Carbide Acetylene Generator???

[BuickFarmer]

or lamp maybe. Found this in the shop of an old junkyard. Anybody know what it is?

 

[G_P]

No idea what it is but it looks dangerous!

The white caged part on top kind of looks like a catalytic heater?

 

[BuickFarmer]

That top piece you speak of is glass with hardware cloth to protect it.

 

[housey]

I'd say its a carbide lamp? They basically work by reacting calcium carbide with water to form acetylene, which is then burned to put out light. We have one lying around the house somewhere, a smaller torch sized one

 

[Bruce Lancaster]

Lamp sounds very reasonable...most common form is a miner's lamp, a tiny version that takes a few small lumps of carbide and a little water and goes right on the helmet. This could be some sort of work light to illuminate an area.
Lever thing is interesting...maybe a control, lifts or isolates carbide from water? Maybe just a gauge for water level??
Go get some matches...let's see what this thing can do!

 

[930dreamer]

Let's us see the light.

 

[m0ondoggy]

That would be damn cool if it was restored. Not sure I would light it without knowing more about it though.

 

[Bruce Lancaster]

I think he should go ahead and light it while someone films it for youtube! At least we'd know more about it then!

 

[ndnchf]

When I was a kid I had what was called a "Big Bang" toy cannon that used calcium carbide and water to make acetylene gas in an internal chamber. It had a spark mechanism that ignited the gas and it made a big BOOM! Imagine the toy cannon you could make with that thing

 

[BuickFarmer]

well I've got plenty of "fresh water" if someone else can furnish the "new carbide" and a match.

 

[demographic]

Till very recently you could buy new Carbide lamps for caving from Petzl, the last catalogue I got for their products didn't have any so I assume they don't make them anymore. I'd still be willing to bet that you could get the Calcium Carbide from caving suppliers though.

My brother had an old carbide lamp and generator that had been fitted to a motorcycle, quite a cool setup.

 

[demographic]

Lamp sounds very reasonable...most common form is a miner's lamp, a tiny version that takes a few small lumps of carbide and a little water and goes right on the helmet. This could be some sort of work light to illuminate an area.
Lever thing is interesting...maybe a control, lifts or isolates carbide from water? Maybe just a gauge for water level??
Go get some matches...let's see what this thing can do!

If I remember right the lever on the lamps contrils the amount of water being dripped from the top (water) tank into the bottom (calcium carbide) tank. Pointless producing too much gas all at one time.

 

[Bruce Lancaster]

"Pointless producing too much gas all at one time..."
Depends on whether you want light or drama!

 

[BuickFarmer]

That's funny, reminds me of an old joke...

One time a feller jumped out of an airplane and was having trouble getting his parachute to open. As he was falling he met another feller going the other way - UP. He yelled over to him "You know anything about parachutes?!!!!!" The feller going up yelled back "hell no, and apparenty I didn't know anything about Coleman lanterns either"

well, at least it was funny when my dad use to tell it

 

[Charles (in GA)]

They used to light whole towns with carbide gas lanterns and lamps. In some cases, there was a large gas generating plant in town and the gas was piped to houses. In other cases, there was a main gas generator for a house and gas lamps throughout supplied by the master gas generator. In the early days of electrification, they pulled wires thru the existing gas plumbing and used conversion kits to mount light bulbs in the existing carbide gas lamps and lanterns in the house.

Charles

 

[Brad54]

well I've got plenty of "fresh water" if someone else can furnish the "new carbide" and a match.

I'm in for the matches and the video camera!

I'll film it from behind one of those parts cars though, if you don't mind.

-Brad

 

[david594]

I caved a few times like 5 or 6 years back using calcium carbide lamps. I remember being really impressed with how long the lamp lasted given the relatively small amount of calcium carbide used. You had to be careful with the water drip rate though otherwise you would get one heck of a torch on your head!

Not exactly waterproof though.

 

[moogoob]

old school bug zapper!

 

[GeorgiaHybrid]

They used to light whole towns with carbide gas lanterns and lamps. In some cases, there was a large gas generating plant in town and the gas was piped to houses. In other cases, there was a main gas generator for a house and gas lamps throughout supplied by the master gas generator. In the early days of electrification, they pulled wires thru the existing gas plumbing and used conversion kits to mount light bulbs in the existing carbide gas lamps and lanterns in the house.

