Experiments In Gas Mantle

EXPERIMENTS IN GAS MANTLE

OF COMMERCIAL UTILITY AT THE UNIVERSITY

A Study of the Incandescent Mantle is Being Made and Much Data Gathered

The experiments with the the incandescent mantle which have been in progress in the chemical laboratories of the University are yielding results which are likely to be of great commercial value. So far data has been secured on the temperature of the flame and mantle; and the relation existing between the temperature and illumination. The question as to whether the illumination is a pure "temperature" effect or whether other agencies come into play, has also been given considerable attention. From the data, in many instances, curves have been plotted, which show the various relationships with exactness.

The temperature of the ordinary commercial mantle, burned under usual conditions, was found to vary from fifteen hundred to sixteen hundred degrees, centigrade. For any single mantle the illumination ways found to vary with the temperature, while for different mantles it was ascertained that the illumination depended to a greater degree upon the composition of the mantle than upon the temperature; the mantle with the highest temperature does not necessarily give the most light. A mechanical mixture of thorium and cerium oxides when exposed to a flame was found gradually to increase in temperature and illumination up to a certain point, approximately that which would be initially shown by a mixture prepared from the nitrates of the above substances; but the temperature remained below that which pure oxide of thorium would attain in the same flame.

The investigations show that the exceptional efficiency of the mantle due to a solid solution of the oxide of cerium in the oxide of thorium, and that this substance is capable of transforming the heat of the flame into light more economically than a black body or any other substance yet known.

This research is being carried on the aid of the Michigan Gas Association which maintains and has maintained since 1900, a fellowship in gas engineering in the University. The work has been done by Alfred H. White, instructor in chemical technology and by the holders of the fellowship.