Mark, You'd be the best to answer this, wasn't calcium carbide a byproduct of something else, and used to produce commercial acetylene gas quantities? What is the current practice to get the gas? john Lyles -----Original message----- From: Mark Minton mmin...@caver.net List-Post: texascavers@texascavers.com Date: Thu, 23 Aug 2012 18:24:01 -0600 To: Texascavers@texascavers.com Subject: Re: [SWR] [Texascavers] Cave articles in Spiegel (German weekly)
> There are now a significant number of > > caves in the U. S. where carbide lamps are no > > longer allowed for environmental reasons (soot, > > spent carbide). Yes, carbide light is warmer, > > but with modern LED lights with both local spread > > and distant throw focusing, seeing the floor in > > the vicinity of your feet (tripping hazard) is > > not an issue. High-power LEDs also produce a > > surprising amount of heat, so they could > > theoretically be used as a heat source, albeit > > not as effective as carbide. In any event, > > carbide lighting is an anachronism that will soon > > disappear altogether. Are there still any > > significant commercial uses for carbide? > > Mark _______________________________________________ SWR mailing list s...@caver.net http://lists.caver.net/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/swr _______________________________________________ This list is provided free as a courtesy of CAVERNET
