The Chemistry Student IMPORTANT POINTS IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE MANUFACTURED GAS INDUSTRY WITH PARTICULAR REGARD TO THE INFLUENCE OF CHEMICAL RESEARCH JOHNH.
WOLBE. CONSOLIDATBDGASELECTRIC LIGHT AND
POWER COMPANY 0%'
BALTRdOnB, MBRYWLND The futile endeavors by the ancient philosophers, known as alchemists, to change or transmute the baser metals into gold fed to the discovery of manufactured gas. During the seventeenth century Jean Baptist Van Helmont of Brussels, whiie working on transmutation, broadened his original lime of experimentation and made some of the earliest and most important contributions to modem chemistry. About 1609, while experimenting with fuels, he discovered that they yield what he described as a "wild spirit." Although Van Helmont recognized the existence of various gases he was unable to perfect a way of confining them. It remained for others to perfect methods for storing gas and thus open the field to its ultimate and maximum usefulness. A few years after Van Helmont made his discoveries and while other chemists were endeavoring to become acquainted with the hidden laws of Nature, natural gas was found in various places in England. The earliest description of these discoveries WILLIAMMURDOCK is in a communication by Lighted his home in England with gas in 1792. Thomas Shirley to the Royal Philosophical Society in 1667. Dr. John Clayton, a Yorkshire minister, with an inclination for the sciences, conducted experiments about the year 1665 with gas which he had produced from coal. It remained for William Murdock, a construction and erection engineer,
and for James Watt, who developed the steam engine, to produce gas from coal on a scale that would make possible its use for lighting. In 1792 he lighted his home with gas distilled from coal in an iron retort. In 1798 he installed an apparatus for lighting the factory of Boulton Watt and Company. Murdock next built a gas works and lighted the cotton mill of Phillips and Lee a t Manchester with gas burners in 1804. He read a paper describing this installation before the Royal Society of London in 1808, and was awarded the Rumford Gold Medal. Murdock's achievements were along such practical lines that he is recognized as the father of the gas industry. In 1781 Lavoisier invented the gas holder.
U R . C A K L AUER VUN WELSBACH
Inventor of the incandescent gas mantle.
In France somc claim that Lcbon was assassinated by order of the British sovernment because of his c l a m to be the inventor of gas lighting
Jeam Pierre Minckelers, after many experiments, in 1784 lighted gas distilled from coal as a demonstration to his class in the University of Louvain. In 1799 Philippe Lebon obtained a patent in France for making gas by distilling coal or wood. These various demonstrations came to the attention of Frederick Albert Winsor, a German, who, although apparently more of a promoter than a scientific research worker, played a promhent part in establishing the first gas company in the world, and accelerated the general use of gas for domestic purposes. The English Parliament
FREDERICKA m s m Wmson Organized the first gas company in the worldchartered in London in 1812.
1812; the wet meter with revolving drum in 1816; and the dry meter in 1830. The discovery of benzol was made by Faraday in 1825. I n 1855 Robert Wilhelm van Bunsen devised a burner which is the basis for gas utilization. In 1856 William Henry Perkin discovered the first coal-tar dyemauve. I n 1885 the incandescent gas mantle was invented by Welsbach. Professor Thaddeus S. C. Lowe in 1873-74 invented the carburetted water gas process which is known by his name. Professor Lowe's first introduction to gas making was as a balloonist in 1862, during the Civil War. He generated gas on the battlefield a t Yorktown,
granted a charter to his company, "The Londonand Westminster Gas Light and Coke Company," in 1812. Following the success of gas lighting in London it spread quickly to other countries. In 1816 the first gas company to be founded in the United States was established in Baltimore as "The Gas Light Company of Baltimore." Paris was lighted with " in 1820. Many important contributions to the gas industry were made by the early workers. Samuel Clegg, Engineer of the first London company, introduced the wet lime purifier in 1809; the hydraulic main in
Inventor of the Lowe watcr~gas process
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T m CHEMISTRY STUDENT
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and a t Fair Oaks, Virginia. The Union forces were greatly aided by the observations which he made from his balloon. Tessie du Motay, a Frenchman, was also engaged in perfecting a form of water gas in America a t about the same time that Lowe introduced his process. During recent years the gas industry has made great progress as a result
PEALE'SMUSEUM,BALTIMORE, IN
1916
Gas lighting was exhibited here on June 13, 1816.
of the scientific research work undertaken by its engineers and chemists. Old processes have been modified and improved, and new processes have been developed. In the field of gas manufacture a vast amount of work has been done on the constitution and physical and chemical properties of coal and coke. This work has been of great value to the coal gas industry. The water gas
industry has profited by such modifications as the hack run, Chrisman cycle, and the use of automatic charging and clinkering machines. This branch of the industry has also made rapid progress in what is practically complete carbonization, that is, the use of bituminous coal as a water gas generator fuel. Under the pressure of war conditions, a great deal of energy was spent in research, particularly by the European countries, in an endeavor to secure from coal the maximum amount of oils for use as motor fuels and lubricants. In order to secure this result, recourse was had to low-temperature carbonization of coal and many types of equipment were developed for that pur-
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FILL~NC PROFESSOR LOWE'S
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~ A L L O O NO N TAE
RATTLEFIELD
pose. By using such methods the maximum yield of liquid products is obtained. Considerable research work on this problem is still being carried on in Europe and America. The economic desirability of utilizing such methods, however, depends entirely upon the value which can be placed upon the by-products, viz., the light tars and oils produced under this method of carbonization. In the event that we are called upon to face a reduction in the supply of crude oil and petroleum products, many of these systems of carbonization may be adopted as being commercially desirable. In the field of gas utilization new research work is rapidly expanding. The American Gas Association has established a testing laboratory which is
constantly adding to the knowledge of the proper utilization of gas in domestic as well as industrial appliances. Many universities are also working on this most important problem. The Consolidated Gas Electric Light and Power Company of Baltimore recently established a Research Department, and has men engaged a t the present time on different problems of research in the fields of production, purification, and by-product recovery, as well as utilization. Among the important problems which are of interest to the gas industry are the following: 1. The synthesis of motor fuels and alcohols from water gas. 2. The catalytic e ~ i ~ h mofn blue t gas. 3. Studies for the improvement of present methqds, or the development of new methods for removing hydrogen sulfide from gas with subsequent recovery of the sulfur as a by-product. 4. The removal of organic sulfur compounds from the gas. 5. The removal of the constituents of gas which accelerate corrosion, such as cyanogen, oxygen, and water vapor. 6. Processing of coke oven gas to recover a greater percentage of valuable constituents. 7. Treatment of bituminous coal to recover the volatile matter as gas prior to burning the residue under boilers. In addition to the above, there are many other production and utilization problems that are continually dem'anding the attention of the gas men. The entire manufactured gas industry reblizes the importance of research to effecteconomies in production and increase the utilization of its product, To this end the national association, as well as the individual companies, is placing an increasing load on the research departments.
