Mond gas in the dry state contains 15% carbon dioxide, 10%
monoxide, 23% hydrogen, 3% hydrocarbons, 49% nitrogen.
The yield of ammonium sulphate is 75 ℔ from a ton of coal (slack
with 11.5% ashes and 55% fixed carbon).
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| Fig. 21.—Dellwik-Fleischer Producer. |
One of the best plants for the generation of water-gas is that constructed by E. Blass (fig. 20). Steam enters through the valve V at D into the generator, filled with coke, and passes away at the bottom through A. The pressure of the gas should not be such that it could get into the pipe conveying the air-blast, by which an explosive mixture would be formed. This is prevented by the water-cooled damper S, which always closes the air-blast when the gas-pipe is open and vice versa. Below the entry W of the air-blast there is a throttle valve d which is closed as soon as the damper S opens the gas canal; thus a second security against the production of a mixture of air and gas is afforded. The water-cooled ring channel K protects the bottom outlet of the generator and causes the cinders to solidify, so that they can be easily removed. But sometimes no such cooling is effected, in which case the cinders run away in the liquid form. Below K the fuel is lying in a conical heap, leaving the ring channel A free. During the period of hot-blowing (heating-up) S is turned so that the air-blast communicates with the generator; d and G are open; g (the damper connected with the scrubber) and V are closed. During the period of gas-making G and d are closed, S now closes the air-blast and connects the generator with the scrubber; V is opened, and the gas passes from the scrubber into the gas-holder, the inlet w being under a pressure of 4 in. All these various changes in the opening of the valves and dampers are automatically performed in the proper order by means of a hand-wheel H, the shaft m resting on the standards t and shaft v. This hand-wheel has merely to be turned one way for starting the hot-blowing, and the opposite way for gas-making, to open and shut all the connexions, without any mistake being possible on the part of the attendant. The feeding-hopper E is so arranged that, when the cone e2 opens, e1 is shut, and vice versa, thus no more gas can escape, on feeding fresh coke into the generator, than that which is contained in E. G is the pipe through which the blowing-up gas (Siemens gas) is carried away, either into the open air (where it is at once burned) or into a pre-heater for the blast, or into some place where it can be utilized as fuel. This gas, which is made for 10 or 11 minutes, contains from 23 to 32% carbon monoxide, 7 to 1.5% carbon dioxide, 2 to 3% hydrogen, a little methane, 64 to 66% nitrogen, and has a heating value of 950 calories per cub. metre. The water-gas itself is made for 7 minutes, and has an average composition of 3.3% carbon dioxide, 44% carbon monoxide, 0.4% methane, 48.6% hydrogen, 3.7% nitrogen, and a heating value of 2970 calories per cub. metre. 1 kilogram coke yields 1.13 cub. metre water-gas and 3.13 Siemens gas. 100 parts coke (of 7000 calories) furnish 42% of their heat value as water-gas and 42% as Siemens gas.
Lastly we give a section of the Dellwik-Fleischer gas-producer (fig. 21). The feeding-hoppers A are alternately charged every half-hour, so that the layer of fuel in the generator always remains 4 ft. deep. B is the chimney-damper, C the grate, D the door for removing the slags, E the ash-door, F the inlet of the air-blast, G the upper, G1 the lower outlet for the water-gas which is removed alternately at top and bottom by means of an outside valve, steam being always admitted at the opposite end. The blowing-up generally lasts 134 minutes, the gas-making 8 or 10 minutes. The air-blast works under a pressure of 8 or 9 in. below the grate, or 4 to 412 in. above the coke. The blowing-up gas contains 17 or 18% carbon dioxide and 1.5% oxygen, with mere traces of carbon monoxide. The water-gas shows 4 to 5% carbon dioxide, 40% carbon monoxide, 0.8% methane, 48 to 51% hydrogen, 4 or 5% nitrogen. About 2.5 cub. metres is obtained per kilogram of best coke.
See Mills and Rowan, Fuel and its Application (London, 1889); Samuel S. Wyer, Producer-Gas and Gas-Producers, published by the Engineering and Mining Journal (New York); F. Fischer, Chemische Technologie der Brennstoffe (1897–1901); Gasförmige Heizstoffe, in Stohmann and Kerl’s Handbuch der technischen Chemie, 4th edition, iii. 642 et seq. (G. L.)
