OF COAL GAS, AND ITS LIGHT, In our third volume, p. 1083, we inserted a few hints relative to the general appearance and properties of Mr. Winsor's gas lights, employed as lamps for the purpose of enlightening Pall-Mall. At such a height as it is customary to place lamps upon lamp-posts, no judgment could be formed as to the smell and other properties, said to accompany these Tights while burning. An instance of this we had observed in the shop of a chymist in Piccadilly; where the smell, or the vapour, as it diffused itself in the shop, or both in combination, was charged with occasioning head-ach, &c. in persons long exposed to it. These offensive effluvia have since been corrected, but, if we be rightly informed, not by Mr, Winsor and we have seen these lights used to good effect in a small shop, with no perceptible inconvenience. How far this invention is capable of being applied to domestic purposes, this last instance has been our best opportunity of judging; and we were led to think favourably of it. Ingenuity may direct this principle to uses hitherto thought scarcely practicable. The following paper from the Philosophical Transactions for 1808, appears to us to be of importance. Mr. Murdoch's Account of the Application : notwithstanding its higher price, on account of the superior quality and quantity of the gas it produces. At an average, Messrs. Phillips and Lee's mill may be computed to require the gas lights two hours in every 24 all the year. The consumption of coal to produce the light for these two hours, is seven hundred weight of Cannel coal and about a third of the quantity of good common coal. The Cannel coal costs at Manchester 22s. 6d. and the other sort about 10s. per ton. The annual consumption of Cannel coal will be 110 tons, and its cost 1251. and of the other coal 40 tons, and its cost 201. The 110 tons of Cannel coal after distillation produce 70 tons of good coak, which is sold on the spot for is. 4d, per cwt. and will amount annually, therefore, to the sum of 931. Each ton of Cannel coal produces also from eleven to twelve ale gallons of tar, which amounts in a year to 1250 gallons. But this not having been sold, its value is not stated. The quantity of aqueous liquor which came over in the distillation, could not be exactly ascertained from some springs having got into the reservoir. The interest of the capital expended in the necessary buildings and apparatus, together with wear and tear, is stated by Mr. Lee at about 550l. per annum. The whole annual expence for lighting the mill is as follows. 110 tons of Cannel coal, for distillation £125 40 tons of common coal, for the furnace 20 Interest of capital, and wear and tear......550 of Coal Gas to economical Purposes. The whole of the cotton mill of Messts. Phillips and Lee, of Manchester, which is one of the most extensive in England, as well as its counting-houses, and store rooms, and the adjacent dwelling-house of Mr. Lee, are now lighted with gas from coal. The total Deduct value of 70 tons of coak. quantity of light used during the hours of burning has been ascertained, by a comparison of shadows, to be about equal to the light which 2500 mould, candles, of six to the pound, would give, each of the candles with which the comparison was made consuming at the rate of 4-10ths of an ounce (175 grains) of tallow per hour." The number of burners supplied by gas in all the buildings, are, 271 of a kind fitted up on the principle of Argand's lamps, and 633 of another species formed by a small curved tube with a conical end, having three circular apertures of about a thirtieth of an inch in diameter, one at the point of the cone, and two lateral ones, through which the gas issues, forming three divergent jets of flame. Each of the Argand burners gives a light equal to that of four candles of the size mentioned, and each of the common burners a light equal to that of two and a quarter of the same candles, which altogether makes the whole light equivalent to that of the number of candles before stated. For this the 904 Burners require an hourly supply of 1250 cubic feet of gas, produced from Cannel coal, which is preferred to every other kind of coat for this purpose, £695 93 £602 The expence of candles to give the same light would be about 2000l.; for each candle consuming at the rate of 4-10ths of an ounce of tallow per hour, the 2500 candles, burning two hours every 24 on an average, would, at one shilling per pound, (the price when this article was written) amount to nearly the sum above mentioned. If the comparison was made on an average of three hours per day, the advantage would be still more in favour of the gas lights; for their cost, including the additional coal requisite for that time, would not be more than 6501. whilst that of tallow rated as before will be 3000L At first putting up the apparatus some inconvenience was experienced from the smell of the unconsumed or imperfectly purified gas, but since its completion, and since the persons, who take care of it, have become familiar with its management, this inconvenience has been obviated not only in the mill, but in Mr. Lee's house, which is brilliantly illu minated with it to the