Acetylene | Define Acetylene at Dictionary.com acetylene [uh-set-l-een, -in] /əˈsɛt lˌin, -ɪn/ Spell noun, Chemistry. 1. a colorless gas, C 2 H 2 , having an etherlike odor, produced usually by the action of water on calcium carbide or by pyrolysis of natural gas: used especially in metal cutting and welding, as an illuminant, and in organic synthesis. Expand [uh-set-l-en-ik] /əˌsɛt lˈɛn ɪk/ (Show IPA), adjective Dictionary.com Unabridged Examples from the Web for acetylene Expand Historical Examples They had put a table at the back of this cave, and an acetylene light illuminated it. Csar or Nothing Po Baroja Baroja Finer grades are cut into slate pencils and acetylene burners. Practical Cinematography and Its Applications Frederick Arthur Ambrose Talbot acetylene, a compound of carbon and hydrogen, is used in this way. British Dictionary definitions for acetylene Expand noun 1. a colourless flammable gas used in the manufacture of organic chemicals and in cutting and welding metals.

Formula: C2H2 Systematic name ethyne 2. Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012 Word Origin and History for acetylene Expand n. gaseous hydrocarbon, 1864, from French acétylène, coined by French chemist Marcelin-Pierre-Eugène Berthelot (1823-1907) from chemical ending -ene + acetyl, which was coined from acetic in 1839 by German chemist Justus von Liebig; see acetic . Liebig's coinage was in reference to a different radical; acetyl was transferred to its current sense in 1850s, but Berthelot's coinage was based on the original use of acetyl.

The name acetylene is an unfortunate one as the hydrocarbon is not directly related to the modern acetyl radical and the molecule ... contains a triple bond, not a double bond which the suffix -ene (q.v.) implies. [Flood, "Origins of Chemical Names," 1963] Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper Commercialization of Calcium Carbide and Acetylene - Landmark - American Chemical Society Commercialization of Calcium Carbide and Acetylene Commercial Process for Producing Calcium Carbide and Acetylene International Historic Chemical Landmark Dedicated May 2, 1998, at Spray Cotton Mills in Eden, North Carolina, USA, and October 15, 1999, in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Commemorative Booklet (PDF) In his search for a more economical way to make aluminum, Canadian inventor Thomas Leopold Willson accidentally discovered the first commercially viable process for making calcium carbide, which is used for production of acetylene gas, at a location in North Carolina. This chance discovery produced a series of products, from improved lighting in remote locations to the synthesis of a host of organic substances.

Contents “Discovery of the Commercial Processes for Making Calcium Carbide and Acetylene” commemorative booklet produced by the National Historic Chemical Landmarks program of the American Chemical Society in 1998 (PDF). Thomas L. Willson Discovers the Processes for Making Calcium Carbide and Acetylene May 2, 1998, marked the 106th anniversary of an unexpected discovery in the village of Spray (now Eden), North Carolina, that proved to be a milestone in the history of the chemical industry. On that date, Thomas L. Willson, a struggling young Canadian inventor, accidentally discovered the processes for making calcium carbide and acetylene in commercial quantities. Acetylene, when burned in air, gave a light far brighter than any in use at the time for home lighting. When burned with oxygen, it gave a flame that was 1000° C hotter than any other, leading to the development of commercial oxyacetylene welding and cutting. Most importantly, acetylene later became the starting material in the synthesis of hundreds of aliphatic organic chemicals used worldwide, particularly solvents, plastics, and synthetic rubber.

Thomas Leopold Willson (1860-1915), discoverer of these processes, was born in Princeton, Ontario, the grandson of John Willson, speaker of the United Canadian Assembly. He attended Hamilton Collegiate Institute; but after his father died, he withdrew from school to develop an arc-lighting system, the first seen at Hamilton. At age 22, he moved to the United States where he held various jobs in the mechanical and electrical trades before settling in Brooklyn, New York, in 1887. His work over the next three years resulted in six patents, which secured for him the rights in the United States for use of the electric-arc furnace in ore smelting. Aluminum metal was a primary target. In December 1890, the Willson Aluminum Company was formed to exploit Willson's patents. In 1891, Willson moved to Spray to build a small 300-horsepower plant along the Smith River on land owned by one of the company's financial backers, James Turner Morehead (1840-1908).

Morehead, a graduate of the University of North Carolina and a Confederate army veteran, was a textile manufacturer, land and water power developer, and former state senator. Although most of Morehead's business ventures prospered, failure of a railroad in which he had invested left him deeply in debt. To raise cash, he looked for new uses for his abundant supply of water power. This search led him to Willson. Thomas Willson was just one among many seeking an economical way to make aluminum. His approach was to reduce the aluminum ore with carbon in a high-temperature, electric-arc furnace, a process explored in the laboratory at about the same time by the French chemist Henri Moissan. In practice, Willson was able to produce only a few globules of aluminum. He then reasoned that if he could make a more chemically active metal, such as calcium, he could, in turn, use the calcium to reduce alumina. Accordingly, on May 2, 1892, a mixture of lime (calcium oxide) and coal tar (carbon) was subjected to the heat of the arc.

When the furnace was tapped and the resulting product thrown into water, it produced a flammable gas thought to be hydrogen, as was expected from calcium. However, unlike clean-burning hydrogen, this gas burned with a sooty flame, for which there was no ready explanation. Willson then retained Francis P. Venable (1856-1954), of the University of North Carolina, as a consultant. During the summer and fall of 1892, Venable proved that the furnace product was calcium carbide and that the gas as it evolved with water was acetylene, a reaction identified in 1862 by the German chemist Friedrich Wöhler. Although there were no uses for either calcium carbide or acetylene at the time, Willson filed for a patent on this process on August 9, 1892. Meanwhile, the experimental work to make aluminum continued. By the spring of 1893, however, it was obvious that Willson's process was a failure. The stock market crash in May 1893 and the ensuing depression bankrupted the company, leaving Morehead virtually penniless.

Back to top Commercial Production of Calcium Carbide and Acetylene Failing to find anyone willing to buy their calcium carbide and acetylene patents, Morehead and Willson turned their attention to finding and promoting uses for the products themselves, beginning with acetylene in lighting. After they showed that acetylene could produce a flame 10 to 12 times brighter than that of coal gas, its use as an illuminant developed rapidly. Willson made the first sale of calcium carbide, 1 ton, to Eimer and Amend, a New York chemical and apparatus supply house, on January 29, 1894. Fortune smiled again when, in August 1894, they sold their patents for the use of carbide and acetylene in lighting to a new firm, the Electrogas Company, but retained the rights for chemical manufacturing. Electrogas Company, in turn, began to sell carbide manufacturing rights worldwide. As part of the agreement, Willson reserved all rights for Canada, and Morehead bought a manufacturing franchise.

