In these circumstances, hurried and perhaps injudicious attempts may be
made to thaw the seal by putting red-hot bars into it or by lighting
fires under it, or the generator-house may be thoughtlessly entered with
a naked light at a time when the apparatus is possibly in disorder
through the loss of storage-room for the gas it is evolving. Should a
seal ever freeze, it must be thawed only by the application of boiling
water; and the plant-house must be entered, if daylight has passed, in
perfect darkness or with the assistance of an outside lamp whining
through a closed window. [Footnote: By "closed window" is to be
understood one incapable of being opened, fitted with one or two
thicknesses of stout glass well puttied in, and placed in a wall of the
house as far as possible from the door.] There are two ways of preventing
the seal from freezing. In all large installations the generator-house
will be fitted with a warm-water heating apparatus to protect the portion
of the plant where the carbide is decomposed, and if the holder is also
inside the same building it will naturally be safe. If it is outside, one
of the flow-pipes from the warming apparatus should be led into and round
the lowest part of the seal, care being taken to watch for, or to provide
automatic arrangements for making good, loss of water by evaporation.
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