﻿Acetylene. 89 



forms whenever a Bunsen burner strikes down, he would 

 have said that the idea was absurd. If a physicist had 

 been told that the electric furnace was to be used to 

 produce illuminating gas on a commercial scale he 

 would have said it was quite impossible. But distin- 

 guished electricians were explaining that the telephone 

 was impossible, while Graham Bell was inventing that 

 instrument. So that scientific men will be well advised 

 not to utter general opinions about the possibilities of the 

 success of any new enterprise, and I shall endeavour to 

 confine myself to the statement of certain facts and to 

 the description of laboratory experiments, which consti- 

 tute some new data which can be used to form an opinion 

 regarding at least one side of this subject. 



The chemistry of the manufacture of acetylene is very 

 simple. Quicklime is reduced by carbon in an electric 

 furnace to carbide of calcium, and enough carbon is taken 

 not only to combine with the calcium to form carbide of 

 calcium, but also to burn with the oxygen of the quick- 

 lime and to remove it as carbonic oxide. The process is 

 represented by the equation : CaO -f 3C = CaC, + CO. 

 The carbide is obtained as a melted mass with crystalline 

 structure, which when brought in contact with water is 

 transformed to slacked lime,' and to acetylene which is 

 given off as a gas. The formula for this transformation 

 is : CaC2 + 2H2O = Ca(0H)2 + C2H,. All the alkaline 

 earths and alumina have been subjected to the same treat- 

 ment, and it has been found that the carbides of barium, 

 strontium and calcium have similar formuhie, and give off 

 acetylene when treated with water. The carbide of 

 aluminum has the formula : AI4C3, and evolves marsh gas 

 when treated with water. It may be added that a mix- 

 ture of silica and carbon yields the carbide of silicon, SiC. 

 The compound is formed when the two boches meet as 

 vapours in the intense heat of the electric furnace and 

 combine as a sublimate of beautiful crystals, now sold 



