The Optical Magic Lantern Journal (June 1891)

120 The Optical Magic Lantern v ournal and Photographic Enlarger. has given me but little confidence in the utility of any of these appliances whether they be used with cylinders or gas bags. __ ; This light is referred to by one authority, who, whilst admiring its brilliancy, considers that the time has not yet arrived when it can be used with safety. This. opinion coincides with that recorded by Mr. Norton, and also with my own. I have made this oxygen etho-limelight a special study, and much regret its failure, for in India, when it is impossible to secure coal gas in many stations, the saturator would be invaluable to those who use limelight lanterns. I have found that in dissolving it is more unreliable than when used with the single lantern. I have also found that explosions are less liable to occur with the gas bag than when the oxygen is used from a cylinder. The increased pressure from the latter, however, gives a far more powerful light. “When the weather is warm, with a temperature from 70 deg. to So deg., the ether satufator works better than in the cold season. It may be possible, therefore, that Mr. Scott’s Warm Air Saturator solves the difficulty, and that ether or benzoline, or a mixture of both, may vaporise better at a high temperature, but even then it is not quite clear whether it can be used safely for dissolving purposes. Mr. Norton suggests that those who require a better light than is given by the blow-throuvh jet, should use two bags, or two cylinders, whichever suits best. Oxygen cylinders can be imported to India, but hydrogen cylinders cannot, because the gas is explosive. Coal gas is difficult to obtain, and the manufacture of hydrogen-gas from dilute sulphuric acid is a troublesome business. The ether saturator, therefore. is the best for this country, and if any of our readers can explain a method by which the Salurator can be used with safety it would be a boon. Failing this information, I should be glad to know what is the latest and best kind of electric optical lanterns in the market and their cost.’ Electric lighting is used here and it is easier to get accumulators charged than to obtain coal gas. Experiences with . Scott’s Warm Air Saturator. By HORACE HILTON. I was led to give this saturatora trial, because I sometimes required a limelight ia country districts or where there waz no house gas available to work my blowthrough jets. I did not feelinclined to be bothered with the additional trouble pertaining to an extra hydrogen cylinder and fittings, neither did I desire that my working expenses should be increased, and as I had in vain endeavoured to improve the light-giving |’ properties of the old-fashioned spirit jet (though I succeeded in perfecting a jet without its disadvantaves), I was compelled therefore to try an ether saturator, though, -I confess, most reluctantly. .When I_ hinted my decision to my confréres in Brighton, they shook : their heads sadly and suggested the! it mus a pily that: L.was going to put my fricnils to the expense of mourning, | Thad for some time resolved that Scott's pattern was | the one for me, because—apart from the advantages | of the warm air arrangement —there were other things about it that seemed great improvements—viz., filling the saturator at the bottom, and having all taps, unions and T-pieces at the top. ‘I did not when Sending to the patentee forward a jet to be corrected, for I wished to try the ether light with an old jet that Ialready bad. I did not expect very brilliant results at first, aiid neither did I obtain them—in fact my trials were most unsatisfactory. I had numerous pops and bangs, and as for regulating the light at the jet taps, I never reached that stage. ‘But I was determined not to throw over a pessibly good thing without giving it a fair trial, soI forwarded the same jet to Mr. Scott, who adapts one free to every purchaser of 2 saturator direct from him, and in a few days it was returned. Its appearance then with the curly lateral attachment was rather singular, but the marvellous difference it had made to the jet when I soon afterwards worked it was more singular still. When the fifteen minutes’ “ warminz up” had elapsed, I set to work thoroughly resolved that the time had arrived when in my estimation the saturator must stand or fall, It stood! And it stands high still! I soon succceded in obtaining a light that satisfied mein every way, and I also found that it was very easily regulated. Jinding that the management of the light was so simple, I next proceeded to test the saturator in every way, in order to cause pops or explo:ions. _I turned off the taps in .the wrong ordcr, turned the jet taps up and down rather quickly, tarned off the cylinder valve, turncd off the inlet tap, and for more than an hour and a-half I failed to cause anything more to accrue from my pranks than a slight pop now and then, not at all alarming, and hardly worth noticing. But this I noticed: so long as I followed instructions—which do not exceed more than half-a-dozen lines—everything worked beautifully. After such a trial as I gave my saturator, it is needless to. say that I pronounced it a complete success. I have used the saturator several times since, and never once has the light gone out, popped, or been at all troublesome. I have worked it with beazoline, ether, and a mixture of both, and the result with a cylinder and regulator bas always been satisfactory. In turning out, directly I have turned off vapour tap, I turn round lime, so that the incandescent surface is away from nipple, and.J leave on oxygen for a few seconds before turning off. I have only measured quactity of oxygen used once, and on that ozcasion I used the saturator’ for onc and a-half hours, with a consumption ‘of (ft.: of gas, and oz. of ether. total cost being one shilliog and sevenpence, including nivht-lights. I charge saturator before leaving ho:ne, and therefore I run uo. risk of breaking bottles aud spilling liquids. Thive.a folding bracket that I attach instantaneously to hack of lantern-box, and this I fiad to be preferable to hanging the saturator by a chain. I hive not yet experimented with a pair of jets for dissolving views, : but I intend having a turn at it some day. I believe that my experience is similar to that of many otbersusing the same apparatus. and therefore I am justified in recommending Scott’s WarmAir Saturator to anyone: requiring a first-class light occasionally in districts and, places where house gas 1s unobtainable.