Rensselaer Union and Jasper Republican, Volume 8, Number 28, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 March 1876 — How Gas is Made. [ARTICLE]

How Gas is Made.

The Marlboro (Mass.) Mirror publishes a sort of gas catechism, which conveys a good deal of important “ light” to the juvenile mind on this subject: “ How do they make gas?” “ First they put some bituminous coal in a long, air-tight retort. This retort is heated red-hot, when the gas bursts out like that from lumps of soft coal when on the parlor fire. The gas passes off through the pipes. A ton of coal will make 10,000 cubic feet of gas. The gas as it leaves the coal is very impure.” “ How do they purity it?” “ First, while hot, it is run off into another building, then it is forced through long, perpendicular pipes, surrounded with cold water. This cools the gas, when a good deal of tar condenses from it, and runs down to the bottom of the perpendicular pipes. This tar is the ordinary tar which you see boiling in the streets for walks and roofs. “They now wash the gas. They call it scrubbing it. “This is next done by filling a large vessel, which looks like a perpendicular steam boiler, half full of wood, laid crosswise. Ten thousand streams of cold water are spurted through the boiler. Through the mist and rain, and between the wet sticks of wood, the gas passes, coming out washed and cleansed. The ammonia condensed, joins the water, and falls to the bottom.” “ What next?” “Wefr, after it is purified, it is passed through the Dig station meter, then the mains and pipes, till it reaches the gas-jet in your room. Then it burns, while you all scold because it don’t burn better.” [ .