Willson moved back to New York in the fall of 1893 and set up a laboratory at Eimer and Amend to explore chemical uses for acetylene. After making small quantities of chloroform and aldehydes, he filed for a patent in February 1894 to cover the use of acetylene in the manufacture of "hydrocarbon products." By borrowing more money, Morehead was able, in August 1894, to complete at Spray the first commercial calcium carbide plant. Its 8-foot high, double-sided furnace was capable of continuous operation. While a charge of lime and tar was being processed on one side, a completed run of carbide could be cooling on the other. The furnace produced 1 ton of carbide every 24 hours, which yielded 4.8 cubic feet of gas per pound, 80% of the theoretical. As publicity about acetylene's possibilities soared, so did the demand for carbide. On May 1, 1895, the plant began to operate around the clock.

The months that followed were giddy with success, but then disaster struck; the Willson plant was destroyed by fire on March 29, 1896. Morehead built a much larger plant on the James River near Lynchburg, Virginia. Almost simultaneously, he opened a plant at Kanawha Falls, West Virginia, to make ferro-alloys, processes that had been developed at Spray by Willson and Guillaume de Chalmot (1870-1899), the plant superintendent. Eventually, Morehead sold his holdings to the Union Carbide Company, which had been formed in 1898 to consolidate the interests of the Electrogas Company. He paid off his debts and, at his death, left an estate of $200,000. Willson returned to Canada in 1895, where he became one of its wealthiest and best-known citizens. By 1896, he was constructing a carbide plant at Merritton, Ontario, and later he built plants in Ottawa and Shawinigan Falls.

As he sold rights for carbide manufacture to others, he developed many interests, forming new companies and plants as he proceeded to produce hydroelectric power, acetylene-lighted marine buoys, fertilizer, cement, ammonia, phosphoric acid, and paper. He sold his marine buoy business in 1909 and his interests in carbide manufacture to a new firm, Canada Carbide Company, formed in 1911. He died of a heart attack in New York while raising money for yet another project. His home in Woodstock, Ontario, is now a national historic site, and his summer home on Meech Lake in Quebec is a government conference center and retreat. Back to top Uses for Calcium Carbide and Acetylene In 1800, while experimenting with a voltaic cell, Humphry Davy produced the first arc light by passing an electric current between two carbon rods, which touched each other, and then drawing them apart. When an electric current meets with resistance, its energy is transformed into heat, and because the carbon vapor in the arc offers high resistance to the electric current, temperatures as high as 3700° C are attainable, high enough to melt or vaporize any known substance.

The carbon-arc furnace, which dates from 1845 when it was battery operated, was of no practical value until after the development in 1867 of the electrical dynamo for converting water or steam power into electricity. Not until the work in Spray did the arc furnace become an industrial reality. Improved Lighting Over the half century following its discovery in 1836 by Edmund Davy, a cousin of Humphrey Davy, acetylene was only a laboratory curiosity. After Thomas L. Willson's discovery of a cheap commercial process for making acetylene in 1892, massive quantities of the gas were in demand for lighting. A newly developed acetylene burner, designed to bring adequate air to the flame to eliminate smoke and soot, gave a brilliant white light, 10 to 12 times brighter than that of any commercial fuel then in use. By 1897, acetylene generators and compressed acetylene were successfully competing with the fledgling electric light industry to provide excellent lighting, particularly in country homes and those not accessible to gas utilities.

Portable acetylene generators, which worked simply by dropping water on calcium carbide, provided a practical way for lighting railways, mines, bicycles, and automobiles. Acetylene lighting was used in transportation for a decade or more until electrical generation systems and shock-resistant light bulbs were developed. Miners continued to use carbide lights on their caps until long-lasting, dry-cell electric batteries were perfected in the 1920s. Acetylene also replaced oil in marine buoys because it provided a far brighter light. The automatic carbide acetylene generators used at first were not very reliable and were replaced by compressed acetylene. Swedish engineer Gustaf DalÉn received the 1912 Nobel Prize in physics for his discovery of techniques that allowed safe compression of acetylene. A few of the acetylene buoys were still in operation in the 1960s. High-Quality Alloy Steels In 1894, Thomas Willson began experiments at Spray with smelting metals in the carbon-arc furnace. After 1895, this work was carried on by Guillaume de Chalmot.

The high temperature of the arc furnace provided a more efficient means for alloying iron with chromium, manganese, and other metals. As a group, these low-iron alloys, called ferro-alloys, can be readily dissolved in steel to impart predictable properties according to the type and amount of metal added. For the first time, steels could be tailor-made for such properties as toughness, impact strength, high strength at high temperatures, and corrosion resistance. Improved armor plate for battle ships, high-speed tool steels, and stainless steels are just three of the hundreds of specialized steel products now in use. Rapid Welding and Cutting of Metals During the 19th century, the only means of continuously joining two pieces of iron or steel was to heat them in a forge and hammer them together. In 1886, electric welding was introduced, but it was of no practical value because the electric power industry was not sufficiently developed to sustain it. Oxyhydrogen and thermite welding were known but had not been perfected. When burned with oxygen instead of air, acetylene gave a flame temperature of 3000 °C compared with 1900 °C for the Bunsen burner flame.

This high flame temperature was reported in 1895 but not exploited until about 1901, when a commercial oxyacetylene welding apparatus was developed in France. The first oxyacetylene welding shop in the United States was set up in 1906, and in 1907 the technique was adopted at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. There, oxyacetylene torches could cut a porthole in 3-inch armor plate in 30 minutes, a task that formerly had required five men working for two weeks to complete. The sudden, great demand for oxygen for welding launched oxygen as a commodity product. Nitrogen Fixation and Fertilizer Manufacture Henri Moissan observed in 1893 that calcium carbide absorbed atmospheric nitrogen. In 1898, Fritz Rothe of Germany found that the compound formed by this absorption was calcium cyanamide. In the soil, calcium cyanamide decomposes to yield urea and ammonium carbonate, both potent fertilizers. A commercial process patented by Adolf Frank and Nikodem Caro for making calcium cyanamide from carbide was perfected in Germany in 1903 and was widely adopted almost immediately.

This was the first commercial process that was used worldwide to fix atmospheric nitrogen. World output of calcium cyanamide increased from 1,700 tons in 1907 to an estimated peak production of 1.5 million tons in 1945. Organic Chemicals and Macromolecules Following Willson's synthesis of chloroform and aldehydes from acetylene in 1894, acetylene soon became the starting material in the synthesis of a host of organic substances, particularly for the solvent, plastics, and synthetic rubber and fiber industries. By 1896, work in Germany led to chlorinated solvents by partial or complete chlorination of acetylene, and in 1908 to a full-scale plant producing 1,1,2-trichloroethene. These solvents were used extensively after 1920 for degreasing metals in preparation for electroplating or painting. By 1912, Germany was producing polyvinyl acetate for use in varnishes. Subsequently, polyvinyl acetate was used in adhesives, paints, paper, textiles, glue, and flooring materials.

