Gas Makers

[sumar]

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.

[tonyav]

Gasometers, If I remember correctly.

[chrisgel]

Are these the things you mean?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gas_holder

[atalanta]

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.

[sddsddean]

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!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-qSHvkYF5k

[woofgang]

my chem teacher always used to correct us when we said "gasometers" She said they were "gas holders" because while the amount of gas in them was measured, they didn't do the measuring.

[Svejk]

Absolutely %100 they did move up & down.
Hard to believe with such massive structures, I know.
That old saying 'mother knows best' comes to mind. :)

[Old_Geezer]

Don't tell my retired mate they are gasometers, he gets rather irate. They are gas holders IIRC. He insists they don't meter anything.

[woofgang]

OG, is your mate my chem teacher lol

[Old_Geezer]

He used to be a chemist, before he changed career into programming, but no, not a teacher (to the best of my knowledge).

[Peter Pedant]

woof and old geezer they (he) had a point

but we were taught that gasometers were different to gas-meters
which DID measure the volume of gas. - things that creaked and you put a shilling into.

kilometers dont measure kilos either.

[chrisgel]

We used gasometers when I worked at a gas meter manufacturer. They were used to calibrate the meters. They are similar in shape and structure to a gasholder but obviously a lot smaller (around 5 to 6 feet high).

[modeller]

//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.

[Zacs-Master]

I think there may he some confusion between cooling towers and gasometers (as we used to call them) here.

[New Judge]

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.

[ludwig]

There's one near where I live that's been on it's lowest level for as long as I can remember. It's clearly capable of going higher, but it's never budged from ground floor position.

[sumar]

thank you all so very much! All answers were brilliant and I now know a lot more about them and I know my mum wasn't 'having me on'. thank you!