Mohave County miner and our mineral wealth., 1922-03-24
Oxy-Gas Torch for Mines

It IS noncombuStible, non-eXploSive, and it will not burn. Neither oxy- gen nor air have any b t. u. value as fuel. But when the oxygen com pines with fuel, whether liquid, solid or gaseous, the combination is called burning. In no way can oxygen Cor air) increase the number of heat units per pound in any fuel. r. can in crease the speed of burning-make the flame hotter and shorter.
 To illustrate, a pound of fuel burn ed ina small closet might heat it to suffocation, while the same pound of fuel burned in big auditorium would have its heat so widely spread out that it would not be noticed as heat ing at all, yet the fuel would give ex- actly the same number of heat units in both cases.
 Will all this in mind, it must be obvious to you that a torch similarly designed to the acetylene torch, will be a mighty big cost saving around [ any mine.
 A cylinder of oxygen is worth about $2 per 100 cubic feet (f. o. b. A small portable generator for acetylene should be standard equipment for every mine. The same carbide that is used in the carbide miners lamp will make acetylene gas if you need it. A prestolite tank from any gar age will be the same. Prestolite is dissolved acetylene.
 With this equipment, a leak in your air pipe or water pipes can be welded in a few minutes. A welded com pound or reversed elbow can be made, or a piece can be welded into a cog wheel, broken casting can be welded without taking it from the grounds and there are hundreds of places where such an equipment, which costs but little, will pay for itself in few days. Sometimes one hours work will save months shut down of some parts of the plant.
 As another angle of economy the apparatus may be used with gasoline and compressed air, for forcing tight drum or bully from shaft on which it has been shrunk, for making pipe bends or sharp bends in metal, for cutting rail and pipe, burning out a bolt hole in a plate, cutting off the head of rusty bolt, burning a hole f in a concrete wall, for soldering, braz- ing and the like.
 It is occasionally very useful ap- paratus for the assayer in his expcri- mental work.
 But don't be afraid of the oxygen! It's the same gas that is used in the masks worn by the mine rescue team. If any of it escapes in room it only makes the air better, and if you breathe it long enough it will cure consumption. Timidity and unfamil- iarity of the general public with oxy- gen is preventing much economy that might be affected. Acetylene like gasoline is dangerous. Acetylene gen. orators should NEVER carry over 15 pounds of pressure. Other gases you can compress to higher pressures.
 A great amount of talk and news paper interest has been directed to- ward the "intense heat of the oxy- acetylene flame" cutting the side out of a sunken submarine, burning the steel beams in the Knickerbocker thea Ire disaster, and the burning of the front out of two burglar proof safes, was heralded as great feats of the Gin tense heat of the oxy-acetylene torch" !"
 It was nothing of the kind. In no case was it necessary to heat the steel over 1,400 degrees F. and most black smiths heat drill steel to 1900 degrees or hotter to sharpen it. Red hot iron will burn, when it comes in contact with oxygen and you can heat piece of steel over your blacksmith forge, and with a jet of oxygen cut it in two without any acetylene or other method of heating. You can cut the door out of any burglar proof safe that was ever made with city gas or gasoline torch, with a jet of oxy- gen. Anything that will heat steel to a red heat will let the iron burn when the oxygen jet hits it.
 Not so with welding. In that case you must heat the edges of the two pieces to be welded in a reducing flame (with no excess of oxygen) un- til the metal melts, and then fill in with melted metal from the welding rod, allowing it to coll, thus making it one piece. This temperature, with steel, has to be around 2,500 to $500 or whatever the fusing point of the