Gasogene

The gasogene (or gazogene or seltzogene) is a late Victorian device for producing carbonated water. It consists of two linked glass globes: the lower contained water or other drink to be made sparkling, the upper a mixture of tartaric acid and sodium bicarbonate that reacts to produce carbon dioxide. The produced gas pushes the liquid in the lower container up a tube and out of the device. The globes are surrounded by a wicker or wire protective mesh, as they have a tendency to explode.[1]

This article is about the device for producing carbonated water. For other uses, see Gasogene (disambiguation).
Late Victorian seltzogene made by British Syphon

The earliest occurrence of the word noted in the Oxford English Dictionary dates from 1853, quoting a reference in Practical Mechanic's Journal on "Gaillard and Dubois' 'Gazogene' or Aerated Water apparatus".[2]

A gasogene is mentioned as a residential fixture at 221B Baker Street in Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes story "A Scandal in Bohemia": "With hardly a word spoken, but with a kindly eye, he waved me to an armchair, threw across his case of cigars, and indicated a spirit case and a gasogene in the corner." One is also mentioned in "The Adventure of the Mazarin Stone". The device plays a key role in Bernard Shaw's 1905 comic play Passion, Poison, and Petrifaction, Or The Fatal Gazogene.[3]

The word is also used in Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child's novel Brimstone, published in 2005, on page 106,[4] and in their 2010 novel Fever Dream on page 362.[5]

A gasogene is mentioned, on page 13, as being in the forensic laboratory of Dr. Kingsley, consultant forensic examiner of Scotland Yard in the 2012 fiction book The Yard.[6]

See also

Notes
  1. Mixing it up: A Look at the Evolution of the Siphon-Bottle
  2. "gazogene", Oxford English Dictionary (subscription required).
  3. Shaw, pp. 1113–19
  4. Preston, Douglas; Child, Lincoln (2005). Brimstone. New York: Warner Vision Books. p. 106. ISBN 9780446612753.
  5. Preston, Douglas; Child, Lincoln (2010). Fever Dream (1st ed.). New York: Grand Central Pub. p. 362. ISBN 978-0-446-55496-1. OCLC 455421005.
  6. Grecian, Alex (2012). The Yard. St. Ives, UK: Penguin Books. ISBN 9780241958919.

References
  • Shaw, Bernard (1934). The Complete Plays of Bernard Shaw. London: Odhams. OCLC 2606804.


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