3-074-998 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Machine for making gas at the South Metropolitan Gas Company's works, Old Kent-road, 1890. The machines used...for gas-stoking, instead of hand labour, are set in action by air-pressure, which is generated by means of an engine...The air, under a pressure of about 80 lb. per square inch, is conveyed to the machines by flexible pipes of indiarubber, which wind upon a drum...These being two in number, for the separate operations of withdrawing the coke from the retorts and refilling with coal, are known as the "Rake" and the "Charger." By means of the "rake" a man is enabled, by simply raising a lever, to drive the tool back and forth, without approaching near to the source of heat. The "charger" is a more elaborate instrument, and carries on the top a "hopper," which is from time to time filled with coal. Under this...is the " scoop," which having been filled with coal, by simply opening a door at the bottom of the hopper, is rapidly driven forward into the retort, discharged of its contents, and withdrawn, all by the action of hand-levers, without any lifting of the coal by hand, the man actuating the machine...standing on a platform at the back of the machine. The machines were constructed by West's Gas Improvement Company, of Manchester'. From "Illustrated London News", 1890.