The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1909-08-12
DANGERS IN AcETYLENE.

like that OF the sun. Inc delay In ltS
coming into general use is due to two
causes. At first the manufacturers
made the gas in a large generator and
shipped it to homes compressed until
it liquified in tubes five feet long by
five inches lin. diameter, four hundred
cubic feet of gas being squeezed into
Gne foot of space. This method was
abandoned because many of them, BY
jarring, were exploded, with a force.
much greater. than that Of a dynamite
bomb. Then, poorly made generators
were sold for use in farm houses and
a number of the blew up with fatal
effect. fAFt
Now there are fifty-one makes OF
acetylene generators which are safe
if properly placed and handled with
intelligent care. The value of prop
erty burned by the early accidents
with this gas was not large-indeed 1t
produced fewer Tres than funerals.
Air containing three per cent of
acetylene explodes with a force sew
eral times greater than gunpowder.
More than double that, ten per cent,
of any other gas is required to make
air explosive, but the amount of this
new gas needed to make a given light
Mas but one-sixth the explosive power
Of any other gas.
Calcium carbide, which is the
source of ~acetylene, is seven-twelfths
quick lime and five-twelfths coke,
ground mixed and fused together
in an electrical arc furnace at
a temperature of 5000 degrees Fair.
The greatest heat possible in any
soil fuel furnace is 5000 degrees.
After cooling it is crushed into small
Jumps and paced into metal cans hold
ing a hundred pounds, or in one
pound packages for bicycles. Car
bide cannot burn but if it gets damp
will become red hot and fire wood
touching it, and if water gets to the
lime it Stakes it and the carbon of the
coke makes the explosive gas.
Generators of the size used for
farm houses are zinc tanks which
hold about a barrel. In them carbide
and water are brought in contact pro-
ducing a~cetylene and slaked lime.
The gas passes into a tank, double
the size of the generator, which is
fashioned like the big tank for city
gas, having at the bottom a seal of
water to prevent the gas escaping.
The danger is near the generator.
The gas may escape from a defective
tube or from the opening of seams by
IL formation of ice in the water. A
number of fatal accidents have re-
suited from persons, who were clean
ing the generator preparatory to re-
filling it, striking a match to see if
the work was well done.
If the generator is outside there is
little possibility OF an explosion in
the house lighted by it because the
holes in the burners are so small that
the gas cannot leak fast enough to
acetylene in carbon that it's illuminat-
ing power is ten times that Of city gas.
1t takes of it but half a cubic foot an
hour for a burner giving The light of
twenty-five candles.
A~cetylene has another safeguard
against being burned uselcssly in an
explosion. 1t has so powerful an odor
that one part of it in ten thousand of
air gives notice of it's presence to the
nose. The generator maker says the
odor is like that of garlic. The farm
err boy would say that the acetylene
protects itself against being fired by
that same means that the polecat pro-
tects itself from being fired at.
The advantage of acetylene over
gasoline vapor are: A much smaller
quantity is used to make the same
light and the color is white, so it does
not distort colors to the eyes of the
seamstress. It's odor betYays a leak
before a dangerous amount Of gas has
escaped. Being lighter than air it is
carried away, while gasoline vapor
I loafs around.
The gasoline carbureter has n ad-
vantage over the acetylene generator
an important one. Water is not
needed in it, while the acetylene ma
chine must have a water seal. To
prevent freezing it must be kept in
the dwelling, in a brick out house or
under ground.
A flame is not necessary to the ig-
milton of a%cetylene or gasoline vapor.
A soldering iron or any hot metal, a
pipe or a flowing coal or ~match-stick
will explode either Of them. On this
account they are more dangerous than
city gas.
In the states in which ice forms