JOURNAL OF PROCEEDINGS. 



ACETYLENE GAS. 



Read before the Hamilton Association, Nov. 7th, 1895. Enlarged before the 

 Physical Section, Maij 21st, 1896. 



BY MR. GEO. BLACK. 



Great inventions and discoveries are often apparently the re- 

 sult of accident, but the seizure of the occasion and turning it to 

 account marks the true scientist. Such was the case when our 

 countryman, Thos. L. Willson, discovered his method of producing 

 calcium carbide, for it was known to chemists as a rare product, as 

 shown by the following references : 



Sir Humphrey Davey observed that when Carbon and Potas- 

 sium were heated sufficiently to vaporize the potassium, a substance 

 was formed which has been recognized as the first reference to a 

 group of carbides. 



In 1836 Brezelius announced that the black substance formed 

 in small quantities as a by-product in producing potassium from po- 

 tassic carbonate and carbon was carbide of potassium. 



Wohler, in 1862, announced that he had made the carbide of 

 calcium by fusing an alloy of zinc and calcium with carbon. He 

 ascertained that it decomposed in contact with water, forming cal- 

 cic hyrate and acetylene. 



Berthelot, in 1866, described sodium carbide or acetylene so- 

 dium. He discovered that the high temperature of the electric arc 

 within an atmosphere of hydrogen would unite with carbon of the 

 charcoal terminals and form acetylene gas. 



In 1888, Willson, in experimenting with his electric furnace trying 

 to form an alloy of calcium from some of its compounds, noticed 

 that a mixture containing lime and powdered anthracite acted on by 

 the arc fused down to a heavy semi metallic mass, which having 

 been examined and found not to be the substance sought for was 

 thrown into a bucket containing water near at hand with the result 



