Jump to content
 

What would these acid tanks be used for in 1962 at Reading General station


Rail-Online

Recommended Posts

Hi,

 

Once again an interesting corner of a Neg.  The Cordon is interesting enough for 1962 - must have been smployed for filling up Catering vehicles which which still had gas powered ovens, but the acid containers in their wicker holders I find very interesting. I have seen these before in pics of goods sheds but never on a passenger platform. Does anyone know what they might have been there for?  Were they called Carboys or something similar?

 

Cheers Tony

post-4594-0-49198400-1467281025_thumb.jpg

Link to post
Share on other sites

Carboys, or more correctly Demijohns, (those bottles in baskets) were used for far more than just acids. It was a standard way of transporting any liquid chemical in glass. The wicker basket protected the glass from colliding against other Demijohns. They were used for acids, but were even used for distilled and deionised water. In the 60's and even later the quality of plastic was very poor and many chemicals tended to leach out of them into the liquid it contained. The range of plastics was also limited and many plastics were attacked by many chemicals. As they were protected by the wickerwork they could be returned 'empty' to be refilled. I had a summer job working for BDH in Poole in the late 60's and we were still using them. I believe they have been replaced by the better range of plastics available these days.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Carboys, or more correctly Demijohns, (those bottles in baskets) were used for far more than just acids. It was a standard way of transporting any liquid chemical in glass. The wicker basket protected the glass from colliding against other Demijohns. They were used for acids, but were even used for distilled and deionised water. In the 60's and even later the quality of plastic was very poor and many chemicals tended to leach out of them into the liquid it contained. The range of plastics was also limited and many plastics were attacked by many chemicals. As they were protected by the wickerwork they could be returned 'empty' to be refilled. I had a summer job working for BDH in Poole in the late 60's and we were still using them. I believe they have been replaced by the better range of plastics available these days.

Presumably, they've now been superseded by those plastic containers that have a galvanised steel mesh 'exoskeleton' around them, often to be seen used being reused as water containers on allotments.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Presumably, they've now been superseded by those plastic containers that have a galvanised steel mesh 'exoskeleton' around them, often to be seen used being reused as water containers on allotments.

For your edification, they are called IBC s. Intermediate bulk containers. Mostly they hold 1,000 litres.

Link to post
Share on other sites

 

For your edification, they are called IBC s. Intermediate bulk containers. Mostly they hold 1,000 litres.

 

An IBC containing 1000 litres is considerably bigger than anything we are talking about here.

 

I was able to lift one of those full 'carboys', probably about 20L, and pour its contents into a vat. I would like to be able to lift 1000L but somehow I think I might not quite make it.

Link to post
Share on other sites

We still have some of those containers on the farm in France; known as 'bon-bons', they hold about 20l each, and a brace would constitute the morning's wine consumption for our team of about 25. These days, the grape-pickers are a bit more 'picky', so we put the same wine into bottles..

Link to post
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...