To meet this objection, acetylene generators have been invented
in which, broadly speaking, gas is only produced when it is required,
control of the chemical reaction devolving upon some mechanical
arrangement. There are, therefore, two radically different types of
acetylene apparatus to be met with, known respectively as "automatic" and
"non-automatic" generators. In a non-automatic generator the whole of the
calcium carbide put into the apparatus is more or less rapidly
decomposed, and the entire volume of gas evolved from it is collected in
a holder, there to await the moment of consumption. In an automatic
apparatus, by means of certain devices which will be discussed in their
proper place, the act of turning on a burner-tap causes some acetylene to
be produced, and the act of turning it off brings the reaction to an end,
thus obviating the necessity for storage. That, at any rate, is the
logical definition of the two fundamentally different kinds of generator:
in automatic apparatus the decomposition of the carbide is periodically
interrupted in such fashion as more or less accurately to synchronise
with the consumption of gas; in the non-automatic variety decomposition
proceeds without a break until the carbide vessels are empty.
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