A float chamber is a device for automatically regulating the supply of a liquid to a system. It is most typically found in the carburettor of a normally aspirated internal combustion engine, where it automatically meters the fuel supply to the engine. However, this arrangement is found in many automatic liquid systems, for example the cistern of a toilet could be said to be a type of float chamber.
A float chamber works by allowing liquid within the chamber to lift a float which is linked to a valve which regulates the liquid intake. When the level is low, the float drops and opens the valve, allowing in liquid until the float rises sufficiently to close off the valve again. This is identical in principle to the ballcock valve.
One drawback of the basic type of float chamber described is that it only operates correctly when it is the right way up, so more sophisticated solutions are needed in aircraft.
Famous quotes containing the words float and/or chamber:
“There are ... intangible realities which float near us, formless and without words; realities which no one has thought out, and which are excluded for lack of interpreters.”
—Natalie Clifford Barney (1876–1972)
“The fate of the country does not depend on how you vote at the polls,—the worst man is as strong as the best at that game; it does not depend on what kind of paper you drop into the ballot- box once a year, but on what kind of a man you drop from your chamber into the street every morning.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)