Art. V. Explosive Gas Generated Within the Hot Water 

 Pipes of House Heating Apparatus. — By A. H. 

 MacKay, B. a., B. Sc, LL. D., F. R S. C. 



(Read iUst Nov., 1S92). 



I have in the glass jars before you a few liters of gas collected 

 from the highest radiator of the hot water system warming my 

 house. The furnace is an upright one with the water heated be- 

 tween its double walls, large enough to heat a house of eight or 

 nine ordinary rooms during our winters. Anthracite coal is 

 generally used for fuel. In two other neighboring houses I have 

 found the same gas produced under the same circumstances, in 

 one case the heater being of a different pattern and by a differ- 

 ent maker, but heating the water in the same manner, by circu- 

 lation around the heated interior metal walls of the furnace. I 

 have not made a general investigation of hot water systems, so 

 that my experience is limited by the three cases which I have 

 found so similar, which suggests the question, are all water heat- 

 ing furnaces producers of similar gas ? 



Owing to some peculiarity in the manner in which the 

 highest radiators were set in these cases, the gas pi^oduced 

 was there collected until it interfered with the circulation 

 of the hot water, when the gas used to be liberated by turning a 

 small tap in the radiatoi' and the circulation of the water was 

 restored. Some of this gas being collected without the admix- 

 ture of air was ffred, and liurned like hydrogen without ex- 

 plosion. A match was then applied to the tap from which the 

 gas was being set free. A roaring jet of blue flame was instantly 

 projected to a very considerable distance and continued burning 

 until it was followed by the water after the exhaustion of the 

 gas. The gas when escaping unburned had a peculiar odor sug- 

 gesting ii hydrocarbon compound, which you can test from the 

 samples enclosed in the bottles before you. 



The gas was observed to accumulate more rapidly, interfering 



(374) 



