It is well known that many hydrocarbon vapours,
such as the vapour of benzene or of naphthalene, have a highly toxic
action on low organisms, and the destructive effect of acetylene on
phylloxera may be akin to this action.
As gaseous acetylene will bear a certain amount of pressure in safety--a
pressure falling somewhat short of one effective atmosphere--and as
pressure naturally rises in a generating apparatus where calcium carbide
reacts with water, it becomes possible to use this pressure as a source
of energy for several purposes. The pressure of the gas may, in fact, be
employed either to force a stream of liquid through a pipe, or to propel
certain mechanism. An apparatus has been constructed in France on the
lines of some portable fire-extinguishing appliances in which the
pressure set up by the evolution of acetylene in a closed space produces
a spray of water charged with lime and gas under the pressure obtaining;
the liquid being thrown over growing vines or other plants in order to
destroy parasitic and other forms of life. The apparatus consists of a
metal cylinder fitted with straps so that it can be carried by man or
beast. At one end it has an attachment for a flexible pipe, at the other
end a perforated basket for carbide introduced and withdrawn through a
"man-hole" that can be tightly closed.
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