Gas chamber

“ Round the central chamber are the coal hoppers, and from each of these gas is distilled, passes into the central chamber, where the ware is stacked, and meeting with an adjusted supply of air as it rises, it burns in a large flame, which extends through the whole space and swathes the material to be heated. ”

“ In all cases, therefore, where it is desired to do the work out of contact with the solid fuel, the operation of burning or heat-producing must be performed in a special fire-place or combustion chamber, the body of flame and heated gas being afterwards made to act upon the surface of the material exposed in a broad thin layer in the working bed or laboratory of the furnace by reverberation from the low vaulted roof covering the bed. ”

“ The gas evolved passes through the central tube to a water- seal and condensing tank, through which it escapes to the controlling chamber, which consists of a small water displacement chamber, the gas outlet of which is connected to the equalising gasholder. The bell of the equalising gasholder is weighted or balanced so that when it rises to a certain point the pressure is increased to a slight extent and consequently the level of the water in the displacement controlling chamber is lowered. ”

“ This, the furnace-chamber, communicates at each extremity with two of the regenerative chambers, and, in directing currents of gas and air upward through them, the two gaseous streams meet on entering the heated chamber, where they are ignited. The current descends through the remaining two regenerators, and heats the same in such a manner that the uppermost checkerwork is heated to nearly the temperature of the furnace, whereas the lower portions are heated to a less and less degree, the products of combustion escaping into the chimney comparatively cool. ”

“ This mixes with the volatile hydrocarbons the coal-gas given off when fresh coal is introduced into the generator and the mixture passes at once to the chamber above the melting tank. The air necessary for the burning of these generator gases is first heated by passing through a number of chambers in the lower part of the furnace. It is mixed with the gases to be burned just before they reach the fire-clay bridge separating the gas generator from the melting tank. ”

“ It is claimed that a continuous arcing fills the wedge-shaped chamber with heated air or gas, converting the whole of the space into a field of low resistance to ground, and that this gas in expanding drives out every particle of carbon that may be thrown off. It seems obvious that the wedge-shaped space offers greater freedom for carbon dust to fall out than in the case of the parallel arrangement of the block faces. ”

“ The men must have confidence in their gas masks. For this purpose, each man is sent through a “chlorine chamber” several times to give him confidence that, although the gas may be of great density, it has no disagreeable effects. ”

“ The "Player stove" was provided at its base with a large "combustion chamber" (see Fig. 35) , into which the gas entered, and there meeting with sufficient air for its combustion, the resulting heated gases passed upward through flues (indicated by the arrows s, s, s) in the roof of the "combustion chamber" into the "pipe chamber" above. In this chamber were arranged a series of vertical "siphon pipes," standing upon hollow bases or
Fig. ”

“ May 1989
‘...Too many hundreds of millions of honest, intelligent people have been duped by the well-financed and brilliantly successful postwar publicity campaign which followed on from the original ingenious plan of the British Psychological Warfare Executive (PWE) in 1942 to spread to the world the propaganda story that the Germans were using ‘gas chambers’ to kill millions of Jews and other ‘undesirables’
(iii) Moers – 9th March 1990
‘where did this myth come from? And for me as an Englishman, that is the most interesting question: who invented the myth of the gas chambers? ”

“ It was not such a big lump sum, because the gasworks had been built right after the war and had thereafter remained untouched by the stimulating hand of improvement. They consisted in the main of a crumbly little brick engine house, full of antiquated and self-willed machinery, and just below it, on the riverbank, a round and rusted gas tank, surrounded by sloping beds of coal cinders, through which at times sluggish rivulets of molten coal tar percolated like lava on the flanks of a toy volcano. ”

“ The only places in which the pressure is raised are surrounded by vacuum jackets leading to the gas reservoir. The gas-producing plant can therefore be installed anywhere, even in dwelling-houses or cellars, without running any risk of poisoning the inmates. ”

“ This the president discussed at some length. “Why not put the shafts closer together?” he finally asked.
“No reason that we can see,” said Jimmy. “If they were closer it would make the connection down below easier. This second shaft is the one that brings up the gaseous products of combustion.
“We’re going to use your regular regenerative furnace, or one something like it. We can get you producer gas that is just as good as any you’re getting—from the coal we burn in the ground, if we control the air and steam right.” ”

“ In addition to the consumption of oxygen and production of carbonic acid by the use of common gas, the gas itself, owing to defectiveness of the burner, is projected into the air. Now, considering the deleterious nature of all illuminating gases, the reasons for perfect ventilation of rooms in which natural gas is used for heating and culinary purposes are self-evident, not alone as a protection against explosions, but for the health of the occupants of the house, remembering that a larger supply of oxygen is said to be necessary for the perfect combustion of natural than of common gas. ”

“ The Hague gas-works are like a toy, gigantic; but a toy. Impossible to believe that in this vast, clean, scrubbed, swept expanse, where every bit of coal is scrupulously in place, real gas is made. To believe, you must go into the city and see the gas actually burning. Even the immense traveling-cranes, when at work or otherwise, have the air of life-size playthings. Our quay was bordered with flower-beds. The workmen, however, seemed quite real workmen, realistically dirty, who were not playing at work, nor rising at five-thirty a.m. ”

“ In modern furnaces, for the fusion of glass or other operations where great heat is necessary, the process of combustion of the fuel is carried on, not in one operation, as it is in the simple furnaces with which every one is familiar, but in two distinct, separate, progressive stages.
The first stage takes place in a subsidiary furnace known as a “gas producer.” Here part of the heat which the fuel is capable of generating is utilized for the production of a combustible gas. In other words the fuel is changed into gaseous form, but only partly burned. ”

