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Book, page 231 / 445 having been dealt with in the preceding pages, the present chapter will be devoted to a brief account of those items in the plant which lie between the purifier outlet and the actual burner, including the meter, governor, and pressure gauge; the proper sizes of pipe for acetylene; methods of laying it, joint-making, quality of fittings, &c.; while finally a few words will be said about the precautions necessary when bringing a new system of pipes into use for the first time. THE METER.--A meter is required either to control the working of a complete acetylene installation or to measure the volume of gas passing through one particular pipe, as when a number of consumers are supplied through separate services under agreement from a central supply plant. The control which may be afforded by the inclusion of a meter in the equipment of a domestic acetylene generating plant is valuable, but in practice will seldom be exercised. The meter records check the yield of gas from the carbide consumed in a simple and trustworthy manner, and also serve to indicate when the material in the purifier is likely to be approaching exhaustion. The meter may also be used experimentally to check the soundness of the service-pipes or the consumption of a particular burner or group of burners. Altogether it may be regarded as a useful adjunct to a domestic lighting plant, provided full advantage is taken of it. If, however, there is no intention to pay systematic attention to the records of the meter, it is best to omit it from such an installation, and so save its initial cost and the slight loss of pressure which its use involves on the gas passing through it. A domestic acetylene lighting plant can be managed quite satisfactorily without a meter, and as a multiplication of parts is undesirable in an apparatus which will usually be tended by someone not versed in technical operations, it is on the whole better to omit the meter in such an installation. Where the plant is supervised by a technical man, a meter may advisedly be included in the equipment. Its proper position in the train of apparatus is immediately after the purifier. A meter must not be used for unpurified or imperfectly purified acetylene, because the impurities attack the internal metallic parts and ultimately destroy them. The supply of acetylene to various consumers from a central generating station entails the fixing of a meter on each consumer's service-pipe, so that the quantity consumed by each may be charged for accordingly, just as in the case of public coal-gas supplies. There are two types of gas-meter in common use, either of which may,
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