Using a
generator designed to supply five burners, he has found a maximum
recording thermometer placed in the gas space of the apparatus to give
readings generally between 60 deg. and 100 deg. C.; but in two tests out
of ten he obtained temperatures of about 160 deg. C. To determine the
actual temperature of the calcium carbide itself, he scattered amongst the
carbide charge fragments of different fusible metallic alloys which were
known to melt or soften at certain different temperatures. In all his ten
tests the alloys melting at 120 deg. C. were fused completely; in two tests
other alloys melting at 216 deg. and 240 deg. C. showed signs of fusion;
and in one test an alloy melting at 280 deg. C. began to soften. Working
with an experimental apparatus constructed on the "dripping" principle--
_i.e._, a generator in which water is allowed to fall in single
drops or as a fine stream upon a mass of carbide--with the deliberate
object of ascertaining the highest temperatures capable of production
when calcium carbide is decomposed in this particular fashion, and
employing for the measurement of the heat a Le Chatelier thermo-couple,
with its sensitive wires lying among the carbide lumps, Lewes has
observed a maximum temperature of 674 deg.
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