AI Bringing Engines to Life

[BazyleParticipant @bazyle]

The gas produced by these wood based generators won’t have much Hydrogen in teh mix, just methane and C0. The H2 in town gas was produced by a secondary phase in the process that was run in a two stage process which you all learned about in O-level chemistry. After the coal was heated by passing air through the fire driving off the volatiles it was sprayed with water that dissociated into hydrogen and CO.

[Nigel Graham 2Participant @nigelgraham2]

Jason, Roderick –

You are right. Acetylene lamps were used by cavers in the past, and even enjoyed a slightly anachronistic resurgence in the 1980s-200s when advances in caving equipment and methods barred the liquid-electrolyte, ex-mining, battery electric lamps that had originally replaced “carbide”.

The serious hazard was that any leaking electrolyte, either alkali (Ni-FE cells) or acid (lead-plates), would attack the synthetic fibres in modern ropes, harnesses and clothing. Oh, and skin… but that might be your lesser worry.

Then the development of small, sealed rechargeable cells (Ni-Cad and now Li-ion) and later, l.e.d. luminaires resulted in replacing both the miners’ lamps and the acetylene ones. And giving ideal components for miniature lamps for models, and spot illuminants for machine-tools.

I have not seen acetylene lamps and calcium-carbide for sale for a long time now. I even donated my “Petzl”-made acetylene lamp, with its large belt-slung generator, to Wells Museum’s caving-history display.

 

There are two vital safety points to consider with acetylene:

1) It is very unstable under pressure, liable to ignite at only about 2Bar.

2) Copper must not be used for acetylene gas generators, pipes and vessels, especially in the presence of moisture. They react to produce explosive copper acetylide.

The older type, helmet-mounted, “Premier”-brand carbide lamp once used by cavers and in ore mines and underground stone quarries was of brass, which seemed to withstand the actylene.

 

Some will know of Steve Baldock’s (4″-scale?) caterpillar-tracked traction-engine. That has prototypical acetylene lighting, using a modern, plastic “Petzl”-made caving-lamp generator inside a casing styled externally to resemble the original, full-size generator.

 

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