Gas holder

“ From this purifier the gas passes downwardly through a pipe into a large gas holder whose lower end is sealed in a water tank, and which gas holder is balanced by weights and chains passing over pulleys. With the gas holder, the distributing mains of the city are made to connect to receive their supply. When the gas holder is full it is buoyed up by the lighter gas, and occupies an elevated position, and as its supply is used up, the gas holder settles down into the water. ”

“ The collapsing gas holder is a still farther improvement by Mr. Clegg, on this part of the gas light apparatus, and certainly of all the contrivances which have been invented for collecting and storing up large quantities of gas, this machine must be pronounced to be by far the most simple, economical, and efficient. The striking advantage of the revolving gas holder which we have just been describing is, that it enables the dimensions of the tank to be very much diminished, where the nature of the ground will not admit of a cistern of great depth being sunk, except at an extraordinary expence ”

“ It must be sufficiently obvious that when the gas holder is full, and the distillation of the gas continues going on, that unless a provision is made for conveying away the surplus gas, it must escape by bubbling up from underneath the gas holder. ”

“ In fact this machine performs the office of three revolving gas holders, fixed on an horizontal axis, and moving in a cistern, which is the outer case of the machine. One gas holder, or one compartment of the machine, is always in the act of becoming filled with gas, another is emptying its contents into the outer case, from which it passes into the reservoir, where it is to be stored up, or to the lamps, where it is to be burned, and the third compartment is stationary, or in an equilibrium. ”

“ A gas holder without balance weight and specific gravity apparatus, with its governor, may be erected complete for action, for little more than half the cost that would be required for the erection of an apparatus of the same capacity constructed on the old plan. ”

“ From the economizer the gas is drawn through a wet scrubber where it undergoes a further cooling and is cleansed of dirt and dust. After passing the wet scrubber, the gas, under a light pressure, is forced, by the exhauster, through a dry scrubber to a gas-holder with a capacity of about 1,000 cu. ft.
All the fuel used is carefully weighed on scales which are checked from time to time by standard weights; and, as the fuel is charged into the producer, a sample is taken for chemical analysis and for the determination of its calorific power. ”

“ This contrivance is more expensive and complicated than any of the gas holders of which a description has been given; nor is it safe, for if the slightest leak should happen in the interior vessel of the double gas holder, an explosive mixture would be formed, and dreadful consequences might follow; this can never be the case with any of the machines now in use.—Note of the Author.
“Another advantage gained by the small quantity of gas required for a flame, is the proportionate diminution of heat arising from the lights. ”

“ The gas-holder serves merely to regulate the production of gas. The pipes leading to the engine should be cleaned several times each month, in order to remove the thin layer of tar which is deposited within them.
There are many kinds of lignite, and the gas-generator should be constructed to meet the peculiar requirements of the variety employed. The layer of fuel should be such in thickness that the gas as it emerges from the generator has a temperature of about 77 degrees F. This is the temperature of the gas which leaves the scrubber in the case of anthracite-generators. ”

“ To generate gas from gasoline is a simple operation. To do this, take a common 1-gallon oil can, remove the top of can screw and punch a 1⁄4-inch hole in the center of it. Then make a tube of tin that will pass through this hole, sufficiently long to extend half way to the bottom and project 2 inches outside of can screw, and solder this tube in place. This projecting tube is for the purpose of connecting to the air holder. Remove the spout of the can and replace it with one to which the hose can be connected. ”

“ The gasholder is placed in a tank of water, so that there is no waste of gas as the huge iron holder fills or empties.
Now it was in one of these gasholders that a few years ago two men did a deed that will live. Here is the brief story.
The holder was being repaired, the gas had been removed, and air had been pumped into it instead of gas so that men could work inside, and the holder had risen about fifty feet. Two men were working inside the holder, one a foreman, and the other a labourer named Case, the latter in a diver's helmet. They were standing on a plank floating on the water. ”

“ In the infancy of the art of lighting with coal gas, the reservoir was encumbered with a heavy appendage of chains, wheel-work and balance weights, and from the construction of the machine, it was necessary to guard it from the impulse of the wind, the action of which on the gas holder, would have rendered the lights which the machine supplied with gas, unsteady. ”

