Acetylene, the Principles of Its Generation and Use Part 5

The discarding of the chemical purifier at the present day is a move of which the advantage may well be overrated.

ARTIFICIAL LIGHTING OF GENERATOR SHEDS.--It has already been argued that all normal or abnormal operations in connexion with an acetylene generating plant should be carried out, if possible, by daylight; and it has been shown that on no account must a naked light ever be taken inside the house containing such a plant. It will occasionally happen, however, that the installation must be recharged or inspected after nightfall. In order to do this in safety, a double window, incapable of being opened, should be fitted in one wall of the house, as far as possible from the door, and in such a position that the light may fall on to all the necessary places. Outside this window may be suspended an ordinary hand- lantern burning oil or paraffin; or, preferably, round this window may be built a closed lantern into which some source of artificial light may be brought. If the acetylene plant has an isolated holder of considerable size, there is no reason at all why a connexion should not be made with the service-pipes, and an acetylene flame be used inside this lantern; but with generators of the automatic variety, an acetylene light is not so suitable, because of the fear that gas may not be available precisely at the moment when it is necessary to have light in the shed. It would, however, be a simple matter to erect an acetylene burner inside the lantern in such a way that when needed an oil-lamp or candle could be used instead. Artificial internal light of any kind is best avoided; the only kind permissible being an electric glow-lamp. If this is employed, it should be surrounded by a second bulb or gas-tight gla.s.s jacket, and preferably by a wire cage as well; the wires leading to it must be carefully insulated, and all switches or cut-outs (which may produce a spark) must be out of doors. The well-known Davy safety or miner's lamp is not a trustworthy instrument for use with acetylene because of (_a_) the low igniting-point of acetylene; (_b_) the high temperature of its flame; and (_c_) the enormous speed at which the explosive wave travels through a mixture of acetylene and air. For these reasons the metallic gauze of the Davy lamp is not so efficient a protector of the flame as it is in cases of coal-gas, methane, &c.

Moreover, in practice, the Davy lamp gives a poor light, and unless in constant use is liable to be found out of order when required. It should, however, be added that modern forms of the safety lamp, in which the light is surrounded by a stout gla.s.s chimney and only sufficient gauze is used for the admission of fresh air and for the escape of the combustion products, appear quite satisfactory when employed in an atmosphere containing some free acetylene.

CHAPTER IV

THE SELECTION OF AN ACETYLENE GENERATOR

In Chapter II. an attempt has been made to explain the physical and chemical phenomena which accompany the interaction of calcium carbide and water, and to show what features in the reaction are useful and what inconvenient in the evolution of acetylene on a domestic or larger scale.

Similarly in Chapter III. have been described the various typical devices which may be employed in the construction of different portions of acetylene plant, so that the gas may be generated and stored under the best conditions, whether it is evolved by the automatic or by the non- automatic system. This having been done, it seemed of doubtful utility to include in the first edition of this work a long series of ill.u.s.trations of such generators as had been placed on the markets by British, French, German, and American makers. It would have been difficult within reasonable limits to have reproduced diagrams of all the generators that had been offered for sale, and absolutely impossible within the limits of a single hand-book to picture those which had been suggested or patented.

Moreover, some generating apparatus appeared on the market ephemerally; some was constantly being modified in detail so as to alter parts which experience or greater knowledge had shown the makers to be in need of alteration, while other new apparatus was constantly being brought out.

On these and other grounds it did not appear that much good purpose would have been served by describing the particular apparatus which at that time would have been offered to prospective purchasers. It seemed best that the latter should estimate the value and trustworthiness of apparatus by studying a section of it in the light of the general principles of construction of a satisfactory generator as enunciated in the book. While the position thus taken by the authors in 1903 would still not be incorrect, it has been represented to them that it would scarcely be inconsistent with it to give brief descriptions of some of the generators which are now being sold in Great Britain and a few other countries. Six more years' experience in the design and manufacture of acetylene plant has enabled the older firms of manufacturers to fix upon certain standard patterns for their apparatus, and it may confidently be antic.i.p.ated that many of these will survive a longer period. Faulty devices and designs have been weeded out, and there are lessons of the past as well as theoretical considerations to guide the inventor of a new type of generator. On those grounds, therefore, an attempt has now been made to give brief descriptions, with sectional views, of a number of the generators now on the market in Great Britain. Moreover, as the first edition of this book found many readers in other countries, in several of which there is greater scope for the use of acetylene, it has been decided to describe also a few typical or widely used foreign generators.

All the generators described must stand or fall on their merits, which cannot be affected by any opinion expressed by the authors. In the descriptions, which in the first instance have generally been furnished by the manufacturers of the apparatus, no attempt has therefore been made to appraise the particular generators, and comparisons and eulogistic comments have been excluded. The descriptions, however, would nevertheless have been somewhat out of place in the body of this book; they have therefore been relegated to a special Appendix. It has, of course, been impossible to include the generators of all even of the English manufacturers, and doubtless many trustworthy ones have remained unnoticed. Many firms also make other types of generators in addition to those described. It must not be a.s.sumed that because a particular make of generator is not mentioned it is necessarily faulty. The apparatus described may be regarded as typical or well known, and workable, but it is not by reason of its inclusion vouched for in any other respect by the authors. The Appendix is intended, not to bias or modify the judgment of the would-be purchaser of a generator, but merely to a.s.sist him in ascertaining what generators there are now on the market.