exclusion of every other species of artificial light. The peculiar softness and clearness of the gas light, with its almost unvarying intensity, have brought it into great favour with the work people. And its being free from incon venience and danger, resulting from the parks and the frequent snuffings of candles, is a circumstance of material importance, as tending to diminish the hazard of fire, to which cotton mills are known to be much exposed. The only description given of the apparatus by Mr. Murdoch, is that the coal is distilled in large iron retorts, which during the winter season are kept constantly at work, except during the intervals of charging; and that the gas as it rises from them is conveyed by iron pipes into large reservoirs, or gazometers, where it is washed and purified, previous to its being distributed through other pipes, called maius, to the mill. can be brought to answer all the purposes of fixed lights, and burners, now made of tallow, or of oil, cheaper than the present cost of such, the saving is in favour of the indi. vidual; and many places, such as large offices, warehouses, manufactories, long passages, churches, vaults, &c. will derive advantage from the application of this discovery. Our readers have seen the comparative expence as stated above: cheaper modes and machinery may be invented in time. 2. The nation will also derive advantage from it: because, as coal is an article of home production, we need not go out of the island for it, nor is the supply of it dependent on the caprice or politics of a foreign power: whereas, we find to our cost, at the present moment, that tallow, which is an article of import from Russia, has risen in price greatly, in These mains branch off into a variety of amity between the two nations. This inconsequence of the interruption of public samifications and diminish in size, as the vention, then, tends to diminish our payquantity of gas required to be passed through ments to Russia, and to augment our inde. them becomes less. The burners are con- pendence on that power, when peace returns. neeted with the mains by short pipes, eachOil, also, a commodity procured with of which is furnished with a cock to regulate the admission of the gas, or shut it off entirely, when requisite; every main has likewise a sock near its entrance into each room, by turning which the whole of the lights in the room may be extinguished at once. great hazard, and at great expense from distant parts of the world: it therefore cannot vie in the consideration of conveniency, with the extract of coal. 3. But a principal article, and not to be lost Mr. Murdoch states that it was about six-sight of, is the destruction of as greata portion teen years since he first made experiments on procuring light from coal gas, at Redruth in Cornwall. In 1798 he removed.to Messrs. Boulton and Waut's factory at Soho, where he constructed an apparatus on a large scale, and for many successive nights lighted up the principal buildings there, by coal gas. In 1802 a public display of the gas lights was made in illuminating Messrs. Boulton's factory at the proclamation of peace. Since that time Mr. Murdoch has extended the apparatus at Soho so as to give light to all the principal shops to the exclusion of other artifi cial light. Mr. Murdoch concludes by stating, that although gas from Lord Dundonald's coak oveus had been often fired before the tune mentioned; and that Dr. Clayton, so long ago as in 1739, gave an account to the Royal Society of observations and experiments made by him, inserted in their 41st volume, which clearly manifests his knowledge of the inflammable nature of the gas, which he denominates the spirit of coals: yet that the idea of ap plying it as an economical substitute for oils or tallow does not appear to have occurred to the doctor; and that Mr. Murdoch may fairly claim both the first idea of applying and the first actual application of this gas to economical purposes. Several reflections have arisen in our mind, on perusal of this paper, If this light as can possibly be accomplished, of that loads and pollutes the atmosphere, and of cloud of smoke, which, where coal is burnt, cities. When coal was first brought into use course is breathed by the inhabitants of such at London, the physicians declared against it, and the city petitioned,-in vain: Evelyn wrote his "Fumifugium," to shew by what means the deleterious effects of coal smoke might be diminished, and ever since, thinking minds have been intent on obviating evils arising from this cause. If a considerable could be annihilated, that alone would be a portion of the smoke of our great furnaces public advantage of no mean estimation; but, if the smoke arising from domestic fires also adopted to render the coal gas innoxious, the should be diminished; or if, by the means smoke of domestic fires should be deprived of benefit to the public, on the article of health, offensive principles, in whole, or in part, the would be incalculable. The tar derived from this operation would be in great works an object of attention; but not in smaller it is said to be particularly destructive to in sects and worms. Our readers will