The type of burner and the pressure employed in these
experiments were not, however, stated. This system has been used at
certain stations on the "Midi" railway in France. Nevertheless even where
the admixture of air to acetylene is legally permissible, the risk of
obtaining a really dangerous product and the nebulous character of the
advantages attainable should preclude its adoption.
In Great Britain the manufacture, importation, storage, and use of
acetylene mixed with air or oxygen, in all proportions and at all
pressures, with or without the presence of other substances, is
prohibited by an Order in Council dated July 1900; to which prohibition
the mixture of acetylene and air that takes place in a burner or
contrivance in which the mixture is intended to be burnt, and the
admixture of air with acetylene that may unavoidably occur in the first
use or recharging of an apparatus (usually a water-to-carbide generator),
properly designed and constructed with a view to the production of pure
acetylene, are the solitary exceptions.
MIXED CARBIDES.--In fact the only processes for diluting acetylene which
possess real utility are that of adding vaporised petroleum spirit or
benzene to the gas, as was described in Chapter X.
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