Acetylene generator ?

[chunkolini]

Sounds like great fun, until it becomes neccessary.
A not particularly relevant but interesting observation.
Right in the spirit of this forum.

 

[the snooper]

No. You can buy small cylinders of gas which are used for welding and will not explode and kill you very often and you will need an oxygen generator as well. Welcome and stay safe.

so if you use one of these ancient acetylene generators expect to be killed on a regular basis, at least weekly

never seen this post before, until jan revived it toady

 

[mike os]

I have played with an old carbide lamp... not the best idea in the world really

 

[julianthegypsy]

I've actually used a low pressure generator, and I'm less than 108 years old! They are everywhere in Indonesia, you see people using them by the side of the road, along with lots of other technical equipment such as a bent screwdriver and safety welding flip flops. They are usually sealed with old bicycle inner tubes and have a heap of used carbide in front of them. Great fun, but I don't think I'd want one in my shop really...

 

[brightspark]

not nice things going up in your face . was at college in the machine shop and old mr jones the lecturer asked me for a match to light the forge , the forge has a back and sides with a hood and chimney on it the hearth has crushed fire bricks and a gas burner, that ist lit by a pilot gas burner then u turn the main burner on , stupid old git turned the main burner on and let the gas build up in the forge and chimney . me not noticing lit the match and a bloody great flame and whoosh followed . me hair was all burnt no eyebrows and me face as red as a baboons a...se that makes u think in future be carefull

 

[shenion]

Some of the cavers I have gone with still used acetylene headlamps. They'd startle you if you were next to them and they "popped off".

Those had strikers built into them; had a wheel you turned on the back of the reflector. Lighting did seem much of a problem.

 

[madkayaker]

a few cavers i used to work withed loved the old carbide light as it was also a good inductor of oxygen levels apparently

 

[TechnicAl]

Can you still buy Calcium Carbide?

 

[Tiggy_dorset]

Can you still buy Calcium Carbide?

Eblag brings up a few hits. Apparently it is also sold as a mole and root vole expeller.

 

[TechnicAl]

Eblag brings up a few hits. Apparently it is also sold as a mole and root vole expeller.

Im not surprised
It gives me a headache

When I was a lab lad we used to play with it..........making explosives mostly

If we did now what we did then we would be on terrrorism charges

 

[brightspark]

Im not surprised
It gives me a headache

When I was a lab lad we used to play with it..........making explosives mostly

If we did now what we did then we would be on terrrorism charges

lol a lad at school made a weedkiller and sugar bomb and let it off outside the science lab 40 years ago there was hell on but the teachers didnt know what it was and no one grassed him up . as said nowdays u would get banged up for it

 

[Jan]

Oops! perhaps I shouldn't mention the several pounds of black powder lurking in a corner of my shed. I didn't say that: Right?

 

[the snooper]

Oops! perhaps I shouldn't mention the several pounds of black powder lurking in a corner of my shed. I didn't say that: Right?

so you've emptied the toner out of your printer then

 

[brightspark]

Oops! perhaps I shouldn't mention the several pounds of black powder lurking in a corner of my shed. I didn't say that: Right?

this isnt u is it http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgu...i=TVfYUpeqE4mO7AbmkIEI&sqi=2&ved=0CI4BEPwdMAo
[

 

[PTvor]

Can you still buy Calcium Carbide?

Cavers use it in lamps.

They don't like having a single source of light, and I suppose it's traditional for them. You can also write your name in soot on cave walls with the flame, which is also traditional.

My dad told me that before the war he had a bike with a carbide lamp, which was common at the time. He went over a pot hole and the water control went haywire. The lamp produced a sheet of flame three feet long and sot fire to his front tyre.

You could also use it for fishing. You needed one of those old fashioned cider bottles with a sort of ceramic screw stopper, with a hole drilled through.

 

[brightspark]

this it what we used to use for fuses dunno if there still available . probably not http://www.jetex.org/motors/fuse.html

 

[PTvor]

Jetex fuse was what we used to use for our 'experiments'.

The advantage was that it was thin, so if you couldn't make proper gun powder, and it's a bit of a performance, there's certainly more to it than just mixing the ingredients, you could get away with a very small hole in the 35mm film can or whatever you were using, and the pressure could build up.

 

[Jan]

The 'trick' to combining the ingredients of black powder is first to add water and then only use only non-ferrous materials to grind it down to a fine paste and letting it dry to a powder. One spark and you're in orbit!

As for overthrowing the current method of government in the UK: A quick death is far too good for the bar stewards. I favour hanging, drawing and quartering followed by stoning, pillorying, ducking and finally burning at the stake. I might be inclined to save a few for slower and more painful methods of execution

 

[the snooper]

The 'trick' to combining the ingredients of black powder is first to add water and then only use only non-ferrous materials to grind it down to a fine paste and letting it dry to a powder. One spark and you're in orbit!

As for overthrowing the current method of government in the UK: A quick death is far too good for the bar stewards. I favour hanging, drawing and quartering followed by stoning, pillorying, ducking and finally burning at the stake. I might be inclined to save a few for slower and more painful methods of execution

so in general you quite like the those in power at the min

 

[TechnicAl]

Oops! perhaps I shouldn't mention the several pounds of black powder lurking in a corner of my shed. I didn't say that: Right?

Rotherham.............hope youre on the opposite side to me...........Wickersley