OXY-ETHER AND HYDRO-CARBON LIGHTS 93 



partitions reaching from the bottom to the top, and in plan 

 arranged as in fig. 54. This being partially filled with ether, 

 the space above the fluid left a long sinuous course for the 

 gas to traverse, which gave full saturation. 



With this tank the oxy-ether light is certain and safe 

 under skilled management. But it appears to possess special 

 dangers of its own, and the few oxy-hydrogen explosions which 

 have happened during late years have been with this form of 

 light. Not one has been directly fatal ; but in the panic after 

 one at Chadderton, a poor child was trampled to death. In 

 that case I am convinced that, by some carelessness, ether had 

 been allowed to trickle down the connecting tube to the oxy- 

 gen-bag itself, thus converting the oxygen into an explosive 

 mixture. This accident produced two extra precautions in the 

 apparatus used. 



51. Safety Chambers. One of these was the pumice 

 safety-valve or chamber of Mr. Broughton, which is the only 

 real safety- chamber I am acquainted with. It is made by 

 filling a brass tube about half an inch in diameter, and say 

 three-quarters of an inch in clear length, with pumice-stone 

 granulated into particles of a certain size. This is best pre- 

 pared by passing pounded pumice through a double sieve of 

 wire gauze, using gauze No. 40 and No. 50. The coarser 

 particles are stopped by the top sieve, and those too fine go 

 through the lower ; the particles remaining between are the 

 proper size. The pumice is kept in place by a piece of wire 

 gauze each end of the chamber, resting on shoulders or flanges ; 

 and the chamber should be made so as to take to pieces easily 

 for refilling, and, if used with rubber tube, with nozzles over 

 which this can be stretched. 



No ordinary explosion can pass 

 whilst in order. Eigid experiments^ 

 have determined this. But if a vi| 

 small explosion) should take place i] 

 be stopped by it, the latter may be partially p'ulfei^d an( 