During World War I, commercial processes for the production of acetaldehyde, acetic acid, and acetone (by passing acetic acid over a hot catalyst) were installed in Canada; acetone in particular was needed for making explosives. Similar processes in the United States in the 1920s served the cellulose acetate industry for the production of fibers and film. In the same decade, the synthesis of vinyl acetylene by Julius Nieuwland led to the development in 1932 of the synthetic rubber, neoprene, by DuPont. Its annual output reached 120,000 tons by 1960. In Germany after World War I, butadiene made from acetylene was the basis of a rubber substitute that made the country self-sufficient in rubber. Also in Germany, beginning in 1925, J. Walter Reppe pioneered the study of acetylene chemistry at pressures as high as 200 atmospheres.

This opened up a vast new field, often known as "Reppe chemistry." Reppe even managed to form cyclooctatetraene by linking four acetylene molecules in a ring, confirming Richard Willstïtter's much contested claim that he had made the same compound in 1911. With hydrocyanic acid, acetylene forms acrylonitrile, which can then be polymerized and spun into acrylic fibers. World production of acrylic fibers in 1988 was 2,523,000 tons. In the past 40 years or so, acetylene has increasingly been derived from petroleum, but if petroleum reserves dwindle sufficiently to raise the price above that of coal, industry might return to coal, and calcium carbide would again become a main path to organic chemicals. Landmark Designation and Acknowledgments Landmark Designation The American Chemical Society dedicated the Discovery of the Commercial Processes for Making Calcium Carbide and Acetylene a National Historic Chemical Landmark on May 2, 1998, in Eden, North Carolina.

The plaque commemorating the event reads: At this site on May 2, 1892, while searching for an economical process to make aluminum, Canadian inventor Thomas L. Willson (1860-1915) accidentally discovered the electric-arc process for preparing calcium carbide, which reacts with water to form acetylene. The first commercial calcium carbide plant, built by local entrepreneur James Turner Morehead (1840-1908), operated here between 1894 and 1896. From this beginning, calcium carbide and acetylene manufacturing spread around the world. Acetylene, used first for lighting homes, railways, mines, and marine buoys and then for oxyacetylene welding, became one of the foundations of the synthetic organic chemicals industry. The American Chemical Society and The Canadian Society for Chemistry dedicated the Discovery of the Commercial Processes for Making Calcium Carbide and Acetylene a National Historic Chemical Landmark on October 15, 1999, at the location of Willson’s home and laboratory on Metcalfe Street in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

The plaque commemorating the event reads: Near this site lived Thomas Leopold “Carbide” Willson (1860-1915), discoverer of the commercial process for making calcium carbide, which reacts with water to form acetylene gas. After the accidental discovery, made in Spray, North Carolina, in 1892, Willson returned to Canada to foster carbide and other electrochemical industries at various sites, including St. Catharines, Ottawa, and Shawinigan. Acetylene, used first for lighting homes, railways, mines, and marine buoys, then in oxyacetylene welding, became one of the foundations of the synthetic organic chemicals industry. Acknowledgments Adapted for the internet from “Discovery of the Commercial Processes for Making Calcium Carbide and Acetylene” produced by the by the National Historic Chemical Landmarks program of the American Chemical Society in 1998 and a booklet by the same title produced by the American Chemical Society and The Canadian Society for Chemistry in 1999. Back to top Cite this Page American Chemical Society National Historic Chemical Landmarks. Discovery of the Commercial Processes for Making Calcium Carbide and Acetylene.

(accessed Month Day, Year). acetylene - definition and meaning acetylene Definitions from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition n. A colorless, highly flammable or explosive gas, C2H2, used for metal welding and cutting and as an illuminant. Also called ethyne. from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License n. Any organic compound having one or more carbon–carbon triple bonds; an alkyne. n. Ethyne; the simplest alkyne, a hydrocarbon of formula HC≡CH. It is a colourless gas, with a peculiar, unpleasant odour, formerly used as an illuminating gas, but now used in welding or metallurgy. from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English n. A gaseous compound of carbon and hydrogen, in the proportion of two atoms of the former to two of the latter. It is a colorless gas, with a peculiar, unpleasant odor, and is produced for use as an illuminating gas in a number of ways, but chiefly by the action of water on calcium carbide. Its light is very brilliant. from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia n.

A colorless gas, C2H2, which has a characteristic and very unpleasant odor, and burns with a luminous smoky flame. n. This gas, C2H2, prepared by the action of water on calcium carbide, is now largely used as an illuminant and to increase the illuminating value of coal-gas and water-gas of poor quality. from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. n. a colorless flammable gas used chiefly in welding and in organic synthesis Etymologies Popular Science Monthly/Volume 49/October 1896/Acetylene, The New Illuminant - Wikisource, the free online library Popular Science Monthly/Volume 49/October 1896/Acetylene, The New Illuminant From Wikisource ACETYLENE, THE NEW ILLUMINANT. By V. J. YOUMANS. THE advent of the electric light, the Siemens-Lungren regenerative burner, and the Welsbach incandescent mantle, all within a comparatively short period, threw the lighting industry into a very unsettled condition.

There had begun, however, to appear some order out of the chaos. As the special advantages of the different systems were recognized, the purposes to which each was best adapted were noted. The development of the industries was going on very satisfactorily, when a new competitor appeared in the shape of acetylene. It is now stated that Mr. Edison and Nikola Tesla are independently working out still another system, based on the vacuum-tube phenomena; a subject in which Mr. D. McFarlan Moore claims also to have made a great step in advance by the invention of his vacuum vibrator. Vacuum-tube lighting, however, is still in the laboratory, and, while surprising tales are told of its great beauty and high efficiency, it is too soon to even prophesy intelligently regarding it. Acetylene has, however, during the last few years been much discussed, and considerable data are available regarding it; so that an inquiry into its history and value as a practical illuminant is of interest. Acetylene (C2H2) was first described by Edmund Davy, who obtained it accidentally by the action of water on a mass of carbonized tartar and charcoal powder, with which he had attempted to prepare potassium.

He called the new gas Klumene. Some years later it was rediscovered by Berthelot, who obtained it by passing ethylene through a red-hot tube; he noted its occurrence in coal gas, and later succeeded in making it by passing a powerful electric current between two carbon poles in an atmosphere of hydrogen. The resulting mixture of acetylene and hydrogen was passed into an ammoniacal solution of cuprous chloride, and the insoluble copper compound thus obtained, which is extremely explosive and has recently caused several serious accidents, was then treated with hydrochloric acid, which liberated acetylene. Acetylene is a colorless gas, having a rather disagreeable odor, somewhat resembling garlic and phosphorus. The peculiar odor noticed when the burners of a gas stove strike back is due to the formation of acetylene. Its specific gravity when compared with air is 0·91 (ordinary coal gas has a specific gravity of about 0·607). At 0°, and under a pressure of 21·5 atmospheres (322·5 pounds per square inch), it becomes a mobile, highly refractive liquid. Water at 18° dissolves its own volume of the gas.

