Following the lines which have been adopted in
writing the present book, it is not proposed to discuss the possibility
of making mixed carbides; but it may be said in brief that Brame and
Lewes have carried out several experiments in this direction, using
charges of lime and coke containing (_a_) up to 20 per cent. of
manganese oxide, and (_b_) more than 60 per cent. of manganese
oxide. In neither case did they succeed in obtaining a material which
gave a mixture of acetylene and methane when treated with water; in case
(_a_) they found the gas to be practically pure acetylene, so that
the carbide must have been calcium carbide only; in case (_b_) the
gas was mainly methane and hydrogen, so that the carbide must have been
essentially that of manganese alone. Mixed charges containing between 20
and 60 per cent. of manganese oxide remain to be studied; but whether
they would give mixed carbides or no, it would be perfectly simple to mix
ready-made carbides of calcium and manganese together, if any demand for
a diluted acetylene should arise on a sufficiently large scale. It is,
however, somewhat difficult to appreciate the benefits to be obtained
from forms of diluted acetylene other than those to which reference is
made later in this chapter.
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