Seeing, therefore, that the subject is of so supreme importance to consumers of gas, and that the interests of the consumer are closely interwoven with those of the manufacturer, it is eminently desirable that there should be more generally diffused a correct knowledge of the principles of economical gas consumption, and of the extent to which these principles are applied in the various burners which, from time to time, have been invented. No further apology ought therefore to be required in presenting to the reader the following disquisition on gas-burners. It may, however, be of advantage for me to state in brief, at the commencement, what are the objects I have in view, and what the chief considerations which have led me to write this treatise.
I purpose, then, to tell of the progress that has been made in apparatus for the development of light from coal gas; to relate how the crude and imperfect devices of the early inventors have been gradually improved upon; and, while not ignoring the drawbacks connected with recently invented burners, or the defects inherent to their construction, to show, in the superior achievements of these burners, how great an advance has been made upon the apparatus formerly in use. It will be, also, my endeavour to make plain the little understood phenomenon of the production of light by the combustion of coal gas; and to show the extent to which the illuminating power developed is dependent upon the burner employed. That there is need for such information as I propose to furnish must be sufficiently obvious to any one who has considered the waste of gas which takes place through ignorance of the laws of its combustion, and through the use of defective burners. In a report presented to the Board of Trade by the London Gas Referees in 1871, it was stated that a number of burners had been tested, taken from various places of business in the Metropolis; the major portion of which gave out only one-half, and some of them not more than one-fourth, of the illuminating power capable of being developed from the gas. Although, since the time that report was penned, considerable progress has been made in the construction of burners, and in the more general adoption of efficient burners by the public, much yet remains to be done. Doubtless it would still be within the mark to assert that fully one-fifth of the gas consumed by the public might be saved by the adoption of better burners, and by the observance of the conditions necessary for their satisfactory operation; and when it is borne in mind that the gas-rental of the United Kingdom amounts to a sum of certainly not less than £9,000,000 per annum, the saving which might be effected assumes truly great proportions.