When ignited at an ordinary burner it gives a smoky, dull flame, and with oxygen forms an explosive mixture, as it does also when mixed in certain proportions with air; but when burned through a very small tip and under slight pressure, or when mixed with coal gas or air in proper proportions, an exceedingly brilliant and highly luminous flame is produced. Acetylene is poisonous, combining with the hæmoglobin of the blood, to the exclusion of oxygen, to form a compound similar to that yielded by carbon monoxide. Moissan, however, reports that when prepared from pure calcium carbide, and after being purified by liquefaction, it has an ethereal odor, and can be breathed in small quantities without evil effects. Regarding its explosiveness Mr. J. M. Crafts says: "Experiments, using a two-inch gas pipe as a cannon, show that from five to six per cent of acetylene mixed with air forms an explosive mixture. . . . About ten per cent of water gas is necessary before an explosive mixture with air is formed." Explosive mixtures in the air of a room would be produced by much smaller percentages than these.

Lechattelier gives 2·8 per cent acetylene mixed with air as an explosive compound. So far as its poisonous qualities are concerned, acetylene seems to have a little the advantage of water gas; the poisonous principle of the latter is carbon monoxide, whose combination with the blood is somewhat more energetic than that of acetylene, and which has no odor to serve as a warning in case of a leak, as has acetylene. Acetylene is, however, more prone to form explosive mixtures. This is due to the fact that in the combination of carbon and hydrogen to form acetylene 61·100 units of heat are absorbed. Thus the heating power of a cubic foot of acetylene is sufficient to raise 407 kilogrammes (a kilogramme = {\displaystyle {\ce {=}}} 2·2 pounds) of water 1° C.

The combustion of the same amounts of uncombined carbon and hydrogen as are present in a cubic foot of acetylene will raise only 336·5 kilogrammes of water to 1° C, leaving a difference in favor of acetylene of 70·5 heat units—the unit being the amount of heat required to raise the temperature of one kilogramme of water 1° C. Acetylene is one of the important bodies, much used by the chemist in the synthesis of organic compounds. It is also reported to be of value in polariscope work, permitting the reading of solutions so highly colored as to be opaque to the ordinary sources of light. Some interesting experiments with the gas in abnormal physical states were recently performed by J. J. Suckert, during a lecture before the Franklin Institute. A tube of liquefied acetylene was cooled to-28° F., and then the pressure removed. Rapid evaporation took place, and a portion of the liquid gas was solidified into a snowlike mass whose temperature was found to be-118° F.

A part of this snow placed on some mercury in a saucer soon froze the latter, and another portion, on being dropped into water, upon which it floated, gave off acetylene gas, which was readily ignited and burned with its characteristic sooty flame. Regarding the illuminating power of acetylene, a proper burner using five cubic feet per hour will give from two hundred to two hundred and forty candle power. Five cubic feet of ordinary gas give from fifteen to thirty candle power; that is, a cubic foot of acetylene will give about eight times as much light as the same amount of coal or water gas. Indeed, it is claimed by Prof. Lewes and others that the formation of acetylene in the ordinary gas flame accounts for the latter's luminosity, and it has been proposed to enrich water gas by the addition of a small amount of acetylene; but so much of the latter was found necessary to produce any appreciable result as to render the process impracticable. Acetylene requires a much larger amount of air for complete combustion than does ordinary gas. This is a distinct disadvantage, as the large amount of air cools the flame, and thus diminishes its luminosity.

The temperature of the acetylene flame is about 1000° C, that of an ordinary flat coal-gas flame being 1360° C. The present rise into prominence of acetylene, which up to 1888 was simply a laboratory product, is due to the discovery of the formation of calcium carbide in the electric furnace. There is some controversy as to who first made this discovery, but the honors seem to belong to Mr. T. L. Wilson, of the Wilson Aluminum Works. In 1888 Mr. Wilson began a series of experiments with the electric furnace for reducing refractory ores; during one of these a curious, dark-brown, dense mass was formed, whose immersion in water produced a violent evolution of gas, which upon investigation proved to be acetylene. A French chemist, Moissan, independently discovered the process, and reported it at the meeting of the French Academy, in December, 1892. But as Mr. Wilson sent samples of the carbide to Lord Kelvin in the summer of 1892, for examination, he seems to have preceded Moissan, at any rate in announcing his discovery.

All the alkaline earths form carbides in a similar way, which, when treated with water, give off acetylene. It may be interesting to note, in passing, that by means of the electric furnace, a carbide of silicon has recently been obtained, which under the name of carborundum is coming to be used extensively as a polishing and grinding material. It is extremely hard (scratching rubies) and is said to wear well. Another interesting product is the carbide of titanium, the hardness of which is sufficient to scratch the diamond. This discovery of the ready formation of carbides under the great heat of the electric furnace is of special interest to the geologist, as bearing on the theory that these carbides are present in large quantities in the interior regions, to which water must occasionally penetrate; the resulting generation of gases and production of high pressures and heat accounting for the various volcanic disturbances and the large natural deposits of petroleum and other carbonaceous material, which occur so abundantly in some districts. Pure calcium carbide has a specific gravity of 2·262; in a dry atmosphere it is odorless, but upon exposure to moisture evolves the peculiar odor of acetylene.

When exposed in lumps to the action of ordinary air it becomes coated with a layer of hydrate of lime, which protects the interior of the mass from further oxidation. It is not inflammable, and can be exposed to the heat of the ordinary blast furnace without decomposition. It is, in fact, a very stable compound, its ready decomposition under the action of water being quite at variance with its other chemical properties. It was first prepared by Woehler, in 1862, by fusing an alloy of zinc and calcium with carbon. He called it acetylene carbide. It forms a dark grayish or red dense mass, which upon fracture shows a crystalline metallic surface. The whole process of manufacturing acetylene, from the preparation of the lime and coke onward, is very simple, and the only reason why it is new as a commercial product is the difficulty of causing a combination between the calcium of the lime and the carbon of the coke. Nothing short of the temperature of the electric furnace (3500° to 4000° C.) will bring this about, and the comparative modernness of this apparatus accounts for the lateness of the calcium carbide.

The chemistry of the process is as follows: Quicklime (CaO) and coke, or any other substance whose main content is carbon (C), are mixed and fused together in the electric furnace. The calcium (Ca) of the lime combines with part of the carbon (C) of the coke to form calcium carbide (CaC2); the oxygen (O) of the quicklime combining with another portion of the carbon to form carbonic oxide: CaO Slaked lime. Acetylene. The following description of the commercial manufacture of calcium carbide as conducted at Spray is based on a paper by G. de Chalmot, who for some time had personal supervision of the works of the Wilson Aluminum Company at Spray, N. C, and an address by W. R. Addicks, of Boston, Mass., delivered before the New England Association of Gas Engineers at their twenty-sixth annual meeting: The electric furnace is of ordinary brick, two and a half by three feet (inside measurements) at the bottom. The front side consists of four iron doors. The electric current enters at the bottom and top; the lower electrode is an iron plate covered with eight inches of carbon (pieces of carbon pencils or a mixture of coke and coal tar).

