By suitable design and by an intelligent
employment of safety-valves and blow-off pipes (which will be discussed
in their proper place) it is quite easy to avoid the faintest possibility
of danger arising from an increase of pressure or an improper
accumulation of gas inside the plant or inside the building containing
the plant; but every time such a safety-valve or blow-off pipe comes into
action a waste of gas occurs, which means a sacrifice of economy, and
shows that the generator is not working as it should.
As glass is a fragile and brittle substance, and as it is not capable of
bearing large, rapid, and oft-repeated alterations of temperature in
perfect safety, it is not a suitable material for the construction of
acetylene apparatus or of portions thereof. Hence it follows that a
generator must be built of some non-transparent material which prevents
the interior being visible when the apparatus is at work. Although it is
comparatively easy, by the aid of a lamp placed outside the generator-
shed in such a position as to throw its beams of light through a window
upon the plant inside, to charge a generator after dark; and although it
is possible, without such assistance, by methodical habits and a
systematic arrangement of utensils inside the building to charge a
generator even in perfect darkness, such an operation is to be
deprecated, for it is apt to lead to mistakes, it prevents any slight
derangement in the installation from being instantly noticed, and it
offers a temptation to the attendant to break rules and to take a naked
light with him.
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