gasometer

Noun

gasometer (plural gasometers)

1. (historical) An apparatus used to store or measure gas or the flow of gas, particularly in a laboratory setting.
   • I take a mercury bottle and then an old gun barrel, draw the breech end to a convenient size to cut a thread on it so as to make a tight joint; then take a lead tube and connect one end to the muzzle of the gun barrel and the other end to the gasometer.1847, editorial staff, “Simple Method of Making Oxygen Gas”, in Scientific American, series 1, Volume 3, Issue 10, page 80
   • The collected air was metered through a gasometer, and the composition of every gas sample was analyzed in duplicate […]2012, Holger Ursin, Psychobiology of Stress: A Study of Coping Men, →ISBN, page 85
2. A large tank or reservoir for storing gas; a gasholder.
   • The attack on the gasworks was probably the most risky, as none of the rebels had any idea of just what kind of blast an exploding gasometer might produce […]1977, Alistair Horne, A Savage War of Peace, New York Review Books, published 2006, page 93