Sixteen copper cables 0·75 inch in diameter convey the electricity from the dynamos to the bottom electrode; sixteen other cables are connected with the top electrode, which is composed of six carbon pencils each four inches square and thirty-six inches long; these are bound together by a sheet of iron, so as to really form only one pencil. The upper electrode is so arranged that it can be raised or lowered by means of a screw. Dynamos giving a current of from fifty to one hundred volts and seventeen hundred to two thousand ampères are used, actuated by a water wheel of three hundred horse-power capacity. To start the furnace a little carefully ground and mixed lime and coke (this being done by special grinding and mixing machinery, which forms an essential part of the plant) is thrown on the bottom of the furnace, the current turned on, and the upper electrode lowered until an arc is formed between it and the mixture. The carbide soon begins to form, and new material is shoveled in as the ingot is built up. The end of the pencil is kept covered with about a foot of the mixture, and is gradually raised by the attendant until the capacity of the furnace is reached; then the current is turned off and the furnace left to cool.

This constitutes the whole process, and is extremely simple and inexpensive, requiring no skilled labor and little machinery. Much time has been lost at Spray in waiting for the furnace to cool, which requires from four to eight hours. In the new plant of the Philadelphia company at Niagara the lower electrode and the bottom of the furnace consist of a car, which, as soon as the run is finished, can be drawn out and a fresh car substituted, thus obviating the loss of time and heat in waiting for the furnace to cool. Many other improvements, including an arrangement by which the mixed lime and coke are automatically fed into the furnace, are expected to materially reduce the cost of manufacture at the Niagara works. The proportions of lime and coke are roughly calculated by means of the atomic weights involved in the reaction, but in practice it is found that, owing to impurities and loss in the process, these amounts have to be exceeded somewhat. After the mass in the furnace has cooled sufficiently, it is dumped on a grate which holds the carbide and permits the unreduced material, amounting to from fifty to seventy-five per cent of the original mass, to fall through into a bin, from which it is collected to be used again.

The lime requires to be fairly pure, over five per cent of impurities interfering seriously with the production of carbide. Magnesia is very undesirable, and it is stated that if over three per cent is present a good quality of carbide can not be made. This matter of impurities and the care of the carbon pencils, which when properly looked after wear away only about 0·09 of an inch per hour, but which may make a great deal of trouble if carelessly tended, are the points requiring special attention. Unslaked lime is said to give the best results. The alternating current is used at Spray, but a direct current can be employed. Besides coke, soft coal, anthracite, charcoal, pitch, tar, resin, and asphalt have been tried in combination with lime. Indeed, the first mixture used by Mr. Wilson was lime and tar, which had been boiled together in a caldron and then thoroughly dried. With the exception of charcoal, however, none of these substances were found of any value as compared with coke, although they all produced some carbide.

As regards the amount and quality of the light obtained from acetylene properly burned, there seems no question as to its great superiority over either ordinary coal or water gas. It stands about even with water gas in poisonous qualities, but is more liable to explosion. Greater care would be required in handling it, especially if the proposition, which was at first well received, to use it in a liquefied state from cylinders under great pressure, should prove practicable. Its success as an illuminant, however, depends almost entirely on the cost of manufacture, and regarding this point it is somewhat difficult at present to get reliable data, chiefly, perhaps, because of the experimental stage in which much of the apparatus still is. The Progressive Age, a New York publication devoted to the interests of electricity, gas, and water, recently formed a commission which it sent down to Spray for the purpose of determining the actual cost of manufacturing calcium carbide. The commissioners were Prof. Houston and Drs.

Kennelly and Kinnicutt, and their conclusions, after careful examination of the works and a testing of two full runs, were published in the Progressive Age for April 15th, and are as follows: "Our estimate, therefore, of the cost of producing calcium carbide at Spray, by working the furnaces three hundred and sixty-five days a year and twenty-four hours a day, yielding on the average one ton of two thousand pounds gross carbide a day, is $32.76 per ton. Of this amount $14.39 is for material. The freight charges on lime and coke are heavy at Spray, and add materially to the cost." They found an average net yield of acetylene of 4·926 cubic feet of moist gas per pound of net carbide, or 4·696 cubic feet per pound of gross carbide. A gross ton of carbide, then, will yield about 9,400 cubic feet of acetylene at a cost very slightly above $32.76, as the final formation of acetylene is practically without expense.

Nine thousand four hundred cubic feet of coal or water gas costs the consumer somewhere between fourteen and sixteen dollars, roughly about one half as much as the same amount of acetylene. But as acetylene gives over eight times as much light per cubic foot, a large margin seems to be left for decreased gas bills to the consumer and increased profit for the producer. On the whole, then, it may be said that acetylene promises to be an important rival of the present methods of illumination, and deserves the careful examination of both the consumer and manufacturer of light-givers. It has been proposed to use calcium carbide as a concentrated fuel on war vessels and in places where space is of more importance than cost. Dr. Frank has made the following calculation of the gain in space over coal: To provide power for a one-thousand-horse marine engine for twenty-five days would require four hundred and thirteen tons of coal, occupying a space of about fifteen hundred cubic feet. In this space could be stored enough of the carbide to propel the ship at the same rate for seventy-five days. In other words, as a fuel one ton of carbide is equal to three tons of coal. There are works engaged in the manufacture of calcium carbide at Spray, N.

C, at Niagara Falls and at Lockport, N. Y.; in Europe, at Betterfeld, Prussia, at Neuhausen, Switzerland, at Baden, in Germany, and at Troyes and Vallorbes, in France. The native Micronesian population of the Marshall Islands is represented by Dr. Steinbach to be rather increasing than decreasing—a census on one of the islands showing an increase of about fifteen per thousand a year. The density is about sixty-eight to the mile. The people are divided into four sharply defined classes: the common people, or Kayur; the next higher class, the Leataketak, comparable with the village magistrates in Germany, who see that the orders of the chief are carried out; the ordinary chiefs, Burak; and the Iroj, or head chiefs. Neither of the two lower classes own land, but they are allowed to grow as much produce or catch as much fish as is necessary for their sustenance; and they have to perform certain services for the chiefs. The ordinary chiefs often possess larger holdings than the Iroj, or head chiefs. All the members of the four classes acquire their rank through the mother only.

The son of a woman of the Iroj class is always an Iroj, even though the father be a common Kayur. The chiefs have still considerable dignity and power, including that of life and death. acetylene - definition, etymology and usage, examples and related words acetylene n acetylene a colorless flammable gas used chiefly in welding and in organic synthesis *** Acetylene Jet Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary n Acetylene (Chem) A gaseous compound of carbon and hydrogen, in the proportion of two atoms of the former to two of the latter. It is a colorless gas, with a peculiar, unpleasant odor, and is produced for use as an illuminating gas in a number of ways, but chiefly by the action of water on calcium carbide. Its light is very brilliant. *** Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia n acetylene A colorless gas, C2H2, which has a characteristic and very unpleasant odor, and burns with a luminous smoky flame. Illuminating gas contains a small amount of it.

