Calcium carbide, a greyish solid, mixed with water, produces acetylene gas. Generating the gas onsite was the only practical method, because acetylene becomes very unstable above 15 PSI. After it was discovered that acetylene can be dissolved into acetone, it became practical to ship and store acetylene at higher pressures. If any of you are gas welders, you will notice the red-line on the pressure gauge after 15PSI. I'm still looking for a good explanation of what happens at the atomic level why acetylene is more stable when it's dissolved; in a full tank you have C2H2 at nearly 300 PSI, which is more than 10x higher than it's safe-handling pressure w/o acetone.
On Wednesday, August 19, 2020 at 1:26:24 PM UTC-7 H. Carl Ott wrote: > Silicon carbide ? Or calcium carbide? > > I still have a blue can of it around from 30 years ago when they sold it > as camping supplies. > > > carl > -------------------------------------------------------- > Henry Carl Ott N2RVQ hcar...@gmail.com > > > On Wed, Aug 19, 2020 at 4:10 PM GastonP <ghpi...@gmail.com> wrote: > >> It looks like that, and the tubes are the gas generators. The port for >> loading the silicon carbide could be on the opposite side, and the water >> was to be loaded through the bronze pipes with copper-color stoppers. >> >> On Tuesday, August 18, 2020 at 1:29:32 PM UTC-3 Tony Adams wrote: >> >>> Acetylene lighthouse lamp?. >>> >>> On Tue, 18 Aug 2020 17:18:17 +0100, you wrote: >>> >>> >I know many of you like the steampunk look and so might forgive the >>> >off-topic picture. >>> > >>> >This item was in use every day between 1914 and 1988. Can you guess >>> what >>> >it is? I bet some clever clogs here knows. >>> > >>> >John S >>> >> -- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> "neonixie-l" group. >> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an >> email to neonixie-l+...@googlegroups.com. >> To view this discussion on the web, visit >> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/neonixie-l/11d8d969-d869-481c-8b91-b8f417f2db52n%40googlegroups.com >> >> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/neonixie-l/11d8d969-d869-481c-8b91-b8f417f2db52n%40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> >> . >> > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "neonixie-l" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to neonixie-l+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/neonixie-l/dc79b434-6090-4bac-af7b-83abf8f95d74n%40googlegroups.com.
