This may be effected by employing what is known as the
"flooded-compartment" system of construction, _i.e._, by subdividing
the total carbide charge into numerous compartments arranged either
vertically or horizontally, and admitting the water in interrupted
quantities, each more than sufficient thoroughly to decompose and
saturate the contents of one compartment, rather than in a slow, steady
stream. It would be quite easy to manage this without adopting any
mechanism of a moving kind, for the water might be stored in a tank kept
full by means of a ball-valve, and admitted to an intermediate reservoir
in a slow, continuous current, the reservoir being fitted with an
inverted syphon, on the "Tantalus-cup" principle, so that it should first
fill itself up, and then suddenly empty into the pipe leading to the
carbide container. Without this refinement, however, a water-to-carbide
generator, with subdivided charge, behaves satisfactorily as long as each
separate charge of carbide is so small that the heat evolved on its
decomposition can be conducted away from the solid through the water-
jacketed walls of the vessel, or as the latent heat of steam, with
sufficient rapidity.
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