Looked at from one aspect the holder of a
fixed apparatus is merely an economical substitute for the wasteful vent-
pipe, because it is a place in which acetylene can be held in reserve
whenever the make exceeds the consumption in speed. It is perhaps
possible to conceive of a large table acetylene lamp fitted with a water-
sealed rising holder; but for vehicular purposes the displacement holder
is practically the only one available, and in small apparatus it becomes
too minute in size to be of much service as a store for the gas produced
by after-generation. Other forms of holder have been suggested by
inventors, such as a collapsible bag of india-rubber or the like; but
rubber is too porous, weak, and perishable a material to be altogether
suitable. If it is possible, by bringing carbide and water into mutual
contact in predetermined quantities, to produce gas at a uniform rate,
and at one which corresponds with the requirements of the burner, in a
small apparatus--and experience has shown it to be possible within
moderately satisfactory limits--it is manifest that the holder is only
needed to take up the gas of after-generation; and in Chapters II.
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