The basket and its support are so arranged that when a suitable
charge of carbide has been dropped into it, a partial rotation of an
external hand-wheel lifts the basket and carbide out of the oil into an
air-tight portion of the generator where the surplus oil can drain away
from the lumps. A further rotation of the hand-wheel then tips the basket
over a partition inside the apparatus, allowing the carbide to fall into
the actual decomposing chamber. This method of using oil has the
advantage of making the evolution of acetylene on a large scale appear to
proceed more quietly than usual, and also of removing the dust from the
carbide before it reaches the water of the generator. The oil itself
obviously does not enter the decomposing chamber to any appreciable
extent and therefore does not contaminate the final sludge. The whole
process accordingly lies to be favourably distinguished from those other
methods of employing oil in generators or in the treatment of carbide
which are referred to elsewhere in this book.
NON-AUTOMATIC WATER-TO-CARBIDE GENERATORS.--The only principle underlying
the satisfactory design of a non-automatic water-to-carbide generator is
to ensure the presence of water in excess at the spot where decomposition
is taking place.
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