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Gas Makers
hi! I'm not sure what the title should be or even if this question is science, but here goes. Well over 50years ago I was on a double decker bus with my mum and saw the tall towers at the gas works (the brick tube things with a waist). I notice one was a little shorter than the other and asked my mum why. She says they moved up and down, depending on the amount of gas inside them. I thought she was kidding me on, a big brick thing being able to move up and down, but after I thought on it I decided I believed her as she never said afterwards that it was a joke and after all these years I would really like to know what the chimney things are called and was my mum telling me the truth about them. The old gas works has closed down now else I think I may have gone and knocked on the door out of the pure frustration of not knowing how to find out! Thank you. Sue.
Answers
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Yep, you're thinking of cooling towers, which have loads of steam coming out of the top, but if you ever stand close to one, its like a waterfall inside as they condense the steam back to water. Gasometers do go up and down (though they are not so common now) and here is a video to prove it!
13:41 Wed 24th Apr 2013
Are these the things you mean?
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Egg-cup shaped towers, such as can be seen today at Didcot power station, are cooling towers, and they do not move. They throw away heat which we really should recycle, though. Gasholders used to be visible everywhere in towns and cities, and they did rise and fall. They were huge circular metal structires, with slantwise ladders on the outside. They were often green, I'm not sure why. Always situated close to the power stations, which in the bad old days were powered by coal. Hence the appalling smogs of the 1950s.
//was kidding me on, a big brick thing being able to//
They were never brick. They were called gasometers but of course they didn't measure the volume of gas which incidently was coal gas , not natural gas. I don't know if natural gas was ever stored that way . Much of it arrives in this country in liquid form and is stored under high pressure'and low temperature.
They were never brick. They were called gasometers but of course they didn't measure the volume of gas which incidently was coal gas , not natural gas. I don't know if natural gas was ever stored that way . Much of it arrives in this country in liquid form and is stored under high pressure'and low temperature.
Gasholders do handle natural gas. There are three in a group near me. They are of the "telescopic" type (which move up and down as described). There is another type - the "piston" type - which consist of a fixed cylinder with a piston inside which moves up and down to maintain constant pressure. From the outside gasholders of this type appear to remain static. There is a good example of this type just south of Grosvenor Bridge in London where the railway from Victoria splits into the Kent and Surrey/Sussex lines.
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