A new system of practical domestic economy.

Date:
1828
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A new system of practical domestic economy. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    74/508 (page 58)
    thirteen parts of coal gas for the production of the same quantity of light. Another great saving may result from the phi- losophical inventions of the ingenious Mr. I,ester, who, we understand, has recently brought his new discovery in optics to perfection; and, from its simplicity and utility, it promises to be of great importance. Two cones of light produced from the luminary, being placed near to their respective apexes, and in opposite directions, base to base, form a parallelogram of indefinite dimensions, that would fill the room with an equal light of the same tensity in every part of its space; and as the foun- tain of light would be in opposite directions, the bodies equally divided, would have but two sides as opposed to the lines of vision; no shadows can be produced by the application. Rooms of all descriptions may be lighted by the flame being placed on the outside of the wall, and its reflection thrown through an aperture, by which means the smoke arising from the cumbustion will pass off into the asmosphere without entering the room, and the light will have the most beautiful effect, by illuminating a space void of smoke, which is far from being the case with rooms lighted in the common way. It has been clearly ascertained that one of Mr. Lester’s Mirrors, 13^ inches dia- meter, placed before one of the lamps commonly used to light stages, and fixed to the foot-board of the driver, will render the smallest print legible at the distance of one hundred yards before the leaders’ heads. We should not wish to see coal-gas become en- tirely a substitute for oil; as our Greenland trade is of too much importance to the country, espe-