CHAPTER XXX.

ILLUMINATING GAS.

What Artificial Light has done for Man.--Its Condition before the Nineteenth Century.--Experiments of Dr. Clayton, Hon. R. Boyle, Dr. Hales, Bishop Watson, Lord Dundonald, Dr. Rickel, and William Murdock in Eighteenth Century.--1801, Le Bon Makes Gas, Proposes to Light Paris.--1803, English Periodicals Discuss the Subject.--1806, Melville of Newport, U. S., Lights House and Street.--1817, First Lighthouse Lit by Gas.--The Beaver Tail on Atlantic Coast.--Parliament in 1813, London Streets Lit in 1815, Paris, 1820, American Cities 1816-25.-- Gas Processes.--Chemistry.--Priestley and Dalton.--Berthollet, Graham, and Others.--Clegg of England and his Gas Machines.-- Art Revolutionised by Invention of Water Gas, 1823-1847.-- Donovan, Lowe, White.--T. S. C. Lowe, Anthracite Process, 1873.--Competition with Electricity.--Siemens’ Regenerative System.--The Generators, Carburetors, Retorts, Mixers, Purifiers, Meters, Scrubbers, Holders, Condensers, Governors, Indicators, Registers, Chargers, Pressure Regulators, etc.-- Portable Gas Apparatus.--Argand Burners.--Acetylene Gas.-- Calcium Carbide.--Magnesium.--Bunsen Burner and Welsbach Mantle. 450