It is formed from its elements, carbon and hydrogen, when the electric arc is passed between carbon-points in an atmosphere of hydrogen; also by the imperfect combustion of illuminating gas and other hydrocarbons. With certain metals and metallic salts it forms explosive compounds. The acetylene series of hydrocarbons has the general formula CnH2n-2; it includes acetylene or ethine (C2H2), propine (C3H4), butine (C4H6); and pentine (C5H8). n acetylene This gas, C2H2, prepared by the action of water on calcium carbide, is now largely used as an illuminant and to increase the illuminating value of coal-gas and water-gas of poor quality. *** Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary n Acetylene a-set′i-lēn a powerful illuminant gas (C2H2) produced commercially from carbide of calcium by means of water. *** Usage In literature: The world learned one morning of a new gas called acetylene, clear, brilliant, cheap, and simply made from calcium carbide. "Frenzied Finance" by Thomas W.

Lawson Finer grades are cut into slate pencils and acetylene burners. "The Economic Aspect of Geology" by C. K. Leith In a moment Hubert had turned on the acetylene search-light, and gazed with straining eyes down the road behind him. "Mr. Punch Awheel" Oxygen and Acetylene Under Pressure in Separate Tanks. "The Automobile Storage Battery" by O. A. Witte Acetylene, carbon and hydrogen in, 315. "Common Science" by Carleton W. Washburne The acetylene flame-knife, the incomprehensible ability of levers to give out so much more power than was put in them, dazed her. "The Cup of Fury" by Rupert Hughes Cailletet had also liquefied the newly discovered acetylene gas. "A History of Science, Volume 5(of 5)" by Henry Smith Williams They carry on the bow an apparatus with a number of jets connected with an acetylene plant, producing at night a most vivid light. "The Shores of the Adriatic" by F.

Hamilton Jackson Toluene or mono-methylbenzene results from the pyrocondensation of a mixture of acetylene and allylene. "Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 6, Slice 1" by Various But in the developments which are now foreshadowed by the advent of acetylene gas the relation will be reversed. "Twentieth Century Inventions" by George Sutherland It had hot and cold water controlled by a hot-water furnace system; acetylene gas, a supply of staples in the kitchen. "The "Genius"" by Theodore Dreiser Its solution in hydrochloric acid readily absorbs carbon monoxide and acetylene; hence it finds application in gas analysis. "Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 7, Slice 3" by Various Calcium carbide owes its industrial importance to its decomposition into acetylene; lithium carbide behaves similarly. "Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 5, Slice 3" by Various Of special interest is the condensation of acetylene.

"Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 5, Slice 5" by Various How Radcliffe wished he had his acetylene lamp! "Unexplored!" by Allen Chaffee Our great acetylene eye, glaring ahead, gave Brown ample warning, and we slowed down, then stopped, while a train thundered past. "The Lightning Conductor" by C. N. Williamson It should never be forgotten that acetylene is an explosive gas and should be treated as such. "Optical Projection" by Lewis Wright The writer has used acetylene gas lamps for this purpose with great success. "Wireless Transmission of Photographs" by Marcus J. Martin Large quantities of acetylene are generated and stored for oxy-acetylene welding. "The New Gresham Encyclopedia. Vol. 1 Part 1" by Various Acetylene Gas produced by Edmond Davy. "The Progress of Invention in the Nineteenth Century." by Edward W. Byrn *** Down Wall, from girder into street noon leaks, A rip-tooth of the sky's acetylene; All afternoon the cloud-flown derricks turn . . . Thy cables breathe the North Atlantic still.

"To Brooklyn Bridge" by Harold Hart Crane In news: *** In science: Acetylene band at 13.7 µm from the Spitzer spectra, in the same order as Fig. 1. Spitzer observations of acetylene bands in carbon-rich AGB stars in the Large Magellanic Cloud Likewise, while C3Hn chains are stable and freezeoutdominated in our model, acetylene ice partially hydrogenates to form ethylene and ethane. Ice Lines, Planetesimal Composition and Solid Surface Density in the Solar Nebula For the C2Hn hydrocarbons, acetylene dominates over ethylene and ethane in the transSaturnian region, R > 10 AU. Ice Lines, Planetesimal Composition and Solid Surface Density in the Solar Nebula C2H2 + H → C2H3 (Hasegawa et al. 1992), which has to break the strong C-C triple bond, means that at the cold temperatures required for acetylene to deposit on grain surfaces, hydrogenation proceeds slowly.

Ice Lines, Planetesimal Composition and Solid Surface Density in the Solar Nebula Only when the disk is near the acetylene sublimation temperature (∼ 55 K) does a signiﬁcant amount of ethane form. Ice Lines, Planetesimal Composition and Solid Surface Density in the Solar Nebula A three qubit molecule was made from a sample of selectively labelled 13C tris(trimethylsilyl)silane-acetylene dissolved in deuterated chloroform . Randomized benchmarking of single and multi-qubit control in liquid-state NMR quantum information processing Mayer, “The effect of added acetylene on the rf discharge chemistry of C2 F6 . A mechanistic model for ﬂuorocarbon plasmas,” J. Summary and Outlook of the International Workshop on Aging Phenomena in Gaseous Detectors (DESY, Hamburg, October, 2001) He studied in some detail, for example, the helium molecule and considered the general theory of the vibration modes in molecules as well, with particular reference to the C2H2 molecule of acetylene (which presents peculiar geometric properties) .

Ettore Majorana and his heritage seventy years later *** acetylene - WordReference.com Dictionary of English acetylene WordReference Random House Learner's Dictionary of American English © 2017 a•cet•y•lene /əˈsɛtəˌlin, -lɪn/USA pronunciation n. [ uncountable ] Chemistrya colorless gas, used esp. in metal cutting and welding. WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2017 a•cet•y•lene (ə set′l ēn′, -in),USA pronunciation n. [Chem.] Chemistrya colorless gas, C2H2, having an etherlike odor, produced usually by the action of water on calcium carbide or by pyrolysis of natural gas: used esp. in metal cutting and welding, as an illuminant, and in organic synthesis. Also called ethine, ethyne. a•cet•y•len•ic (ə set′l en′ik),USA pronunciation adj.

1860–65; acetyl + -ene acetylene acetylene — acetylenic /euh set'l en"ik/, adj. /euh set"l een', -in/, n. Chem. a colorless gas, C2H2, having an etherlike odor, produced usually by the action of water on calcium carbide or by pyrolysis of natural gas: used esp. in metal cutting and welding, as an illuminant, and in organic synthesis. Also called ethine , ethyne . [1860-65; ACETYL + -ENE] or ethyne Simplest alkyne, C2H2. A colourless, flammable, explosive gas, it is used as a fuel in welding and cutting metals and as a raw material for many organic compounds and plastics. It is produced by reaction of water with calcium carbide, passage of a hydrocarbon through an electric arc, or partial combustion of methane. Decomposing it liberates heat; depending on degree of purity, it is also an explosive.

