Gerdes' failure to obtain an explosive compound in any
circumstances may very possibly be explained by the entire absence of any
oxygen from his cylinders and gases, so that any copper carbide produced
remained unoxidised. Grittner's gas was derived, at least partially, from
a public acetylene supply, and is quite likely to have been contaminated
with air in sufficient quantity to oxidise the original copper compound,
and to convert it into the explosive modification.
For the foregoing reasons the use of unalloyed copper in the construction
of acetylene generators or in the subsidiary items of the plant, as well
as in burner fittings, is forbidden by statute or some quasi-legal
enactment in most countries, and in others the metal has been abandoned
for one of its alloys, or for iron or steel, as the case may be.
Grittner's experiments mentioned above, however, probably explain why
even alloys of copper are forbidden in Hungary. (_Cf._ Chapter IV.,
page 127.)
When acetylene is passed over finely divided copper or iron (obtained by
reduction of the oxide by hydrogen) heated to from 130 deg. C. to 250 deg.
C., the gas is more or less completely decomposed, and various products,
among which hydrogen predominates, result.
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