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When it is dropped into water, the bakelite disc is broken by impact with the water; the stopper falls away and the marker rises to float on the surface. Water enters the central hole in the nose, and after passing through the gauae thimble, some of it soaks through the flannel washer, passes through the small hole in the valve body, and enters the brass tube after soaking through the flannel washer in the tube. The remainder of the water passes through the waterinlet tube, perĀ¬colates through the open-mesh metallic cylinder and its flannel sheath, and enters the body of the marker. The brass cap prevents water from passing through the sheath and corning into direct contact with the calcium phosphide. The water which enters through the nose reacts with the magnesium-aluminum phosphide and gives off pure phosphine, which is not spontaneously inflammable. Some water, however, passes down the main outlet tube while the marker is submerged, and this water reacts with the calcium phosphide to produce a phosphine which, in contact with the air, is spontaneously inflammable. The supply of spontaneously inflammable gas lasts only about three minutes, and the flame is thereafter maintained by the phosphine envolved from the magnesium-aluminum phosphide mixing with the gaseous oxides of nitrogen given off by the interaction of the potassium bisulphate and the sodium nitrite, which are dissolved by some of the water which enters through the nose.
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