of oxygen is mixed with hydrogen or
water gas, 30 per cent. with coal gas, and over 50 per cent. of oil
gas of the character used. It is claimed that if this gas was used as
an enricher of coal gas, 5 per cent. of it would increase the
luminosity of 16-candle gas by about 40 per cent.
Oxygen has been obtained for some time past from the air on a
commercial scale by the Brin process, and at the present time there
seems every prospect of our being able to obtain oxygen at a rate of
about 3s. 6d. per 1,000 cubic feet. Another process by which this
important result can also be obtained was first introduced by Tessie
du Mothay, and has now just been revived. It consists of passing
alternate currents of steam and air over sodic manganate heated to
dull redness in an iron tube; the process has never been commercially
successful, for the reason that the contents of the tube fused, and
flowing over the surface of the iron rapidly destroyed the tubes or
retorts, and also as soon as fusion took place, the mass became so
dense that it had little or no action on the air passing over it. Now,
however, this difficulty has been partly overcome by so preparing the
manganate as to prevent fusion, and to keep it in a spongy state,
which gives very high results, and the substance being practically
everlasting, the cost of production is extremely low.
It is proposed to feed this by a separate system of pipes to small gas
jets, and by converting them into practically oxyhydrogen blow pipes,
to raise solid masses of refractory material to incandescence, and
also by supplying oxygen in the same way to oil lamps of particular
construction, to obtain a very great increase in illuminating power.
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