An acetylene torch reaches about 6,000 °F (3,300 °C), hotter than combustion of any other known gas mixture. See also hydrocarbon . * * * also called Ethyne , the simplest and best-known member of the hydrocarbon series containing one or more pairs of carbon atoms linked by triple bonds, called the acetylenic series, or alkynes. It is a colourless, inflammable gas widely used as a fuel in oxyacetylene welding and cutting of metals and as raw material in the synthesis of many organic chemicals and plastics; its chemical formula is C2H2. Pure acetylene is a colourless gas with a pleasant odour; as prepared from calcium carbide it usually contains traces of phosphine that cause an unpleasant garliclike odour. Acetylene can be decomposed to its elements with the liberation of heat. The decomposition may or may not give rise to explosion, depending on conditions. Pure acetylene under pressure in excess of about 15 pounds per square inch or in liquid or solid form explodes with extreme violence.

Mixtures of air and acetylene are explosive over a wide range, from about 2.5 percent air in acetylene to about 12.5 percent acetylene in air. When burned with the correct amount of air, acetylene gives a pure, white light, and for this reason it was at one time used for illumination in locations where electric power was not available, e.g., buoys, miners' lamps, and road signals. The combustion of acetylene produces a large amount of heat, and, in a properly designed torch, the oxyacetylene flame attains the highest flame temperature (about 6,000° F, or 3,300° C) of any known mixture of combustible gases. The hydrogen atoms in acetylene can be replaced by metallic elements to form acetylides—e.g., acetylides of silver, copper, or sodium. The acetylides of silver, copper, mercury, and gold are detonated by heat, friction, or shock. In addition to its reactive hydrogen atom, the carbon–carbon triple bond can readily add halogens, halogen acids, hydrogen cyanide, alcohols, amines, and amides.

Acetylene can also add to itself or to aldehydes and ketones. Many of the reactions mentioned here are used for the commercial manufacture of various industrial and consumer products, such as acetaldehyde, the synthetic rubber neoprene, water-base paints, vinyl fabric and floor coverings, dry-cleaning solvents, and aerosol insecticide sprays. Acetylene is produced by any of three methods: by reaction of water with calcium carbide, by passage of a hydrocarbon through an electric arc, or by partial combustion of methane with air or oxygen. * * * acetylene acetylene acetylene defined in 1939 year acetylene - Acetylene; acetylene - Hydrocarbon gas (C2H2), with a smell not unpleasant when pure but very unpleasant as commercially produced. Prepared by the action of water on calcium carbide, itself produced from coal and lime, it is a valuable illuminant and a fundamental material for the preparation of the hydrocarbon plastics, including the important vinyl and poly-vinyl series. The well-known polyvinyl chloride (P.V.C.) plastic is a combination of acetylene and hydrochloric acid polymerized under heat and catalysts.

Acetylene and acetic acid are polymerized to form vinyl acetate. From acetylene is also produced a series of products used as solvents for plastics (e.g. acetone) or as "plasticizers," i.e. chemical agents that make cellulose products more flexible and suitable as plastics. When mixed with oxygen or air in certain proportions acetylene gas explodes with great violence with an enormous liberation of heat. This fact is made use of ia the oxy-acetylene flame, which has the extremely high temperature of over 3,000° C. and is used for welding and cutting metals. Acetylene is a strong illuminant giving a very white flame, a light source sixteen times greater than an equal volume of coal-gas. Its spectrum is very similar to that of sunlight. When liquefied and dissolved in acetone it can be compressed without risk (dissolved acetylene). Acetylene generators for indoor and outdoor lighting consist of carbide chambers, washers, gas holders, and purifiers. Copper piping must not be used owing to the formation of an explosive compound.

Acetylene is particularly suitable for outdoor lighting for hand or contractors' lamps of from 20 to 2,500 candle power. See Calcium Carbide. Untitled Document By LiIeut.-Col. David Porter Heap, Corps of Engineers, U. S. A. Cosmopolitan Magazine September 1901 In 1836 Edmund Davy, an English chemist, secured a by-product to the production of metallic potassium which would decompose water with the evolution of a gas containing acetylene. In 1862 Woehler announced that calcium carbide, which he had made by heating an alloy of zinc and calcium with charcoal to a very high temperature, would decompose water and yield a gas containing acetylene like Davy's compound. Up to 1892 these two substances-calcium carbide and its product, acetylenewere practically forgotten. In the mean time the modern electric furnace. had been developed, and in the year 1892 Mr. Thomas L. Wilson, while conducting experiments at Spray, North Carolina, for the purpose of preparing metallic calcium by operating on a mixture of lime and coal, secured a melted mass of dark color.

This mass, when thrown in a neighboring stream, evolved a great quantity of gas which, on being lighted, burned with a brilliant but smoky flame. Thus were calcium carbide and acetylene gas first prepared on a scale large enough to be of value commercially. Calcium carbide is now produced commercially in many places-notably at Niagara Falls, New York, where the requisite electric current to produce the high temperature needed (4500 Fahrenheit) can be readily and cheaply obtained. Ground coke and lime are intimately mixed in the proper proportions and placed in the electric furnace-, the result is that fifty-six parts of lime and thirty-six of coke will make sixty-four parts calcium carbide and liberate twenty-eight parts carbon monoxide. If the lime and coke are pure, an ingot of pure carbide will be formed, surrounded by a crust of material less pure because partially unconverted.

Calcium carbide is dark brown or black; crystalline and brittle; has a specific gravity of 2.22 to 2.26; may be heated to redness without change; will soften and fuse in an electric furnace; will not burn except when heated in oxygen; and will keep indefinitely if sealed from the air, but will absorb moisture from the air and gradually slake like ordinary lime. If placed in water, or in any liquid containing water, it will effervesce vigorously and liberate acetylene gas. Calcium carbide consists of lime and carbon (Ca C2). In contact with water, the lime combines with the oxygen of the water, making slaked lime, and the carbon with the hydrogen, making acetylene gas (C, H2). One pound of absolutely pure carbide will produce five and one-half cubic feet of gas; but, as absolutely pure carbide is not made commercially, the usual ratio is one pound of carbide to four and one-half cubic feet of acetylene.

Acetylene is a colorless gas possessing an offensive odor similar to decayed garlic, and so penetrating that one part of gas in ten thousand of air is distinctly noticeable -a valuable property, as by it leaks can be known long before they become dangerous. The odor is entirely due to impurities in the coke and lime; pure coke and pure lime will yield pure carbide. When the gas is burned in a proper jet, there is no odor. Water will dissolve its volume of acetylene if intimately mixed, but if the acetylene rests on top of the water, the top layer of water becomes saturated and prevents the gas from penetrating farther. Like all gases which burn in the air, it will explode when mixed with air in the proper proportions, prior to ignition. One part of acetylene with twelve and one-half parts of air will produce perfect combustion; the same proportions will also produce the most violent explosion, though it will also explode with a greater or less proportion of air, varying from three to eighty-two per cent. Acetylene gas, unmixed with air, is not explosive at ordinary pressure, and modern burners are so constructed that the air for combustion is supplied after the gas issues from the jet.

