The foregoing remarks, it must be borne in mind, refer to the union-jet burner in its original form. Numerous improvements have been effected, from time to time, in its construction, as well as in that of the batswing, which, by reducing its liability thus to convey air into the flame, have increased its efficiency; while, at the same time, the shape of the flame has been improved. Indeed, the result of successive improvements in the construction of both burners has been so to modify the shape of their respective flames that, in their latest and most improved form, the flames produced by the two burners are practically identical in appearance, although the manner of their production remains as widely diverse as at the first. The improvements that led up to, and the causes that produced this result, will be more fully explained in the sequel.
I have before remarked that, in the early period of its use, one of the chief obstacles to the development of the lighting power of coal gas was the excessive pressure at which it was generally supplied. To understand the action of pressure in influencing the amount of light which a given quantity of gas will afford, it is necessary to know something of the nature and properties of flame. Moreover, the conditions upon which is dependent the illuminating power of a gas flame are so intimately related to each other, that the precise functions due to each cannot well be separated from the complete effect produced by the combined operation of all. I shall not, therefore, be needlessly digressing from my subject if, at this juncture, I explain the manner in which combustion takes place in the flame of an ordinary gas-burner. In doing this, I shall endeavour to clothe my remarks in very plain language; using no more technicalities than are absolutely required by the exigencies of the subject. In this way I hope to make my meaning clear to the simplest. At the same time, without pretending to be scientifically complete, the explanation of the phenomena of combustion which I shall furnish will, I trust, be sufficiently explicit to enable the reader to form a right estimate of the principles which regulate the production of light when coal gas is consumed. The end chiefly kept in view is to show clearly the extent to which the degree of light evolved is dependent upon the burner employed, and the manner in which the gas is consumed. If my remarks are the means of causing the reader to look with intelligent interest upon the familiar phenomena of gaslight, they will not have been written altogether in vain.