A Gasogene, You Say?

In the Sherlock Holmes story "A Scandal in Bohemia", Watson mentions that Holmes keeps "a spirit case and a gasogene in the corner.” A spirit case, otherwise known as a Tantalus frame, is a stand for decanters that allows them to be locked, so the servants can see but not taste them (like Tantalus in Greek mythology, who was doomed to eternal thirst).

A gasogene is a contraption for making fizzy water (the Victorian SodaStream, if  you will.) They came in quite a few shapes and sizes, but they all have two globes covered with a kind of netting (a big one and a smaller one), and a tap on top or in the middle. Here's what the full-sized ones look like.

   

From Bottle Books

To make my own 1:12-scale gasogene, I used plastic beads with a pearlescent finish. I enlarged the hole in one end of each and filled it with craft glue, then wrapped the bead in cheesecloth, trimmed off the excess and tucked the ends into the glue-filled hole. (The upper one looks a bit ratty, but you get the idea.)

Then I pirated a faucet from an extra dollhouse bathroom fixture and modified it slightly by trimming bits off until it looked closer to the correct shape.

After that, it was fairly easy to glue the beads and the faucet together with five little bits and pieces of jewellery findings. Now for the spirit case!