perceive that we do not presume on the universal application of this discovery, either to public, or to domestic purposes; if what we have hinted at be ac complished, whoever effects such accomplishment is deserving of immortal honour འ་ DEGREES OF HEAT ON THE CONTINENT OF On turning to Panoraina, Vol. III. p. 385, the reader will find, that we had thought those extreme heats, with their consequences, under which the continent had suffered, to be entitled to our attention and insertion. We presume that we are the only English work in which that record will be found: and having last month had occasion to notice a similar occurrence in our own country, we are desirous of comparing these incidents, in order that a more distinct and lasting idea may be obtained of each. As the degrees of the different scales commonly used on the continent, and among ourselves, are not the same, we have reduced them to their correspondent proportions, in order to render those effects which they record immediately sensible to the eye. was 47°, equal to 60 of Reaumur: butcertainly weakness and inanition must be taken into our consideration as powerful pre-disposing causes, in that instance. 130° Fahrenheit is equal to 43° of Reaumur. We cannot but infer, the greater powers of the human body to sustain heat; notwithstanding we learn that our own country has experienced a loss of many of its inhabitants: and, indeed, we may remark, that it will be scarcely possible this nation should know, for a long time to come, the whole loss in lives it has sustained by the late sultry weather. Our pages mention the loss of nine in one parish. Of a London volunteer corps which was out on that day, four members died in less than a week afterwards; and as this severe heat was felt over the greater part, if not the whole, of our island, the computation of the number that suffered by it, immediately, can hardly be placed so low as five hundred persons. These with the utmost propriety may be said to have " died by the visitation of God." The number would be greatly increased, should those who unadvisedly went into the water to bathe; those who drank cooling drinks while heated, &c. be added: several fatal instances of such incaution, being already known. These are independent of cases of inflammatory disease, which might have terminated favourably, had not these ir At Petersburgh, July 25, the heat was 20 of Reaumur, equal to 77° of Fahrenheit. It was sufficient to set on fire a quantity of mats rubbed with oil. On the banks of the Maine, at Augsburgh, the heat was above 80° of Reaumur, equal to 994° of Fahrenheit: birds dropped down dead in the open fields. At Vienna, Aug. 26, heat 30° of Reaumur, equal to 99% of Fahrenheit; or 27° of Reau-resistible fervours supervened.-mur, equal to 90° of Fahrenheit; a height The very devastating storms that succeeded never before heard of in this country. these heats have been extremely injurious to General hospital full of sick. At Verona, property: the heavens have poured down lumps heat at 31° of Reaumur, equal to 1014° of of ice, and these in some instances have proved Fahrenheit. At Genoa, heat in the shade at fatal to persons and to stock exposed to them; 33° of Reaumur, equal to 104° of Fahrenheit, but more generally destructive to all brittle in the sun at 43° of Reaumur, equal to 1284° || matters, such as glass, &c. not sheltered from of Fahrenheit. Heat fatal to many persons. their fury. Could all the damage done be ascerAt Naples heat at 26° of Reaumur, (had been tained, it would amount to a considerable higher) equal to 90° of Fahrenheit. sum: an entire loss to individuals, and to the nation! On consulting p. 964 of the present volume, we find the highest degree marked is, Wednesday, July 13, 901 of Fahrenheit, equal to 26° of Reaumur; the general height, is 879 of Fahrenheit, equal to 241° of Reaumur By the statements in pp. 992, 993, we find Wednesday, July 13, marked 94° of Fahren heit, equal to 274° of Reaumur, also 98° of Fahrenheit, equal to 291° of Reaumur, also 100° of Fahrenheit, equal to 30% of Reaumur, and exposed to the violence of the sun, 147° of Fahrenheit, equal to 51° of Reaumur. In a note at the foot of p. 964, we are informed, that, in Egypt, camels dropped down dead when the degree of heat was 130° Fahrenheit: as this took place during a Sirocco wind, which, itself, is a dangerous phenomenon, we must undoubtedly make an allowance for the stifling effect of that injurious, sometimes fatal, disposition of the air. We remark, e contra, that Mr. Bruce tells us his camels died of cold, when Fahrenheit's thermometer We recommend the consideration of this, and similar subjects to the faculty; as they will find them intimately connected with the medical constitution of the year;➡to natural philosophers, who will draw many interesting inferences from such occurrences; and by contrasting the opposite power of the human body to endure very low degrees of cold, may demonstrate the superiority of man over all others of the animal creation, to inhabit and possess every part of this globe, which is his allotted demesne. Moralists, too, may find in these events, unforeseen and unavoidable in their very na