It is
stated that this plan of using acetylene enables a quantity of gas to be
carried under each coach which is sufficient for a run of from 53 to 70
hours' duration, or of over 3600 miles; that is to say, enables the
train, in the conditions obtaining on the line in question, to make a
complete "round trip" without exhaustion of its store of artificial
light. The system has been in operation for some years, and appears to
have been so carefully managed that no accident has arisen; but it is
clear that elements of danger are present which are eliminated when the
cylinders are loaded with porous matter and acetone. The use of a similar
system of compressed acetylene train lighting in South America has been
attended with a disastrous explosion, involving loss of life.
It may safely be said that the acetone system, or less conveniently
perhaps the mere compression into porous matter, is the best to adopt for
the table-lamp which is to be used in occupied rooms Small cylinders of
such shapes as to form an elegant base for a table-lamp on more or less
conventional lines would be easy to make. They would be perfectly safe to
handle. If accidentally or wilfully upset, no harm would arise.
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