Gasholder: Water-Sealed Zinc Gasometer with Balance Weights (Ramsay & Travers, 1898)

The laboratory gasometer Ramsay and Travers used to store argon: a zinc bell that rises and falls in a narrow ring of water between two fixed zinc cylinders. Because the water space is only about 2 cm wide, little gas dissolves in it. Weights on cords over pulleys balance the bell, and weights laid on top push the gas out. Result: a water-sealed gasholder of 18 to 180 litres. Source: M. W. Travers, The Experimental Study of Gases (1901), pp. 30 and 105-106. Unknown: sizes and how the zinc is joined. Picture: Fig. 34, the small mercury form of the same design.