ture, occasions of remark addressed to every man's own heart and bosom. The tenuity of that vapour, our life, and the uncertainty of property, arising from causes against which no insurance is available, may be strikingly illustrated by the moralist, and descanted on by the preacher. We have also to record, on this occasion, a variety of accidents, against which no caution could guard: a correspondent who writes from Warwick, mentions "the circumstance of a globular water-bottle, containing about a pint of water, that, by its power of condensing the solar rays, set on fire the toilette on which it stood: this was entirely consumed, with the window curtain, but, being providentially discovered, farther damage was prevented." We recollect in our early days, that two chambers in Lincoln'sInn were burnt from a similar cause: at least, no other ever was, or could be, assign ed, as there had been neither fire nor light in them, to induce suspicion. A circumstance still less to be anticipated, and guarded against, has been published. At Eversham, near North Cave, some sawyers, while at dinner, on Thursday the 13th of July, (the extreme heat of which day will not soon be forgotten) on looking round, observed a great smoke arising out of the sawpit, and found, on going thither, that the chips, saw-dust, &c. were in flames. Attributing this to the act of some unlucky boys, they put out the fire, and returned into the house, but in a few minutes their exertions were again necessary. As it was ascertained that no person had been near the place, the fire is supposed to have been caused by the reflection of the sun's rays from the saw, which had been set up in a curved form against one side of the sawpit. We may now also conceive of the readiness with which fire is obtained in some places; and of the little exertion necessary in rubbing two sticks against each other for that purpose. We can also support our belief of those accounts which we read of the sun's setting woods on fire, or dried grass, or mosses composed of matters that are readily combustible; since the reflection from a circular space in a rock is sufficient for that effect. When Maupertuis was measuring an arc of the Meridian in the North, several woods were burning from this cause. These, no doubt, had been exposed to the solar rays, for days and weeks, without intermission; happily for Britain, our nights afford us some interval, and though sultry, yet they are not so intensely hot as the days are, and certainly are less dangerous, as to any calamitous effects of which the solar rays are the cause. During the activity of the British army in America, in General Clinton's march from Philadelphia, through the Jerseys, towards New York, notice is taken by the general in his dispatches, of the extreme heat of the weather: from which cause are returned as casualties Died 56 British soldiers." The Americans also lost above 50. Can any of our correspondents inform us what was the beight of the thermometer. at this time? As it may occasionally be of use to our readers, to possess a facility with the means of comparing the continental reports on the subject of heat, and their measurement in degrees, with our own, we subjoin the fol lowing methods for that purpose." To reduce degrees of Reaumur to degrees of Fahrenheit, multiply the number by 9, divide the product by 4, and to the quotient add 32. The sum total expresses the degree on the scale of Fahrenheit. To reduce degrees of Fahrenheit to degrees of Reaumur, from the degree of Fahby 4, and divide the product by 9, the quorenheit subtract 82, multiply the remainder tient is the degree of Reaumur. ON FASHIONS AND DRESS. [Compare Panorama, Vol. III. p. 1059.] Heigho!-Phoo!--Here's weather!Africa in England!-0, for the coolness of the West Indies! "O that this too too solid flesh would melt.". O, no! melted enough already, I assure you do not wish for further liquefaction: ` -"continual dissolution and thaw !"-Dog days, truly!-Dog days!—I must snarl at these dog days! Well, well, take your time; snarl but do not bite: let us get safely through these dog days-how else shall we enjoy less sultry weather? Why you look as cool here with your papers around you, your books about you, under the shade of your laurels, and with that little green grass plat, and that trout stream before you! -Egad! after all, you quiet people are the folks for enjoying life!-while we active-bustling-roaming mortals Where's your great coat? Great coat, this weather! Great coat! Why not? The Spanish proverb says "what will keep out cold will keep out heat: "— so the Spaniards wear their long cloaks summer and winter: and they live in rather a hottish climate, you know. Why do you not put the Spanish proverb to the test? tics, are always uppermost in your mind: Pshaw! politics, and just now Spanish polia truce if you please:-you will not sign for a convention. Great coat! no, no!-I am debating whether I shall not rather, like snake, drop a skin or two; "off, off! you'! lendings!" Nay not so fast: I remember when you accused me of " pleading for nudity: but now I see, tempora mutantur, et nos Aye, there you are with your Latin again: but Latin will not charm away these heats: let me look at your thermometer! 