arrow Whitehaven Gazette arrow Oct. 18, 1819 arrow Portable Gas Lamp
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Whitehaven Gazette - Oct. 18, 1819

PORTABLE GAS LAMP.

       This elegant and ingenious invention furnished with condensed gas, is
thus spoken of by the Editors of the Edinburgh Philosophical Journal : -

       "We have had the occasion to see Mr. GORDON's lamp put to the test of
direct experiment, we feel ourselves entitled to speak with confidence of its
excellence, and to recommend it as one of the greatest practical inventions
which has for some time presented to the public. Its application to the lighting
of private and public carriages as well as to coal mines under the safe guard
of Sir. H. DAVY's invention, will be speedily put in practice, and we hope,
the time is not very distant, when reservoirs of Condensed Gas shall be
established in every town and village of Great Britain, and when the lonely cottages
of the poor shall be enlivened by this economical and chearful light.

       There is one application of the Portable Gas Lamp to which we attach a
high value. By an extreme diminution of the aperture, the flame can be
rendered so small as to give no perceptible light, and to occasion almost no 
consumption of gas. In this state the lamp may be used in bedrooms, and the
imperceptible flame may be at anytime expanded into the most brilliant light by
turning the cock, by means of metallic rod terminating near the bed.

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COAL.

       Dr. THOMPSON has lately analyzed the different varieties of this
substance, viz. Newcastle Coal, splint coal, cherry coal, cannel coal, &c.,&c. with
very extraordinary results; he finds that together with the earthy part, the
following products are obtained from all in certain proportions, viz. carbon,
hydrogen, azote, and oxygen.

       This is perhaps the first instance offered us, where these general
elements of animal and vegetable substances combined in various proportions, give
such similar substances  as the different specimens of pit coal, and what
increases the wonder is, that Dr. T. seems inclined  to think that coal is a
direct combination of these elements, and not any compound of Bitumen, &c. as has
been supposed.

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