of air in a large vessel approached with a flame. Moreover,
safely to prepare such mixtures, after the proportion of air had been
decided upon, would require the employment of some additional perfectly
trustworthy automatic mechanism to the plant to draw into the apparatus a
quantity of air strictly in accordance with the volume of acetylene made
--a pair of meters geared together, one for the gas, the other for the
air--and this would introduce extra complexity and extra expense. On the
whole the idea cannot be recommended, and the action of the British Home
Office in prohibiting the use of all such mixtures except those
unavoidably produced in otherwise good generators, or in burners of the
ordinary injector type, is perfectly justifiable. The derivation and
effect of the other gaseous and liquid generator impurities in acetylene
were described in Chapter II. Besides these, very hot gas has been found
to contain notable amounts of hydrogen and carbon monoxide, both of which
burn with non-luminous flames. The most plausible explanation of their
origin has been given by Lewes, who suggests that they may be formed by
the action of water-vapour upon very hot carbide or upon carbon separated
therefrom as the result of previous dissociation among the gases present;
the steam and the carbon reacting together at a temperature of 500 deg.
Pages:
297
298
299
300
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321