Great Falls weekly tribune., 1895-08-02
more FACTS ABOUT ETYLENE
The Scientific World Is Still Learn.
inc More About the New Illu-
minating Agent.
The Discovery Is Likely to Prove OF
Practical Value and Be uti-
lZed Here.

The fact concerning the discovery OF
the new gas or illuminating agent called
acetyline. as published in The TRIBUNE
some weeks ago, has caused good deal
Of interest in this vicinity, as Great
Falls possesses in rare abundance the
necessary materials for its manufacture,
viz: limestone, coal and electricity, and
as its practicability and apparent utility
and economy become settled more and
more as time passes and experiments
are made. Some gentlemen are taking
the matter up with a view to testing IN
practical way the feasibility Of manu-
featuring the carbide of calcium, from
which the gas is obtained, in this city.
| i may only be a matter of a short time
till the rancher will be able to enjoy the
comforts and luxury now only obtained
in a large city and be as well provided
with light as though he had an electric
light system at his door. The last Cos
mopolitan has this additional informa-
ton about the new gas from the pen OF
Prof. S. +. TiIlman, u. S. M. A., who
. furnished the original article in the
June number:
Both III this country and abroad tests
have been made as to its light and heat
giving power, as to the amount of oxy
gen required for combustion, and as to
the products OF conlbustion When
burned with the proper amount OF air to
produce the greatest luminosity, acety-
lene Yields from ten to twelve times ae
much light as is given by an equal vol
ume of good coal gas burned in com
mon Argand burner; the disparity be
tween the light effects it still greater
when the coal gas is burned in the ordl
nary tish-tail burners. The lighting
value of acetylene is about four and one
half times that OF good coal gas wher
consumed in the new Welsbach burner
The temperature of the acetylene
flame is less than that OF the common
gas flame and the heating effects are
much less. For equal light acetylent
produces about four-t -tifths as much car
bonic acid as does the Welsbach gas
burner and only little over one-sixth az
much aqueous vapor. With the ordi
nary gas-burners these Objectionable
waste products are much greater thar
with the Welsbach, for the consumption
Of gas for equal light is much greater
For equal .ichtirg effect acetylene re
qures less tnan one nalf as much air a
is consumed by the Welsbach burne
and the proportion ia very much less a
compared with the common gas-burn
ers.
Acetylene can be liquefied by com
paratively moderate pressure. 1t can b
kept in the liquid form and easily con
verted into gas by reducing the pressur
and is then ready for combustion. o.
account of the great saving of space,it is
probably, in this liquid form that it wi
find most convenient application in man
cases of isolated lighting, such as buoyI
lighthouses, and perhaps in privat
dwellings,. In this form it will be es
pecially convenient for use in enrichin
common coal-gas, and this will YER
probably be one of it's most immediat
applications.
Acetylene light is pure white and
therefore shows more truly the naturi
colors of objects. 1t is now thought thf
calcium carbide will be eventually pre-
duced at a cost not exceeding five do
lars per ton. If this expectation t
realized, acetylene will certainly prov
the ideal illuminating gas, il not tn
ideal illuminant.
r It is interesting to recall the fact tht
the developments in electricity hay
made the commercial production OF ac
tylene practicable, and that the tv
agents will now be competitors in II
field of illumination.