The Mt. Sterling advocate. (Mt. Sterling, Ky.) 1890-current, 1895-06-18

Dlue VI celcium ~ very new indeed
and its industrial possibilities Ara
newer still, inasmuch as only tho
most direct and obvious of these a.
velopements have as yet been so muolR
as limited at.
Take It that the material can be-
produced by the ton, and It is impos.
sible to surmise what chemical indus.
try will be able in the fullness of time
to make of it. The product of fusino
together, in an electrical furnace, such
common materials as lime and carbon
In any suitable form was exhibited bv 4
Professor Lewes in lecture recently
delivered in London as greenish-
gray, stone-like substance greatly re-
sembling the commonest description
of serpentine rock, When kept in the
air, light coating of lime soon forms
on its surface. Upon handling it
faint, unpleasant ordor, suggestive OF
garlic, and also not altogether unlike
the familiar reek that emanates from
the iron work of an old gas purifyer.
manifests itself. 10 all appearance, it
is dull, inert stone, devoid of aAy
other properties than those Of common
road metal. and not mere likely toWe
credited by the casual observer with
gas-yielding capabilities. Upon a
piece of this material Professor Lewes
sprinkled few drops of water from
wash bottle and put lighted taper
to it. The nascent gas--acetylene--
Immediately igmted with more than
the brilliancy of the pitchy fame OF
highly bituminous coal in an open lire
and continued to burn titfully over
the wetted surface until all the water ,
was gone. Then came the display Of
the same gas evolved in jar (stand-
ing upon the lecture table, which con-
tanned pieces of the carbide in water(
and stored in making shift glass holHN2
ere. 1t was dramatic denouement
of Professor Lewes's little plot when
he applied light first to single open
flat-aame burner, and then to group
of similar burners, and people saw for
the first time in a public place the in
tensely brilliant, white aud sou.
looking fame of burning pure aokty-
lene.
1t is indeed fame TO wonder at.
Nothing like il ever before came
within the ken of gas manager or
dazzled the vision of a photometrist. 1
There is something startling in the
suggestion that gas of two hundred
and forty candle power-calculated,
in accordance with photometrical
practice, upon the basis of a consump--
ton OF five cubic feet per hour-can
be burnt by means of an open fiat
flame burner. When the carbide off,
calcium first came into Professor
Lewes's possession this had not in1
fact, been done, and, in order TO get
a flame of acetylene at all, the Ameri-
handlers OF the gas had fallen back
upon the brutal device of diluting IL
with certain proportion of air. This
was to repeat the crude American,
way of rendering naptha gas usSele. 4
But the diluion of acetylere with; air J
is even more objectionable than is the
same treatment in regard 10 naptha Y
gas, inasmuch as it is more easily con-
vefted into violent explosive mix d
ture. Professor Lewes, in succeeding
In burning acetylene in the pure state
in which it comes from the mixture
of calcium carbide and water, has
saved its prospects as an illuminant.
He showed those wonderful acetylepal.
gas flames already mentioned, eaths
produced by burning the gas as ma&s..
in the simple way described, without
any adventurous mechanical or chem-S'
ical aid, after the rate of half cubic
foot per hour, and stated to yield ~
measured illuminating power of
twenty-five candles. This could east
ly be credited. But what it is more
difficult to cnnvey in mere words is
the impression of steadfastness,
whiteness, and, SO to speak. solklity
which the flames in question made on
the observer. AT little distanceS no
non-luminous zone could be perceived
but, on close inspection, tiny speck
of blue over the top of the burner was
visible. No smoke or smell escaped
from these flames, which, aithough.ex- !
in their colors the evidence
of intensely active combustion, were
found to be much cooler than oil gas