20 |
| Regenerative | 7 to 10 |
The luminosity of a coal-gas flame depends upon the number of carbon particles liberated within it, and the temperature to which they can be heated. Hence the light given by a flame of coal-gas can be augmented by (1) increasing the number of the carbon particles, and (2) raising the temperature to which they are exposed. The first process is carried out by enrichment (see Gas: Manufacture), the second is best obtained by regeneration, the action of which is limited by the power possessed by the material of which burners are composed to withstand the superheating. Although with a perfectly made regenerative burner it might be possible for a short time to get a duty as high as 16 candles per cubic foot from ordinary coal-gas, such a burner constructed of the ordinary materials would last only a few hours, so that for practical use and a reasonable life for the burner 10 candles per cubic foot was about the highest commercial duty that could be reckoned on. This limitation naturally caused inventors to search for methods by which the emission of light could be obtained from coal-gas otherwise than by the incandescence of the carbon particles contained within the