The illuminating power of acetylene, in a proper burner, is greater than that of any other known gas; the flame is absolutely white and of great brilliancy; its spectrum closely approximates that of sunlight, and consequently it shows the same colors as daylight. It is strongly actinic and well adapted for photography. It neither heats nor pollutes the air so much as coal-gas. It is one of the cheapest illuminants known-kerosene being its closest rival in economy. One pound of calcium carbide, costing at the present price three and one-half cents, will make four and one-half cubic feet of acetylene gas, which will produce two hundred and twenty-five candlepower for one hour. It will take fifty-six and one-fourth cubic feet of ordinary city gas to give the same amount of light, and at one dollar per thousand feet, city gas would cost five and six-tenths cents to produce the same light as acetylene.

Although there are many other uses of this new gas, the most important and the most valuable is as an illuminant, and the very fact that its generation, by adding water to carbide, is so easy, has flooded the Patent Office with a number of crude appliances-the inventors of which did not understand the properties of the gas nor the simple precautions to be taken to insure its safe generation. At the Pan-American Exposition-where I had the honor to be the chairman of the Committee on Awards to which was assigned the examination of the acetylene generators exhibited-a set of requirements was drawn up by the committee which, if followed, would produce a nearly ideal generator. The generators were examined and tested, not only according to the directions given by the makers, but also by experiments which might be made by extremely careless and ignorant attendants the object being to find out how nearly "fool-proof" the generators had been made. Each requirement was given a certain weight, by which the marks given to the requirement were to be multiplied. The highest mark given to any one requirement was ten, and in order to compute the final rating of the generator this mark was multiplied by the weight given to each requirement in the table below.

A generator which complied with every requirement would thus receive a total of one thousand one hundred and sixty points. If an intending purchaser would use this method in examining a generator and refuse to buy one which did not receive ninety-five per cent. of the above number of points, or one thousand one hundred and two points, he would be sure to select a safe and satisfactory generator. Requirements for a Good Stationery Acetylene Generator for House Lighting The carbide should be automatically fed into the water in proportion to the gas consumption. 2 In addition to the above, generators must conform to the rules and regulations of the fire underwriters. The purchaser of a generator should ob serve the following additional precautions: Carbide should be kept in air-tight cans and stored in a dry place. The generator should be situated in a place where the water will not freeze. All pipes should be very carefully tested for leaks. A leak can be found by putting soapy water in the suspected part. Never hunt for a leak with a light. The generator should be charged in day-time, and no light should be brought within twenty feet of it. It is a good plan to discharge the refuse in a sewer, as it is a good disinfectant.

The Acetylene Building is the most brilliantly and beautifully lighted in the grounds; it sparkles like a diamond, is the admiration of all visitors. In it are generators of all types-most of them supplying the gas for their own exhibits - several being the latest exponents of the art, so simple in operation that they can be safely managed by unskilled labor; in fact, the "brains are in the machines," and when the attendant has charged them with carbide and filled them with water-given them food and drink-they will work steadily until they need another meal. Acetylene gas has proved its case so far as house-lighting is concerned. Among its other applications are: searchlights for small yachts (the same generator also lighting the yachts) ; mast- and sidelights for steamers; car-lighting; lighting railroad stations; bicycle-lamps; carriage lanterns; photography; lights for stereopticons; and signaling devices-the latter having recently been improved and made light and portable, promising to be of great utility to the United States Signal Service. It is also used for heating purposes in cooking and laundry stoves and in Bunsen burners, and explosively in gas-engines.

One peculiarity of acetylene is that the greatest light which can be successfully and economically obtained from a single burner is about fifty candle-power. The same power is produced more conveniently from what is known as the fourth-order kerosene lamp in the light-house service; consequently there is no object in using acetylene gas for light-house purposes at stations provided with keepers. Experiments are now in progress at the light-house depot at Tompkinsville, Staten Island, New York, to determine its value for lighting beacons for forty days continuously without attendance; the idea being that a number of beacons so lighted need be visited but once a month, thus reducing the cost of maintenance. The special application in view is at Mobile Bay, Alabama, where there are sixteen beacons to mark the channel; and if the experiments prove successful, these beacons can be charged in one day every month, and will need no further attention.

No device which is both practical and safe has yet been made to use acetylene for gas-lighted buoys; liquefied acetylene has been tried, and though it gave a good and light, difficulties were encountered in its successful operation, and besides, it has not yet been demonstrated that acetylene in this form can be handled with absolute safety. * The author is indebted for many of the facts in this article to a pamphlet entitled, " The Application of Acetylene Illumination to Country Homes," written by Prof. G. G. Pond, Ph.D. What does acetylene mean? Definitions for acetyleneəˈsɛt lˌin, -ɪn This page provides all possible meanings and translations of the word acetylene Princeton's WordNet(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition: acetylene, ethyne, alkyne(noun) a colorless flammable gas used chiefly in welding and in organic synthesis Wiktionary(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition: acetylene(Noun) Any organic compound having one or more carbonu2013carbon triple bonds; an alkyne.

acetylene(Noun) Ethyne; the simplest alkyne, a hydrocarbon of formula HCu2261CH. It is a colourless gas, with a peculiar, unpleasant odour, formerly used as an illuminating gas, but now used in welding or metallurgy. Origin: From acétylène, coined by French chemist Marcellin Berthelot, from acetyl. Webster Dictionary(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition: Acetylene(noun) a gaseous compound of carbon and hydrogen, in the proportion of two atoms of the former to two of the latter. It is a colorless gas, with a peculiar, unpleasant odor, and is produced for use as an illuminating gas in a number of ways, but chiefly by the action of water on calcium carbide. Its light is very brilliant Freebase(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition: Acetylene Acetylene is the chemical compound with the formula C2H2. It is a hydrocarbon and the simplest alkyne. This colorless gas is widely used as a fuel and a chemical building block.

It is unstable in pure form and thus is usually handled as a solution. Pure acetylene is odorless, but commercial grades usually have a marked odor due to impurities. As an alkyne, acetylene is unsaturated because its two carbon atoms are bonded together in a triple bond. The carbon–carbon triple bond places all four atoms in the same straight line, with CCH bond angles of 180°. Since acetylene is a linear symmetrical molecule, it possesses the D∞h point group. Chambers 20th Century Dictionary(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition: Acetylene a-set′i-lēn, n. a powerful illuminant gas (C2H2) produced commercially from carbide of calcium by means of water. Numerology The numerical value of acetylene in Chaldean Numerology is: 5 Pythagorean Numerology

Question: Which powerful illuminant gas is produce from the action of water on calcium carbide?
Answer: Acetylene