04

FORM OF THE RETORTS FOR

fire-place, was increased to nearly twenty-five percent., accompanied by a corresponding accelerationof injury to the retorts.

It was still imagined, however, that the greatwaste of fuel and the ultimate unfavourable resultof these proceeding's, which w ere repeated with aslittle success at several other gas-works in themetropolis with parallelopipedal retorts, and atother w orks with retorts of a semi-cylindrical form,set in a way different from that pursued at theWestminster station, might probably have beenowing to the unavoidable circumstance, that theheat was not made to act upon all the retorts em-ployed uniformly in each series of four retorts,but in a manner so variable that one, or even twoof the series would become destroyed and rendereduseless, while the others continued uninjured in asound and working state.

The excessive waste of fuel was occasioned, weare told, by the number of injured retorts, whichbecame useless, and were nevertheless required tobe kept red hot to no purpose ; for it w as actuallyfound that when one retort of a series of fourbecame injured, the same fire which had heated