Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1901-12-09
"
GAS METERS.
WHY THESE ERRATlC INSTRUMENTS
DO NOT EXPLODE.

In
paper reporter to attribute cellar con-
f%lagrations to the explosion of gas me-
ters represents what appears to be all
ineradicable race trait. No amount Of
contradiction and nc accumulation of
proof that such an accident is an i'm
possibility seems to reach the news
gatherers, who go on reporting the ex-
plosion of gas meters. doubtless be-
cause the fremen have a tradition that
meters are explosive and give this ex-
PLANTATION of every fire which they can
not otherwise account for.
For the reinsurance of nervous peo-
ple it gives us pleasure to say that no
gas meter ever exploded since he
world began. and until they are made
on very different plans and contain
! gas of very different composition from
that now used for Illuminating pur-
poses such an accident is no more like
" to happen to them than to milk bot |
ties or salt bags.
The domestic gas meter has q more
! or less we'll deserved reputation for
| habitual m%endacity. though as likely
to lie against the gas company as for
it; but it has never done anything to
warrant the suspicion that it is liable
to go off with a bang. 1t is a tin box
of a little less than one cubic foot
| capacity, put together with soldered
seams and japanned.
Into and through it passes the gas,
which enters through the service pipe
connecting the main with the house,
usually of half an inch diameter. 1t
has very little capacity for gas storage,
and is not strong enough to carry gas
under a greater compression than, say.
half a pound per square inch. More
than this would bulge its sides. In
point of fact the pressure Of gas in
meters is rarely more than enough to
balance a column of water two or three
inches high.
If a gas meter is exposed to great
heat from external fire, nothing very
serious happens. The soldered seams
will probably melt. allowing the gas
to escape: This gas is not explosive,
however. It becomes so only when
mixed with air in certain definite pro-
portions.
Should this admixture exist in a
meter, which is almost impossible. its
she'll is not strong enough to offer any
great resistance, and should an <
plosion occur by reason Of fire reach
ing this admixture Of gas and air the
meter would be wrecked. but it Is
doubtful of any other damage would
result. None has been wrecked from
this cause.
If the seams of the meter are opened
by the melting of the solder or by frac'
ture from accident, the gas within II
would escape, and, if 1t had the chance
burn. Outside the meter it might have
opportunity t form the explosive mix
ture with air and do some damage.
What actually happens in the case
of fires attributed to the explosion OF
gas meters is usually this: Gas which
s has leaked from defective pipes OF
worked into the cellar from broken OF
defective street mains. accumulates II
pockets formed by rafters and else
where and remains there until it comes
in contact with an accidental fir
= of some sort. A fire starts in the eel
= Adc duu LuS SCuJpSldlulS SldhudAAS AAo
until the smoldering rubbish bursts in
| to fame. This reaches the mixture O.
gas and air along the ceiling and al
explosion follows.
l The meter, naturally enough, !:
thrown down and probably torn from
| it's connections, and the conclusion |:
reached that, instead of being the vic
tim of the accident, the inoffensive me
ter is the cause of all the trouble ant
has INDUCED it's inherent propensity tt
/ set the house aire after lifting it from
it's foundations.
{ 1t is a perfectly safe generalization
that the gas which makes trouble II
cellars is wholly outside the meter ant
never inside of it. Grindstones some
times explode with fatal results in say
factories, but the excellent old lad,
who, after reading of such an acciden
and recalling that there was an oil.
grindstone in one corner of the celia
which had been there twenty years
hired a couple of tramps to carry it t
the extreme corner Of the garden an
pour water on it for an hour, NEAR
while giving thanks that it had nc
blown herself and family into eternitt
"unbeknownst to any of US" was Q
the type Of those who. through fear 9
gas meter explosions. are all their lift
time subject to nervous chills.
There is not a gas meter In use unde
which it would not be perfectly SAT
to build q bonfire, provided, of cours'
there was not a quantity Of gas on
EI side of it which the same fire coul
reach.-New York Times.
So
III why Snow Is Not Hack Or Red.