If
the holder is at a distance from the generator-house, or if for any other
reason it cannot easily be brought into the warming circuit, the seal can
be protected in another way; for unlike the water in the generator, the
water in the holder-seal will perform its functions equally well however
much it be reduced in temperature, always providing it is maintained in
the liquid condition. There are numerous substances which dissolve in, or
mix with, water, and yield solutions or liquids that do not solidify
until their temperature falls far below that of the natural freezing-
point. Assuming that those substances in solution do not attack the
acetylene, nor the metal of which the holder is built, and are not too
expensive, choice may be made between them at will. Strictly speaking the
cost of using them is small, because unless the tank is leaky they last
indefinitely, not evaporating with the water as it is vaporised into the
gas or into the air. The water-seal of a holder standing within the
generator-house may eventually become so offensive to the nostrils that
the liquid has to be renewed; but when this happens it is due to the
accumulation in the water of the water-soluble impurities of the crude
acetylene.
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