In conclusion, I must be allowed to express my obligations to Dr. W.H. Stone and Mr. Victor Mahillon, to Mr. Ebenezer Prout, Mr. Richard Shepherd Rockstro, Mr. Lavoix fils, and Dr. H. Riemann, whose writings concerning wind instruments have materially helped me; to Messrs. Boosey & Co., and to Messrs. Rudall, Carte & Co., for the loan of the instruments used in the illustrations; and also to Mr. D.J. Blaikley and Mr. Henry Carte, for valuable personal aid on the present occasion. Their kindness in reading through my manuscript—Mr. Blaikley throughout—and in offering friendly and generous criticisms; also their presence and assistance by trial of the various instruments, I cannot adequately thank them for, or sufficiently extol.
(In the course of this lecture, Mr. Henry Carte played upon a concert flute, also a B flat and a G flute, an eight-keyed flute, and a recorder. Mr. D.J. Blaikley continued the illustrations upon the oboe, bassoon, clarinet, French horn, slide trumpet, valve tenor horn, cornet a piston, B flat tenor slide trombone, B flat euphonium, B flat contrabass tuba, and B flat contrabass double slide trombone.)
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HOW GAS CYLINDERS ARE MADE.
The supply of compressed gas in metal cylinders has now assumed the proportions of an important industry, more especially since it was found possible, by the Brin process, to obtain oxygen direct from the atmosphere. The industry is not exactly a new one, for carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide (the latter for the use of dentists) have been supplied in a compressed state for many years. Now, with the creation of the modern amateur photographer, who can make lantern slides, and the more general adoption of the optical lantern for the purposes of demonstration and amusement, there has arisen a demand for the limelight such as was never experienced before, and as the limelight is dependent upon the two gases, hydrogen and oxygen, for its support, these gases are now supplied in large quantities commercially. At first the gas cylinders were made of wrought iron; they were cumbrous and heavy, and the pressure of the inclosed gas was so low that a receptacle to hold only ten feet was a most unwieldy concern. But times have changed, and a cylinder of about the same size, but half the weight, is now made to hold four times the quantity of gas at the enormous initial pressure of 1,800 pounds on every square inch. This means the pressure which an ordinary locomotive boiler has to withstand multiplied by twelve. The change is due to improved methods of manufacture and to the employment of mild steel of special quality in lieu of the wrought iron previously employed. The cylinders are now made without joint or seam, and the process of manufacture is most interesting. A short time ago we had an opportunity of watching the various necessary operations involved in making these cylinders at the Birmingham works of Messrs. Taunton, Delamard & Co., by whose courtesy we were enabled to make notes of the process.