Vivian Byam Lewes

“ Heated in contact with air to a temperature of 480° C., acetylene ignites and burns with a flame, the appearance of which varies with the way in which it is brought in contact with the air. With the gas in excess a heavy lurid flame emitting dense volumes of smoke results, whilst if it be driven out in a sufficiently thin sheet, it burns with a flame of intense brilliancy and almost perfect whiteness, by the light of which colours can be judged as well as they can by daylight. ”

“ In the tapping process a fixed crucible is used, lined with carbon, the electrode is nearly as big as the crucible and a much higher current density is used. The carbide is heated to complete liquefaction and tapped at short intervals. There is no unreduced material, and the process is considerably simplified, while less expensive plant is required. The run carbide, however, is never so rich as the ingot carbide, since an excess of lime is nearly always used in the mixture to act as a flux, and this remaining in the carbide lowers its gas-yielding power. ”

“ Very small differences in density and in chemical purity make, however, immense differences in electric resistivity; hence the values given by different experimentalists for the resistivity of known metals differ to a considerable extent. ”

“ The purity of the carbide entirely depends on the purity of the material used in its manufacture, and before this fact had been fully grasped by manufacturers, and only the purest material obtainable employed, it contained notable quantities of compounds which during its decomposition by water yielded a somewhat high proportion of impurities in the acetylene generated from it. ”

“ Although at the present time a marvellous improvement has taken place all round in the quality of the carbide produced, the acetylene nearly always contains minute traces of hydrogen, ammonia, sulphuretted hydrogen, phosphuretted hydrogen, silicon hydride, nitrogen and oxygen, and sometimes minute traces of carbon monoxide and dioxide. The formation of hydrogen is caused by small traces of metallic calcium occasionally found free in the carbide, and cases have been known where this was present in such quantities that the evolved gas contained nearly 20% of hydrogen. ”

“ A similar explosion will frequently follow the breaking in the same way of a cylinder charged with hydrogen at a high pressure. Continuing these experiments, they found that in acetylene gas under ordinary pressures the decomposition brought about in one portion of the gas, either by heat or the firing in it of a small detonator, did not spread far beyond the point at which the decomposition started, while if the acetylene was compressed to a pressure of more than 30 ℔ on the square inch, the decomposition travelled throughout the mass and became in reality detonation. ”

“ A. Mourlot has shown that aluminium sulphide, zinc sulphide and cadmium sulphide are the only sulphur compounds which can resist the heat of the electric furnace without decomposition or volatilization, and of these aluminium sulphide is the only one which is decomposed by water with the evolution of sulphuretted hydrogen. ”

“ ACETYLENE, klumene or ethine, a gaseous compound of carbon and hydrogen, represented by the formula C2H2. It is a colourless gas, having a density of 0·92. When prepared by the action of water upon calcium carbide, it has a very strong and penetrating odour, but when Physical properties.it is thoroughly purified from sulphuretted and phosphuretted hydrogen, which are invariably present with it in minute traces, this extremely pungent odour disappears, and the pure gas has a not unpleasant ethereal smell. ”

“ Such endothermic bodies are nearly always found to show Endothermic nature of acetylene.considerable violence in their decomposition, as the heat of formation stored up within them is then liberated as sensible heat, and it is undoubtedly this property of acetylene gas which leads to its easy detonation by either heat or a shock from an explosion of fulminating mercury when in contact with it under pressure. ”

“ The result is that although the forms of apparatus utilized for this purpose are all based on the one fundamental principle of bringing about the contact of the carbide with the water which is to enter into double decomposition with it, they have been multiplied in number to a very large extent by the methods employed in order to ensure control in working, and to get away from the dangers and inconveniences which are inseparable from a too rapid generation. ”

“ Before the commercial production of calcium carbide made it one of the most easily obtainable gases, the processes which were most Methods of production.largely adopted for its preparation in laboratories were:-first, the decomposition of ethylene bromide by dropping it slowly into a boiling solution of alcoholic potash, and purifying the evolved gas from the volatile bromethylene by washing it through a second flask containing a boiling solution of alcoholic potash, or by passing it over moderately heated soda lime ”

“ When acetylene was first introduced on a commercial scale attempts were made to utilize its great heat of combustion by using it in conjunction with oxygen in the oxy-hydrogen blowpipe. It was found, however, that when using acetylene under low pressures, the burner tip became so heated as to cause the decomposition of some Oxy-acetylene blowpipe.of the gas before combustion, the jet being choked up by the carbon which deposited in a very dense form ”

“ They, moreover, tried the effect of shock upon the liquid, and found that the repeated dropping of the cylinder from a height of nearly 20 feet upon a large steel anvil gave no explosion, but that when the cylinder was crushed under a heavy blow the impact was followed, after a short interval of time, by an explosion which was manifestly due to the fracture of the cylinder and the ignition of the escaping gas, mixed with air, from sparks caused by the breaking of the metal. ”

“ For instance, in practical working it has been found that a furnace return of 0·504 ℔ per kilowatt hour is brought down to 0·406 ℔ per kilowatt hour when the material has been broken up, sorted and packed in air-tight drums. ”