OAS REGtTLATORS. ] 



UNDULATORY FORCES. LIGHT. 



131 



may be overcome by using instruments which are called 

 governors or regulators. In some small towns, the only 

 means that are adopted for regulating the pressure of 

 gas, is that of taking off or putting on the weights of the 

 gasometer. But as this is a very inconvenient, and at 

 the same time ineffective mode of regulating the suppty 

 of gas, it is usual, in all large manufactories, to employ 

 a governor at the works themselves. This is a small 

 gasometer, working very easily and truly in a tank or 

 cistern of water. It is furnished with two pipes one 

 for the inlet of the gas, and the other for the outlet. The 

 formei is situated in the centre of the apparatus ; and 

 it is provided with a conical or parabolic valve. This 

 consists of a conical or parabolic cavity or socket, in 

 which a solid plug of the same form fits very accurately. 

 The plug is attached to the top of the gasometer, and 

 the inlet-pipe, containing the socket, is fixed to the 

 bottom of the instrument : consequently, as the gas- 

 holder rises and falls, it carries the plug with it, and so 

 opens and shuts the conical valve ; by which means the 

 supply of gas is regulated. Any amount of pressure 

 short of that at wliich the gas is received into the appa- 

 ratus, may be communicated to the delivery-pipe by 

 means of weights that are put upon the top of the gas- 

 holder ; and, as the governor is always placed between 

 the large gasometer at the works, and the pipes con- 

 stituting the street mains, the pressure of the gas in the 

 : is regulated in a tolerably effective manner. It 

 would be very effective, indeed, if it were not that there 

 is a n.pid taking-off of pressure from the gas in the mains 

 by the turning-on of the consumers' lights. This causes 

 such a sudden and enormous abstraction of gas from the 

 main*, that the pressure immediately falls. For example: 

 In the early part of the evening, just before the lights 

 of the neighbouring shops are turned on, the gas in the 

 mains lias a pressure of from one inch to one inch ami 

 a-half of water ; but as soon as the supply is opened to 

 the several burners of the locality, the pressure imme- 

 diately drops to less than half an inch of water ; and 

 then again, when the lights are in great part turned off, 

 the pressure quickly rises. This occasions much incon- 

 venience to those who are burning gas in an economical 

 manner ; for it demands constant attention to keep the 

 flame at its proper level. To remedy this, a smaller 

 kind of governor is often used by the consumer himself. 

 There are various forms of this instrument, but they are 

 nearly always constructed on the same principle as the 



large one. They contain a 

 valvular aperture, which 

 opens or shuts according 

 to the supply of the burn- 

 ers. This is effected either 

 by the plug and socket 

 already described, or by 

 means of a disc which rises 

 and falls over a small aper- 

 ture. The first mode of 

 constructing the governor 

 was patented by Mr. Clegg, 

 as long ago as the year 1815, 

 and it constitutes the prin- 

 ciple of most of the wet 

 governors of the present 

 time. Of these, one of the 

 simplest in its construction 

 is that manufactured by 

 Mr. Glover. It is repre- 

 sented in Fig. 134. / Is 

 the connection by which it 

 is fixed to the meter, ami 

 the gas passes through 

 the pipe g into the gaso- 

 meter d. At the top of 

 the pipe g, there is a conical valve , h, the plug of 

 which is fixed to the top of the little gasometer d ; 

 and, consequently, as the gas enters the latter and lifts 

 it out of the water in which it floats, the valve is closed. 

 J> <y is a rod fixed to the top of the gasometer, and pro- 

 jecting beyond the cover of the instrument ; it serves 



Fig. 135. 



for holding weights, r r, which press down the gaso- 

 meter, and communicate any amount of pressure that 

 may be required. The gas escapes from d, through the 

 outlet pipe I water is poured into the apparatus through 

 the funnel a, and it is kept at a proper level by the 

 tube and plug n, while the gauge m enables the observer 

 to note at what height the level of the water stands. 

 Lastly, there is a plug at 6 to draw off any water which 

 may happen to pass over or condense in the outlet 

 pipe I. When the gas enters the chamber d, it lifts 

 the gasometer, and with it the plug h, so that the 

 aperture i is then closed. Directly the gas is let out 

 from the chamber to the burners by the delivery tube I, 

 the weights r r on the rod p immediately depress the 

 gasometer, and then the valve is again opened for the 

 entry of more gas ; and thus, according to the weights 

 at r r, and the supply to the burners, will the gaso- 

 meter be rising or falling, and so will keep up a uniform 

 supply and pressure. 



In the governor which has been constructed by Mr. 

 King of Liverpool, the gasometer is made rather heavy, 

 and it is suspended to 

 one arm of a very nicely 

 moving beam, like that 

 of a pair of scales, while 

 weights are attached to 

 the other arm so as to 

 regulate the degree of 

 pressure. 



In Mutrel's gover- 

 nor the beam is within 

 the body of the instru- 

 ment (Fig. 135), and the 

 gasometer floats in an 

 exterior vessel or cham- 

 ber of water, while the pressure is regulated by a weight 

 a, which slides backwards and forwards on an external 

 beam. 



The American regulator, invented by Dr. Kidders, is 

 constructed on the same principle, though the gasometer 

 floats in quicksilver instead of water, and the valve is 

 discoid in lieu of being conical. 



The governor which is patented by Messrs. Hulett 

 and Paddon contains the beam within a horizontal tube, 

 and the weight floats upon the surface of quicksilver, so 

 that the pressure of the gas may be made to regulate 

 itself. This instrument is shown in Fig. 136. It will be 



!,. 136. 



seen, that when the gas from the main enters the cham- 

 ber A, it will, by its pressure, force down the surface of 

 the quicksilver at D, and this will cause the plug or 

 weight, C to fall, and consequently the valve B, at the 

 other end of the beam, to rise, and so to close the aper- 

 ture which transmits the gas to the burners. There are 

 caps at F and G, to be n-Minvr I wlirn the counterpoise is 

 to be regulated to any other pressure. 



Mr. Poole has taken out a patent for the use of a suc- 

 cession of small governors, in order that the supply may 

 be still better regulated ; and Mr. Platow has constructed 

 a dry governor, which works without any fluid at all. 

 Lastly, Mr. Biddel has contrived a burner which regu- 

 lates itself. It consists of an ordinary Argand, with a 

 compound bar of brass and iron. The bar is formed of 

 a brass tube with a central rod of iron ; the latter is at- 

 tached to the top of the former, and plays freely within 

 it. When the burner is lighted, the bur stands up in 