90! I protest, I thought by any feelings it had I hold all extremes to be dangerous: when you shuddered at frost, I did my best to warm you: now you glow with heat, I would wilJingly lower your temperature: do been 200! I am sure it exceeds the boiling and gold lace to the weight of how charmpoint, in the sun; I have felt it at the roasting under sultry suns!-eighty ounces !" Yes. ing point these two hours! The road is ab- Sir," said a laceman to me with tears in his eyes, solutely red hot-Every brick wall is a fur- our business was a very pretty business, nace! Not a breath of air stirring!-Geo- when the ladies wore gold lace from head to graphy is changed;-the torrid zone, includes foot; and a court dress was thought very England; that's certain: -worse than the noderately enriched, for which we sold only coast of Guinea itself! Bless me! how I eighty ounces of lace!" Think too on immense envy the Greenlanders! And you! how cool perukes, twenty curls deep, or falling over you keep yourself! the shoulders in tyes and knots; and then such foretops, too!-could you have borne, you think, a waist-coat,-truly a waistcoat, of good solid broadcloth, descending to the knee?" Think of that, Master Brook, think of that;" also the stiffened skirt: the high shoe, the sword-ah! truly,—the wisdom of our ancestors was striking!—and so too was their folly :-If we have departed from them in some things, for the worse, we have abandoned them in others, for the better.-Come, while you sit to cool your self a little, take up the proofs of what I say, and when you have considered theth, you will find less inclination to snarl at these dog days, sultry though they be. Let me advise you to examine the subject coolly, whatever be the degree of heat marked by the thermo Come sit you down to watch upon a bank Not I, indeed: the" meadows green" are all turned brown: "verdant groves!" where are they? Every where the yellow leaf is falling: the very streams are heated: Father Thames grumbles; his sons murmur; aye! and worse than murmur, at what they cannot alter this, say they, is, of all sultry seasons, the most sultry. meter. I have heard you with attention; I will turn back to days of yore: and I will examine the subject coolly.-Now for Granger. "Remarks on Dress during the Reign of Queen Anne. It is their custom: and they are not singular in it I know others, who think this the hottest season ever felt in England; these hard times, the hardest times our island ever The dress in this reign did not differ very saw; and the present generation the most considerably from that of the last; but after absurd in their manners, their vagaries, and the conclusion of peace, French fashions their follies, that Britain ever knew. Yet we have reason to believe that the heat has been the youth of both sexes, though they were were imported, much to the satisfaction of as great; times have been as bad as at present; greatly disapproved of by the sedate and aged and, if we scrutinize the character of our ances- members of the community. The gentle. tors, we shall find that they, no less than ourmen contracted the size of their wigs; and, selves, were an amalgama of folly and wisdom, when in an undress, tied up some of the of eccentricity and steadiness, of littleness and most flowing of the curls: those received the grandeur. The notion of the deterioration of the name of Ramillie wigs, and afterwards tiehuman race is not new. In the days of Homer wigs; but were never worn in full-dress. men were thought to have decreased greatly The cravat had long ends, that fell on the in size from the ancient heroes: and in breast; and were generally of point lace, but strength as in size, and in valour as in strength, sometimes only bordered or fringed. The and in integrity as in valour. But, to confine coat was long, and open at the bottom of the our inquiries to ourselves, and to the last sleeves, for there were no cuffs; and was edged century, with which we are pretty well acwith gold or silver from the top (as it had no quainted, have you, as I desired, cross-collar) to the skirt, with clasps and buttons examined that, for information on the wisdom, the correctness, the suavity, the immaculacy of its manners, its habits?-aye, and on the elegance of its modes and dresses, too? If in this hot weather, of which you complain so feelingly, although you propose to drop a skin or two, you will not allow our ladies a little lightness in their draperies, e'en turn back to days of yore, and cool your imagination in the contemplation of bellhoops, stiff stays, high-heeled shoes, towering head dresses, leaded sleeves, treble ruffles, the whole length, and at the opening at the sleeve. Young gentlemen frequently had the sleeves only half way down the arm, and the short sleeve very full, and deeply ruffled. An ornamented belt kept the coat tight at the bottom of the waist. The vest, and lower part of the dress, had little clasps, and was seldom seen. The roll-up stocking dal was much used by the young men those came into vogue at this period, and the sanwere finely wrought. The elder gentlemen had the shoe fastened with small buckles |