under the name of
carburetted acetylene, and one other possible method of obtaining a
diluted acetylene directly from the gas-generator, to which a few words
will now be devoted. [Footnote: Mixtures of acetylene with relatively
large proportions of other illuminating gases, such as are referred to on
subsequent pages, are also, from one aspect, forms of diluted acetylene.]
Calcium carbide is only one particular specimen of a large number of
similar metallic compounds, which can be prepared in the electric
furnace, or otherwise. Some of those carbides yield acetylene when
treated with water, some are not attacked, some give liquid products, and
some yield methane, or mixtures of methane and hydrogen. Among the latter
is manganese carbide. If, then, a mixture of manganese carbide and
calcium carbide is put into an ordinary acetylene generator, the gas
evolved will be a mixture of acetylene with methane and hydrogen in
proportions depending upon the composition of the carbide mixture. It is
clear that a suitable mixture of the carbides might be made by preparing
them separately and bulking the whole in the desired proportions; while
since manganese carbide can be won in the electric furnace, it might be
feasible to charge into such a furnace a mixture of lime, coke, and
manganese oxide calculated to yield a simple mixture of the carbides or a
kind of double carbide.
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