The flow of the water through the pipe, G, is regulated automatically by a cock, r', with counterpoise. The holder, in rising, closes this cock and gradually cuts off the entrance of the water. The gas produced, once consumed, the holder descends in opening the cock, and the water begins to flow again.
The disengaged acetylene enters the gasometer, B, through the pipe, D. The extremity of the latter is bent into the form of a swan's neck. The gas is thus forced to bubble up through about 2 in. of water, in which it is cooled and freed from all traces of the ammonia that it may contain. The cock, R, in the pipe, D, is a three-way one. The first opens and the second intercepts communication between the gas generator and the gasometer, while the third puts these two parts of the apparatus in communication with the atmosphere.
The total capacity of the gasometer is so calculated that the acetylene produced by a single one of the compartments, F, may be stored up therein upon its exit from the gasometer through the pipe, K. The acetylene traverses a purifying column, I, filled with pumice stone saturated with a solution of sulphate of copper and surmounted by a thin layer of carbide of calcium. The object of the sulphate of copper is to free the gas from phosphorus and arseniuret of hydrogen. The layer of carbide serves to dry it.
It is well to use salt water for the gasometer, as acetylene is but slightly soluble therein.
Lequeux-Wiesnegg Apparatus (Figs. 5, 6, and 7).—The apparatus represented in Fig. 5 is capable of being used in lecture courses. It consists of a tank, B, and a holder, A, which is provided at the top with a wide aperture closed by a hydraulic plug, F. When the apparatus is at the bottom of its travel and ready to be filled with acetylene, the plug, F, as well as the basket, D, and the bucket, E, are removed. The quantity of carbide necessary to fill the gasometer is introduced into the basket. After care has been taken to put a certain quantity of water into the gutter forming the hydraulic joint of the plug, F, the parts, E, D, F, are introduced into the tube, C, in operating rapidly enough to prevent the loss of gas. The holder immediately rises as a consequence of the production of acetylene. The gas redescends through a tube to the bottom of the tank and rises laterally in a column by serving as a guide to the holder and as a support to the cocks designed to send the gas to the points of utilization. A cock, H, placed at the lower part of the apparatus, permits of clearing the piping in case a condensation of water occurs.
The apparatus represented in Figs. 6 and 7 is continuous. It consists of an apparatus with two holders, that is to say, so arranged as to put the least liquid possible in contact with the gas produced, and to thus prevent absorptions and losses. This gasometer consists of a tank, A, of a movable holder, C, and of a stationary holder, B. The generator, E, is formed of a cylinder, at the bottom of which there is a bucket, F, designed for the reception of the greater part of the lime resulting from the reaction. It is closed by a cover, G, arranged with a simple or multiple joint, according to the precision that it is desired to obtain and that may reach 30 centimeters of water. The figure represents the holder at the bottom of its travel.
Mr. Edward N. Dickerson's Apparatus (Figs. 8 to 13).—Mr. Dickerson, of New York in June, 1895, patented several arrangements permitting of automatically regulating the production of acetylene in measure as it is consumed. In the apparatus represented in Fig. 8 the water is led from a sufficiently high reservoir, A, through the pipe, B, into the gas generator, D, and over the carbide, C, placed upon a grate, O. The acetylene forms when the water reaches the carbide, and its disengagement ceases when the pressure forces the water back. The gas passes through the intermedium of a cock, e, into the pipe, W, provided with a cock, Z, into the automatic regulator, G, and then into the gasometer, P R. Between the regulator, G, and the gasometer, Mr. Dickerson interposes an arrangement consisting of an engine, H, actuating an air pump, K, through the pressure of the gas when it is desired to introduce a mixture of acetylene and air into the gasometer. This arrangement is evidently useless when it is desired to collect the acetylene alone. The gas upon making its exit from the gasometer flows through the pipe, T, to the burners, V.
