It would be an
advantage, even, if the purifiers and other subsidiary items of the plant
were treated similarly, arranging them in such fashion that gas should be
automatically prevented from escaping out of the rest of the apparatus
when any lid was removed. In fact, the general notion of interlocking,
which has proved so successful in railway signal-cabins and in
carburetted water gas-plant for the prevention of accidents duo to
carelessness or overnight, might be copied in principle throughout an
acetylene installation whenever the automatic system is employed.
It is no part of the present argument, to allege that automatic
generators are, and must always be, inherently dangerous. Automatic
devices of a suitable kind may be found in plenty which are remarkably
simple and highly trustworthy; but it would be too bold a statement to
say that any such arrangement is incapable of failure, especially when
put into the hands of a person untrained in the superintendence of
machinery. The more reliable a piece of automatic mechanism proves itself
to be, the more likely is it to give trouble and inconvenience and
utterly to destroy confidence when it does break down; because the better
it has behaved in the past, and the longer it has lasted without
requiring adjustment, the less likely is it that the attendant will be at
hand when failure occurs.
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