Year: 1899

page_text: I, CARL KELLNER, of Golling, near Salzburg, Austria, Doctor of Philosophy,
do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in what manner the same is
to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement:-
The violent and irregular evolution of acetylene which occurs when calcium
carbide is brought into contact with water, and the phenomenon known as after
evolution," form, as will be known, the principal difficulties in the way of a
more general introduction of acetylene for illuminating purposes, since exceed-
ingly complicated apparatus must be used to control the evolution of the gas
and, moreover, experience has shown that even these provisions do not always
act with certainty,
Instead of regulating the generation of the acetylene by mechanical means
attempts have often been made to do so by mixing, with the water used to decom-
pose the carbide, substances, which are not acted upon by the carbide, and as
will be known, methyl and amyl alcohol, acetone, glycerine, ether and sugar
have already been proposed as such substances.
Now, although the generation of the gas can be quite well regulated by mixing
the said substances with the reacting water, these proposals could not be carried
out in practice because it is too expensive to use such substances for this purpose.
The process according to this invention, for controlling the generation of acety-
lene from calcium carbide, consists in using a substance, which, when mixed
with the reacting water or dissolved therein, enables the evolution of the acety-
lene to be regulated in the most exact manner, and the said substance can be
provided in enormous quantities at small expense, because it occurs in a large
industry as a most troublesome by-product.
This substance is chloride of calcium (CaCl) which is produced in enormous
quantities in the manufacture of "ammonia" soda (Solvay process) and in other
industries, and its removal is always attended with certain difficulties.
According to this process the carbide is treated with a solution of calcium
chloride in water, and the concentration of the solution depends on the quantity
of gas that is to be generated in a given time from a given quantity of carbide.
A solution having a specific gravity of 138 yields, for example, with 600 grammes
of carbide, sufficient acetylene to supply a table lamp for a period of 29 hours.
In this process the carbide is always covered by liquid and no variation in pres-
sure can occur, whilst the same solution can always be used again and it is only
necessary to add from time to time a quantity of water corresponding to the
quantity of carbide added.
When the calcium chloride solution is used for the first time, some of the
lime produced by the decomposition of the carbide is dissolved and forms calcium
Arahloride thasia calcium chloride)

page_text: Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said
invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what
I claim is:
The production of a regular evolution of acetylene from carbide, by decom-
posing the carbide by means of a solution of chloride of calcium or calcium
oxychloride.
F. WISE HOWORTH,
46, Lincoln's Inn Fields, London, W.C., Agent for the Applicant.