“ The small curved pipe T, plate I., serves to let the common air escape out of the angular extremity of the machine, whilst filling with gas, when the margin of this part of the machine becomes immersed in the water, and to let the common air enter again, when the gas holder is discharging its contents. ”

“ In proportion as the quantity of water sufficient for the tank of the collapsing gas holder is less than that required for the tanks of other gas holders, it is attended with this further advantage, that the water can be let off or removed without any expence when repairs are necessary. If the repairs indeed are trivial, they can be made without letting off the water at all, the depth being no more than one foot. ”

“ The cheapest house constructed of sheet iron to surround a circular gas holder of 15,000 cubic feet capacity, supposing the surface of its cistern or tank to be level with the ground, costs no less than £. ”

“ Below K the fuel is lying in a conical heap, leaving the ring channel A free. During the period of hot-blowing (heating-up) S is turned so that the air-blast communicates with the generator; d and G are open; g (the damper connected with the scrubber) and V are closed. During the period of gas-making G and d are closed, S now closes the air-blast and connects the generator with the scrubber; V is opened, and the gas passes from the scrubber into the gas-holder, the inlet w being under a pressure of 4 in. ”

“ Under these conditions the cup will necessarily be filled with water, and a seal will be formed, preventing the escape of gas. A guide framing is built round the holder, and guide rollers are fixed at various intervals round the grips of each lift, whilst at the bottom of the cup guide rollers are also fixed (fig. 11) . In the year 1892 the largest existing gasholder was built at the East Greenwich works of the South Metropolitan Gas Company; it has six lifts, its diameter is 293 ft., and when filled with gas stands 180 ft. high. The capacity for gas is 12 million cub. ft. ”

“ The purified gas now passes to a gasholder (sometimes known as a gasometer) , which may be either single lift, i.e. a simple bell inverted in a tank of water, or may be constructed on the telescopic principle, in which case much ground space is Gasholder. saved, as a holder of much greater capacity can be contained in the same-sized tank. The tank for the gasholder is usually made by excavating a circular reservoir somewhat larger in diameter than the proposed holder. A banking is allowed to remain in the centre, as shown in fig. ”

“ It deserves further to be observed, that when two gas holders are employed, the utmost that can be effected by them, is the admeasurement of the gas produced, while the distinguishing feature of the metre is, that it not only measures, but by its own action registers the quantity of gas produced, or expended, in any given time. ”

“ A correct general conclusion, in short, can only be drawn from the result of experiments carried on uninterruptedly through a succession of days and nights, and such a continuity of experiments could, previous to the invention of the gas metre, only be affected by means of two separate gas holders, one for measuring the gas as it is produced, and the other for receiving the gas after it is thus measured, in order to its being transferred into the mains. ”

“ In passing into the incandescent fuel that fills the generator, the steam is decomposed, and there forms carbonic oxide, while hydrogen is liberated. The mixture of these two gases with the hydrocarburets furnished by the fuel constitutes water gas. This gas on making its exit from the generator through the pipe, M', passes through the chambers, B, and abandons therein the greater part of its heat, and enters the pipe, R, whence it passes through Q into the purifiers, and then into the gasometer. ”

“ 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. ”

“ It is the use of gasoline for fuel that makes all this possible. Gasoline, being a very volatile liquid, turns into a highly inflammable gas when heated and mixed with the oxygen in the air. A tank holding from twenty to forty gallons of gasoline is connected, through an automatic regulator which controls the flow of oil, to a burner under the boiler. The burner allows the oil, which turns into gas on coming in contact with its hot surface, to escape through a multitude of small openings and mix with the air, which is supplied from beneath. ”

“ The quantity of air necessary for the combustion of the fuel determines the amount of fuel that can be drawn into a given cylinder volume, and as we are dependent upon the fuel for the expansion it is evident that with two fuels of the same calorific value, the one requiring the least air will develop the most power. Since the air required to burn hydrogen gas is only one fourth of that required to burn the same amount of 17methane it is clear that more hydrogen can be burned in the cylinder than methane. ”

“ When the gasometer is quite down, the inside of its top, a, rests on the ground; when the gas enters, it raises it up till the lower edge is but a few inches below the water, and is prevented from rising higher by frames which support it; when some of the weights, d d, are removed, the huge cylinder, a, slowly sinks down and forces the gas through the tubes, c c, to be burnt by thousands of consumers. About four cubic feet of gas is produced from every pound of coal used ”