Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 19, Number 23, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 November 1897 — Acetylene Gas. [ARTICLE]

Acetylene Gas.

Editor Republican: On reading your notice of an Acetylene Gas Plant being put into an office here in Rensselaer it occurred to the writer that a few’ facts regarding that gas might be of interest to some of your readers. Acetylene has been a subject of much investigation the past two years It is a very strong- gas, giving about ten times as strong a light as common gas in the common flat burner and about three times as strong as the Welsbach burner. It is also much more expensive than common gas,.‘and will continue to be so until Calcium Carbide can be manufactured much cheaper than at present. But the principal point I desire to call attention to is the explosive danger, which as yet, Scientists have been unable to overcome. The Scientific American, the Popular Science Monthly, several of the Literary Magazines and the leading papers have devoted considerable space to Acetylene during the past two years, and all accounts concur in emphasizing its dangerous explosive nature.

Mr. S. E. Tillman'in alate number of the Cosmopolitan Magazine refers to this matter and a part of his article is given below, for the same purpose this article is written to show the advisability of making full and careful investigations before investing in an Acetylene Plant. Writing of the experiments made with this new gas, Mr. Tillman says: “The ease with which it can be liquified and be converted into a gas led at first to the conclusion that it might be conveniently kept in the liquid form and converted into gas as needed. Investigations since made by Berthelat prove that the liquid gas under pressure, as in tanks, is explosive. The explosion may be brought about by a spark or any sufficient elevat’.on of temperature. The gas itself, under a pressure greater than about two atmospheres, is explosive in the same way. There have been a number of instances in which the substance under the conditions just cited, has exploded, in several cases with terrific results. The explosions here referred to are independent of the presence of air, and are due to the endothermic nature of the gas. It is also established that at atmospheric pressure a mixture of three per cent, of acetylene gas with air is explosive, and such mixture continues explosive until the acetylene exceeds 82 per cent, of the mixture. -On account of its explosive properties the use of acetylene has been prohibited in Germany. Acetylene is heavier than coalgas, and would, when escaping by a leak, diffuse much less rapidly than common gas, and thus would sooner bring about an explosive mixture near the leak.” R. W.