Seeing
that in an automatic apparatus the rate of decomposition depends on the
rate at which gas is being burnt, while in a non-automatic generator it
is, or may be, under no control, the critic may urge that the reaction
must take place more slowly and regularly, and the maximum temperature
therefore be lower, when the plant works automatically. This may be true
if the non-automatic generator is unskilfully designed or improperly
manipulated; but it is quite feasible to arrange an apparatus, especially
one of the carbide-to-water or of the flooded-compartment type, in such
fashion that overheating to an objectionable extent is rendered wholly
impossible. In a non-automatic apparatus the holder is nothing but a
holder and may be placed wherever convenient, even at a distance from the
generating plant; in an automatic apparatus the holder, or a small
similarly constructed holder placed before the main storage vessel, has
to act as a water-supply governor, as the releasing gear for certain
carbide-food mechanism, or indeed as the motive power of such mechanism;
and accordingly it must be close to the water or carbide store, and more
or less intimately connected by means of levers, or the like, with the
receptacle in which decomposition occurs.
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