Page:The Liquefaction of Gases.djvu/40

36 to each other. These junctions bore a pressure of thirty, forty, and fifty atmospheres, with only one failure, in above one hundred instances; and that produced no complete separation of parts, but simply a small leak.

The caps, stop-cocks, and connectors, screwed one into the other, having one common screw thread, so as to be combined in any necessary manner. There were also screw plugs, some solid, with a male screw to close the openings or ends of caps, &c., others with a female screw to cover and close the ends of stop-cocks. All these screw joints were made tight by leaden washers; and by having these of different thickness, equal to from th to th of the distance between one turn of the screw thread and the next, it was easy at once to select the washer which should allow a sufficient compression in screwing up to make all air-tight, and also bring every part of the apparatus into its right position.

I have often put a pressure of fifty atmospheres into these tubes, and have had no accident or failure (except the one mentioned). With the assistance of Mr. I have tried their strength by a hydrostatic press, and obtained the following results:—A tube having an external diameter of 0.24 of an inch and a thickness of 0.0175 of an inch, burst with a pressure of sixty-seven atmospheres, reckoning one atmosphere as 15 lb. on the square inch. A tube which had been used, of the shape of fig. 1, its external diameter being 0.225 of an inch, and its thickness about 0.03 of an inch, sustained a pressure of 118 atmospheres without breaking, or any failure of the caps or cement, and was then removed for further use.

A tube such as I have employed for generating gases under pressure, having an external diameter of 0.6 of an inch, and a thickness of 0.035 of an inch, burst at twenty-five atmospheres.