With the exception of small 1-lb. tins of carbide, used only by
cyclists, &c., the material is always put into drums of stout sheet-iron
with riveted or folded seams. Provided the original lid has not been
removed, the drums are air- and water-tight, so that the fireman's hose
may be directed upon them with impunity. When a drum has once been
opened, and not all of its contents have been put into the generator,
ordinary caution--not merely as regards fire, but as regards the
deterioration of carbide when exposed to the atmosphere--suggests either
that the lid must be made air-tight again (not by soldering it),
[Footnote: Carbide drums are not uncommonly fitted with self-sealing or
lever-top lids, which are readily replaced hermetically tight after
opening and partial removal of the contents of the drum.] or preferably
that the rest of the carbide shall be transferred to some convenient
receptacle which can be perfectly closed. [Footnote: It would be a
refinement of caution, though hardly necessary in practice, to fit such a
receptacle with a safety-valve. If then the vessel were subjected to
sudden or severe heating, the expansion of the air and acetylene in it
could not possibly exert a disruptive effect upon the walls of the
receptacle, which, in the absence of the safety-valve, is imaginable.
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