Fig. 4.
Fig. 4 allows a length of flame instead of a point to be produced; n is the hydrogen gas-pipe and cock; p, the air-pipe and cock; r, the tube, in which air and gas mingle; u, a pipe with a longitudinal slit on one side of it; and v, another pipe covering u, and exactly fitting over it. Gas and air escaping from the slit, on being ignited, will produce a long strip of flame, which may be lengthened or shortened by sliding off or on the covering tube, v, on the slit tube u.
Fig. 5.
Fig. 5 is a soldering tool, to be used where a jet of flame is not available, as in joining zinc. In this arrangement, the hydrogen and air flame heats apiece of copper, y, with which the work is performed. w is the tool, with a hollow handle and stalk; air being supplied by the pipe p, passes through the hollow handle and stalk; x is a small tube which passes down the hollow handle and stalk, w, and conveys gas from the pipe n to the extremity of w, where it mingles with the issuing air, and, on being ignited, the flame will heat the piece of copper, y, (which, of course, may be of the shape of any soldering tool required,) held by the arms, z.
Advantages of the Improved Method of Soldering Metals.
One great advantage to the public at large to be derived from the general introduction of “autogenous soldering,” will be the diminution of the number of cases of the escape of water and gas, which every day occasion so much inconvenience and even danger as regards the stability of buildings, the maintenance of the public thoroughfares, and the security of life.
The disuse of charcoal and tin by plumbers will have the important effect of rendering their trade less unhealthy, the fumes from their brasiers, and the arsenical vapours emanating from impure tin, being a very common cause of serious maladies.
By the old method of soldering, there is great danger of setting fire to houses and public buildings: the destruction of the corn market of Paris, and of the Cathedrals of Chartres and of Bruges, by fire, was partly owing to the negligence of plumbers; a negligence for which there could be no reason, if the new method of soldering had been introduced, since it is only necessary to turn a cock in order to extinguish or rekindle, at any moment, the jet of gas which serves for the plumber’s tool. By means of the new apparatus, a soldering flame can be conducted to a distance of several fathoms without the dangerous necessity of lighting a brasier to heat irons, to melt masses of solder, and to carry the whole into the midst of complicated carpentry work.
The disuse of solder will also greatly reduce the price of plumber’s work, without, however, diminishing the demand for the services of the workmen. The disuse of seams or overlapping, which from this new mode of connecting lengths of lead will almost entirely be given up, will alone occasion a considerable saving in the quantity of lead employed. The ease with which lead of from one-thirtieth to one-tenth of an inch in thickness may be soldered, and defects repaired, will permit of the substitution of this, in many cases, for thicker lead, and thus diminish the expense; perhaps, also, it will give rise to the use of lead for purposes to which it has not yet been applied, or the return to others, in which from motives of economy it has been superseded by other metals.