FARM SANITATION 



517 



Being a rich gas, acetylene will form a dangerously explo- 

 sive mixture with air; yet an explosive mixture, which must 

 contain between J4 to 25 times as much air as gas, is so 

 unlikely to occur, on account of the ease by which gas leaks 

 are detected, that accidents are seldom heard of. 



Acetylene gas will cause asphyxiation, yet not nearly so 

 readily as coal gas, which is used for illumination in the cities. 

 No fatal results from inhalation are on record, and it is 

 claimed that death could not occur until the gas was present 

 in the proportion of at least 20 per cent. 



Production of Acetylene Gas. When calcium carbide is 

 mixed with water, each pound should, if the carbide is chem- 

 ically pure, yield 5^ cubic feet of gas. This gas is very rich, 

 containing about 1700 British thermal units per cubic foot, 

 nearly three times that of 

 coal gas. The commer- 

 cial carbide yields from 

 4J4 to 5J4 cubic feet, de- 

 pending somewhat upon 

 its purity, the moisture 

 absorbed,and the amount 

 of dust present. Theo- 

 retically, .562 pound of 

 water will be needed for 

 each pound of carbide, 

 but in practice as much 



Fig. 316. A section of the generator 



aS eight pOimdS are SUp- shown in Fig. 31S. A is the motor or 



... _,, clockwork for operating the carbide feed, 



plied. 1 he mOSt COm- B is the carbide feed, C is the weight for 



. , , running the motor, D is the carbide bin, 



Size Ol burner USed E is the agitator in the water tank for 



, / -i'f f storing up the residue before cleaning, 



y^ CUDIC tOOt OI p i s the gas holder, G is the gas filter, 



gas per hour, and gives a and H is the pipe 1Ine to 8Upply lamps ' 

 25-candle-power light. Other standard sizes are the 1, %, 

 and M cubic foot burners. These burners are all forked in 