GASCOIGNE, GEORGE (c. 1535–1577), English poet, eldest
son of Sir John Gascoigne of Cardington, Bedfordshire, was born
probably between 1530 and 1535. He was educated at Trinity
College, Cambridge, and on leaving the university is supposed to
have joined the Middle Temple. He became a member of Gray’s
Inn in 1555. He has been identified without much show of
evidence with a lawyer named Gastone who was in prison in
1548 under very discreditable circumstances. There is no doubt
that his escapades were notorious, and that he was imprisoned
for debt. George Whetstone says that Sir John Gascoigne
disinherited his son on account of his follies, but by his own
account he was obliged to sell his patrimony to pay the debts
contracted at court. He was M.P. for Bedford in 1557–1558
and 1558–1559, but when he presented himself in 1572 for election
at Midhurst he was refused on the charges of being “a defamed
person and noted for manslaughter,” “a common Rymer and
a deviser of slaunderous Pasquelles,” “a notorious ruffianne,”
an atheist and constantly in debt. His poems, with the exception
of some commendatory verses, were not published before 1572,
but they were probably circulated in MS. before that date. He
tells us that his friends at Gray’s Inn importuned him to write
on Latin themes set by them, and there two of his plays were
acted. He repaired his fortunes by marrying the wealthy widow
of William Breton, thus becoming step-father to the poet,
Nicholas Breton. In 1568 an inquiry into the disposition of
William Breton’s property with a view to the protection of the
children’s rights was instituted before the lord mayor, but the
matter was probably settled in a friendly manner, for Gascoigne
continued to hold the Walthamstow estate, which he had from
his wife, until his death. He sailed as a soldier of fortune to the
Low Countries in 1572, and was driven by stress of weather to
Brill, which luckily for him had just fallen into the hands of the
Dutch. He obtained a captain’s commission, and took an active
part in the campaigns of the next two years, during which he
acquired a profound dislike of the Dutch, and a great admiration
for William of Orange, who had personally intervened on his
behalf in a quarrel with his colonel, and secured him against
the suspicion caused by his clandestine visits to a lady at the
Hague. Taken prisoner after the evacuation of Valkenburg
by the English troops, he was sent to England in the autumn
of 1574. He dedicated to Lord Grey of Wilton the story of his
adventures, “The Fruites of Warres” (printed in the edition
of 1575) and “Gascoigne’s Voyage into Hollande.” In 1575
he had a share in devising the masques, published in the next
year as The Princely Pleasures at the Courte at Kenelworth, which
celebrated the queen’s visit to the Earl of Leicester. At Woodstock
in 1575 he delivered a prose speech before Elizabeth, and
presented her with the Pleasant Tale of Hemetes the Heremite[1]
in four languages. Most of his works were actually published
during the last years of his life, after his return from the wars.
He died at Bernack, near Stamford, where he was the guest of
George Whetstone, on the 7th of October 1577. George Whetstone
wrote a long dull poem in honour of his friend, entitled “A
Remembrance of the wel-imployed life and godly end of George
Gaskoigne, Esquire.”
His theory of metrical composition is explained in a short critical treatise, “Certayne Notes of Instruction concerning the making of verse or ryme in English, written at the request of Master Edouardo Donati,”[2] prefixed to his Posies (1575). He acknowledged Chaucer as his master, and differed from the earlier poets of the school of Surrey and Wyatt chiefly in the added smoothness and sweetness of his verse. His poems were published in 1572 during his absence in Holland, surreptitiously, according to his own account, but it seems probable that the “editor” who supplied the running comment was none other than Gascoigne himself. A hundreth Sundrie Floures bound up in one small Posie. Gathered partely (by translation) in the fyne outlandish Gardens of Euripides, Ovid, Petrarke, Ariosto and others; and partely by Invention out of our owne fruitfull Orchardes in Englande, Yelding Sundrie Savours of tragical, comical and moral discourse, bothe pleasaunt and profitable, to the well-smelling
