Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1902-01-16
ABOUT GAS METERS.
WHY THESE ERRATIc INSTRUMENTS
DO NOT EXPLODE.

Such an Accident Is No More Likely
to Happen to Them Than to Milk
Bottles Salt Bags-What Does
Happen In Case of Fire.
The proneness of the average news
paper reporter to attribute cellar con-
fiagrations to the explosion of gas me-
ters represents what appears to be an
ineradicable race trait No amount of
contradiction and no accumulation of
proof that such an accident is an inn
possibility seems to reach the news
gatherers. who go on reporting the ex-
ploson of gas meters, doubtless be-
cause the firemen have 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-
pie it gives us pleasure to say that no
gas meter ever exploded since the
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 a more
or less well deserved reputation for
habitual mendacity. though as likely
to lie against the gas company as for
1t; but it has never done anything to
warrant the suspicion that 1t is liable
to go off with bang 1t is 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 greater compression than, say,
half a pound per square inch. More
than this would bulge it's 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 1t becomes so only when
mixed with air in certain definite pro-
portions.
Should this admixture exist in a
meter. which is almost impossible, its
shell is not strong enough to offer any
great resistance. and should an ex-
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 it
would escape. and. if it had the chance,
burn. Outside the meter it might have
opportunity to 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
has leaked from defective pipes or
worked into the cellar from broken or
defective street mains accumulates in
pockets formed by rafters and else
where and remains there until it comes
in contact with an accidental fire
of some sort. A fire starts in the cell
lar and the temperature gradually rises
until the smoldering rubbish bursts in
to fame. This reaches the mixture OF
gas and air along the ceiling and an
explosion follows.
The meter, naturally enough, is
thrown down and probably torn from
it's connections. and the conclusion is
reached that. instead of being the vic
tim of the accident. the inoffensive me-
ter is the cause of all the trouble and
has INDUCED it's inherent propensity to
set the house afire after lifting it from
its foundations.
1t is a perfectly safe generalization
that the gas which makes trouble in
cellars is wholly outside the meter and
never inside of it. Grindstones some
times explode with fatal results in saw
factories, but the excellent old lady
who after reading of such an accident
and recalling that there was an old
grindstone in one corner of the cellar
which had been there twenty years.
hired couple of tramps to carry it to
the extreme corner of the garden and
pour water on it for an hour, mean
while giving thanks that it had not
blown herself and family into eternity
s'unbeknownst to any of u.s." was of
the type of those who. through fear of
gas meter explosions, are all their life
time subject to nervous chills,
There is not gas meter in use under
which 1t would not be perfectly safe
to build a bonfire. provided. of course.
there was not quantity of gas out
side of it which the same fire could
reach.-New York Times.