“ In an iron-mill of thirty furnaces, running eight heats each for twenty-four hours, this would make a difference in favor of the gas of, say, 8 X 30 X 25 = 6,000 pounds of iron per day. This is an important item of itself, leaving out the cost of firing with coal and hauling ashes.
For generating steam in large establishments, one man will attend a battery of twelve or twenty boilers, using gas as fuel, keep the pressure uniform, and have the fire-room clean as a parlor. For burning brick and earthenware, gas offers the double advantage of freedom from smoke and a uniform heat. ”

“ Arrangement must prevent all accidental dumpings of fuel in fire pot. Coal so used as to not disappear through grate. One [318] boiler employs a damper rod running to the front which enables the caretaker to open and close the smoke damper rapidly when building and this prevents gas and smoke leakage when door is open. Such a device as this makes a floor room in a cellar feasible. The boilers of some companies are so beautifully contrived and finished that they are no worse than a talking machine or upright piano in a play room. ”

“ The progress of the new art of lighting houses, streets and public buildings, by means of the inflammable gas obtainable from coal, has been within these few years uncommonly rapid. The number of gas-lights already in use in the metropolis alone, amounts to upwards of fifty-one thousand. The total lengths of mains in the streets through which the gas is conveyed from the gas-light [4] manufactories into the houses, now measures two hundred and eighty-eight miles. ”

“ But care must always be taken to place the producers at such a low level that the gas has an upward tendency, in order to facilitate its passage to the furnace where it is to be burned. This purpose can be further promoted by various means. The gas-producers constructed by Messrs Siemens Brothers, from 1856 onwards, were provided with a kind of brick chimney; on the top of this there was a horizontal iron tube, continued into an iron down-draught, and only from this the underground flues were started which sent the gas into the single furnaces. ”

“ Those purposes are principally the investigation of workings to discover the presence of gas, and to aid in the erection of proper appliances for driving it out. It is not necessary, in these days of powerful ventilating machinery, to allow dangerous gases to remain in working places and to mine the coal there by the light of safety lamps. It is far safer, and better in every way, to sweep the chambers clean from foul air by strong ventilating currents, so that the miner may work by the light of his naked and most convenient common tin lamp. ”

“ You see, then, that every fire-place, or grate, or stove is a gas factory; but the gas is burned up as fast as it is made. The gas which is made at the gas-works is made in such a way that it is not burned at the time. It is made generally by heating coal, and is kept in large reservoirs called gasometers. From them pipes branch out in the same way that they do from water-works; and through these the gas goes all about to different buildings, as water goes in aqueduct pipes; and as the water comes out when you open the faucet, so does the gas when you open the burner. ”

“ The saving in wages of stokers, to clear the fireplaces, and keep the heat of the furnace always at the proper intensity—difficulties which the adoption of gaseous fuel would entirely obviate, since it furnishes no ashes to remove—and the proper regulation of the gas supply, would insure a perfectly uniform heating effect for hours together, without supervision or attention of any kind. The incidental saving of fuel or steam, whenever, by improper regulation, or the inattention of stokers, the furnaces are allowed to become too hot ”

“ And so true is this, that if a main were to descend 100 feet below the base of the gas holder, and if the pressure of the gas in the main was only equal to sustain a column of water half an inch in height, the gas lamps could not be lighted at all, at a point so low, because the pressure of the gas is then in an equilibrium with the pressure of the atmosphere. Hence in lighting a town or district with coal gas, the best situation for the gas apparatus, as far at least as it regards the economy of the mains for distributing the gas, is the lowest part of the town or district. ”

“ When the air in their present works, therefore, becomes impure, they open the door, and a strong current rushes into the old works; its place is again supplied with fresh air through the shafts. Previous to the adoption of this mode of ventilation, they experienced great inconvenience from carbonic acid gas; and some of the workmen had been killed by an explosion of carburetted hydrogen gas. ”

“ The tubes formed by the wick serve the same office as a retort placed in a heated furnace through which the inflammable liquid is transmitted. The oil is drawn up into these ignited tubes, and is decomposed into carburetted hidrogen gas, and from the combustion of this gas the illumination proceeds. See p. 15. What then does the gas-light system attempt? Nothing more than to generate, by means of sufficient furnaces and a reservoir of sufficient capacity, desired quantities of the gas, which is the same material of the flame of candles or lamps ”

“ Into this tube you shovel a quantity of coal, which flames vigorously as long as the door is open, but when it is full you shut the door, thus cutting off the supply of air and extinguishing the flame. Gas is now simply distilled, and passes along pipes to be purified and stored. You perceive at once that the difference between a gas retort and an ordinary furnace with closed doors and half choked fire bars is not very great. Consumption of smoke! It is not smoke consumers you really want, it is fuel consumers. ”

“ To overcome these drawbacks each retort is composed of four sections, viz. a hopper re distillation chamber at the top, a metallic section, a fire-brick chamber, and a combustion chamljer of large capacity at the bottom. The combustion chamber is not externally heated, but receives the spent shale from the retort in a red-hot condition, and the further supply of heat in this chamber is wholly due to the burning of the carbon by the introduced air and steam, the danger of the fluxing and fixing of the shale residue to the walls of the chamber being thus minimized. ”

“ With the introduction of gas as a heating agent, there will be no more carting about of coals and ashes, and no more troublesome lighting of fires with wood, paper, and matches. No more [Pg 84] coal-scuttles, no more smoky chimneys, no more chimney sweeps! On the other hand, the old open coal fire is cheerful, “pokable,” and conducive to ventilation; while the Englishman loves to stand in front of it and toast himself. All this, however, may still be secured in the gas stoves of the future, as any one could easily have satisfied himself at the recent Smoke Abatement Exhibition in London. ”