Charles

And we worry about an acetylene tank in the garage nowadays and back then they had the entire town plumbed with it.

 

[930dreamer]

Are you going to buy it? I'll chip in for some fuel.

http://www.bing.com/shopping/search?q=calcium+carbide&qpvt=calcium+carbide&FORM=HURE

 

[BuickFarmer]

I bought it, $50.00. I thought it has at least $50 worth of cool to it, no matter if it works or not. Maybe I'll add "get the acetylene lamp working" to my project list. Let's see, that will be in about 2054. Stay tuned

also bought the old 3 pump oil tank at the same junkyard along with a bunch other cool ol' stuff

 

[BuickFarmer]

They used to light whole towns with carbide gas lanterns and lamps. In some cases, there was a large gas generating plant in town and the gas was piped to houses. In other cases, there was a main gas generator for a house and gas lamps throughout supplied by the master gas generator. In the early days of electrification, they pulled wires thru the existing gas plumbing and used conversion kits to mount light bulbs in the existing carbide gas lamps and lanterns in the house.

Charles

yep, you're right on on that Charles. We restored an old turn of the century Queen Anne once that had wires ran trough some of the original gas lines to ceiling lights and outside porch lights.

 

[blue dog]

I bought it, $50.00. I thought it has at least $50 worth of cool to it, no matter if it works or not.

I agree. Nice haul. Love old rusty stuff.

 

[geologist]

It's definitely cool.

 

[gator13]

hey there guys.. came across this while trying to find some info for the carbide generator i have.. i only responded because i dont want anyone getting hurt trying to use that thing as a lamp.. what you have is an "acetylene generator" or "carbide generator" it is NOT a lamp it CAN however be used to power lamps. these things work by putting carbide into the glass and letting it trickle down into the tank that holds water making the acetylene, which would travel to the smaller tank on the side and out the small valve on its side. these were mainly used in welding shops and industrial areas for oxy/acetylene welding and cutting.. any misuse of these things can can cause them to explode.. and its not pretty.. while they were in service, they had to carefully watched and maintained to prevent disaster.. thats why no one uses them anymore

 

[Msmsm]

Glad to find this! I have 2 that I found cleaning up my father's garage, minus the large tanks shown in top photo.
Has anyone figured out where these would have been used?

ETA- oops just saw that last post. thanks

 

[jawjaboy53]

Is it for sale? I collect them.

 

[rsantucc]

i have a monarch carbide feed acetylene generator, that is in incredible condition, from around 1903, it used to light the building that i just bought. It still has the original paint and markings. I know one in this kind of condition is very rare, so i would advise you to not try to low ball on it....

Richie

 

[D.R.Lands]

Back in the day..people created their own acetylene for lighting your country home..You can find information on how to create these on Page 22 of "The World Book" Volumne 1 Printed 1929..W.F. Quarry was the Publishers..M.V. Oshea was Editor in Chief..Can you imagine if you could burn the gas created to maybe run an automobile? Heck you learn so much from books yet read and yet undiscovered..

 

[Danglerb]

Carbide, the new boom industry.

 

[humber2]

I bought it, $50.00. I thought it has at least $50 worth of cool to it, no matter if it works or not. Maybe I'll add "get the acetylene lamp working" to my project list. Let's see, that will be in about 2054. Stay tuned

also bought the old 3 pump oil tank at the same junkyard along with a bunch other cool ol' stuff

Here's what a proper generator looks like with all parts explained.

http://www.rexarc.com/uploads/articles/pdf/50PSlit.pdf

The design hasn't changed since Union Carbide made the carbide cheaply at Niagara Falls from 1895 in reduction arc furnaces.

Your newly purchased unit appears to me to be too restrictive to clean with its narrow neck.

 

[Monkey Milk]

That's funny, reminds me of an old joke...

One time a feller jumped out of an airplane and was having trouble getting his parachute to open. As he was falling he met another feller going the other way - UP. He yelled over to him "You know anything about parachutes?!!!!!" The feller going up yelled back "hell no, and apparenty I didn't know anything about Coleman lanterns either"

well, at least it was funny when my dad use to tell it

I had to read it twice!!!!