Some experiments reported by R. Granjon and P. Mauricheau-Beaupre in 1906
indicate, however, that phosphine in the gas is the primary cause of the
growths upon non-injector burners. According to these investigators the
combustion of the phosphine causes a deposit at the burner orifices of
phosphoric acid, which is raised by the flame to a temperature higher
than that of the burner. This hot deposit then decomposes some acetylene,
and the carbon deposited therefrom is rendered incombustible by the
phosphoric acid which continues to be produced from the combustion of the
phosphine in the gas. The incombustible deposit of carbon and phosphoric
acid thus produced ultimately chokes the burner.
It will appear in Chapter XI. that some of the first endeavours to avoid
burner troubles were based on the dilution of the acetylene with carbon
dioxide or air before the gas reached the place of combustion; while the
subsequent paragraphs will show that the same result is arrived at more
satisfactorily by diluting the acetylene with air during its actual
passage through the burner. It seems highly probable that the beneficial
effect of the earliest methods was due simply or primarily to the
dilution, the molecules of the acetylene being partially protected from
the heat of the burner by the molecules of a gas which was not injured by
the high temperature, and which attracted to itself part of the heat that
would otherwise have been communicated to the hydrocarbon.
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