Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 57.djvu/192

182 permit the gas to blow through without being properly consumed. Below the normal the flame decreases; above, the light is increased somewhat, but not by any means in proportion to the increase in the gas flow. Thus we see that the satisfactory employment of gas as an illuminant depends upon the maintenance of a pressure high enough to deliver the required amount of gas, but not so high as to cause wasteful consumption.

Turning back now to the gas main, let us consider the pressures



actually existing. Exhibit 1 is a photograph of a twenty-four-hour record of pressure at a point not far from the works. The radial lines represent time, and there is a line for each quarter of an hour. The circles represent pressure, there being one circle for each tenth of an inch. Starting at E, the point at which the record begins, and following the irregular line clockwise, one may readily determine the fluctuations of pressure and the time of their occurrence. Interpreting the diagram, we find that the pressure was slightly above the normal until 4.30 (A), when the works began to raise