THE "DRY" PROCESS OF GENERATION.--A process for generating acetylene,
totally different in principle from those hitherto considered, has been
introduced in this country. According to the original patents of G. J.
Atkins, the process consisted in bringing small or powdered carbide into
mechanical contact with some solid material containing water, the water
being either mixed with the solid reagent or attached to it as water of
crystallisation. Such reagents indeed were claimed as crude starch and
the like, the idea being to recover a by-product of pecuniary value. Now
the process seems to be known only in that particular form in which
granulated carbide is treated with crystallised sodium carbonate,
_i.e._, common washing soda. Assuming the carbide employed to be
chemically pure and the reaction between it and the water of
crystallisation contained in ordinary soda crystals to proceed
quantitatively, the production of acetylene by the dry process should be
represented by the following chemical equation:
5CaC_2 + Na_2CO_3.10H_2O = 5C_2H_2 + 5Ca(OH)_2 + Na_2CO_3.
On calculating out the molecular weights, it will be seen that 286 parts
of washing soda should suffice for the decomposition of 320 parts of pure
calcium carbide, or in round numbers 9 parts of soda should decompose 10
parts of carbide.
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