The observations on the selection of a generator which follow, as well as any references in other chapters to the same matter, have been made without regard to particular apparatus of which a description may (or may not) appear in the Appendix. With this premise, it may be stated that the intending purchaser should regard the mechanism of a generator as shown in a sectional view or on inspection of the apparatus itself. If the generator is simple in construction, he should be able to understand its method of working at a glance, and by referring it to the type (_vide_ Chapter III.) to which it belongs, be able to appraise its utility from a chemical and physical aspect from what has already been said. If the generator is too complicated for ready understanding of its mode of working, it is not unlikely to prove too complicated to behave well in practice. Not less important than the mechanism of a generator is good construction from the mechanical point of view, _i.e._, whether stout metal has been employed, whether the seams and joints are well finished, and whether the whole apparatus has been built in the workman- like fas.h.i.+on which alone can give satisfaction in any kind of plant.

Bearing these points in mind, the intending purchaser may find a.s.sistance in estimating the mechanical value of an apparatus by perusing the remainder of this chapter, which will be devoted to elaborating at length the so-called scientific principles underlying the construction of a satisfactory generator, and to giving information on the mechanical and practical points involved.

It is perhaps desirable to remark that there is scarcely any feature in the generation of acetylene from calcium carbide and water--certainly no important feature--which introduces into practice principles not already known to chemists and engineers. Once the gas is set free it ranks simply as an inflammable, moisture-laden, somewhat impure, illuminating and heat-giving gas, which has to be dried, purified, stored, and led to the place of combustion; it is in this respect precisely a.n.a.logous to coal- gas. Even the actual generation is only an exothermic, or heat-producing, reaction between a solid and a liquid, in which rise of temperature and pressure must be prevented as far as possible. Accordingly there is no fundamental or indispensable portion of an acetylene apparatus which lends itself to the protection of the patent laws; and even the details (it may be said truthfully, if somewhat cynically) stand in patentability in inverse ratio to their simplicity and utility.

During the early part of 1901 a Committee appointed by the British Home Office, "to advise as to the conditions of safety to which acetylene generators should conform, and to carry out tests of generators in the market in order to ascertain how far those conform with such conditions,"

issued a circular to the trade suggesting that apparatus should be sent them for examination. In response, forty-six British generators were submitted for trial, and were examined in a fas.h.i.+on which somewhat exceeded the instructions given to the Committee, who finally reported to the Explosives Department of the Home Office in a Blue Book, No. Cd. 952, which can be purchased through any bookseller. This report comprises an appendix in which most of the apparatus are ill.u.s.trated, and it includes the result of the particular test which the Committee decided to apply.

Qualitatively the test was useful, as it was identical in all instances, and only lacks full utility inasmuch as the trustworthiness of the automatic mechanism applied to such generators as were intended to work on the automatic system was not estimated. Naturally, a complete valuation of the efficiency of automatic mechanism cannot be obtained from one or even several tests, it demands long-continued watching; but a general notion of reliability might have been obtained. Quant.i.tatively, however, the test applied by the Committee is not so free from reproach, for, from the information given, it would appear to have been less fair to some makers of apparatus than to others. Nevertheless the report is valuable, and indicates the general character of the most important apparatus which were being offered for sale in the United Kingdom in 1900-1901.

It is not possible to give a direct answer to the question as to which is the best type of acetylene generator. There are no generators made by responsible firms at the present time which are not safe. Some may be easier to charge and clean than others; some require more frequent attention than others; some have moving parts less likely to fail, when handled carelessly, than others; some have no moving mechanism to fail.

For the illumination of a large inst.i.tution or district where one man can be fully occupied in attending to the plant, cleaning, lighting, and extinguis.h.i.+ng the lamps, or where other work can be found for him so as to leave him an hour or so every day to look after the apparatus, the hand-fed carbide-to-water generator L (Fig. 6) has many advantages, and is probably the best of all. In smaller installations choice must be made first between the automatic and the non-automatic principle--the advantages most frequently lying with the latter. If a non-automatic generator is decided upon, the hand carbide-feed or the flooded- compartment apparatus is almost equally good; and if automatism is desired, either a flooded-compartment machine or one of the most trustworthy types of carbide-feed apparatus may be taken. There are contact apparatus on the markets which appear never to have given trouble, and those are worthy of attention. Some builders advocate their own apparatus because the residue is solid and not a cream. If there is any advantage in this arising from greater ease in cleaning and recharging the generator and in disposing of the waste, that advantage is usually neutralised by the fear that the carbide may not have been wholly decomposed within the apparatus; and whereas any danger arising from imperfectly spent carbide being thrown into a closed drain may be prevented by flooding the residue with plenty of water in an open vessel, imperfect decomposition in the generator means a deficiency in the amount of gas evolved from a unit weight of solid taken or purchased. In fact, setting on one side apparatus which belong to a notoriously defective system and such as are constructed in large sizes on a system that is only free from overheating, &c., in small sizes; setting aside all generators which are provided with only one decomposing chamber when they are of a capacity to require two or more smaller ones that can more efficiently be cooled with water jackets; and setting aside any form of plant which on examination is likely to exhibit any of the more serious objections indicated in this and the previous chapters, there is comparatively little to choose, from the chemical and physical points of view, between the different types of generators now on the markets. A selection may rather be made on mechanical grounds. The generator must be well able to produce gas as rapidly as it will ever be required during the longest or coldest evening; it must be so large that several more brackets or burners can be added to the service after the installation is complete. It must be so strong that it will bear careless handling and the frequent rough manipulation of its parts. It must be built of stout enough material not to rust out in a few years. Each and all of its parts must be accessible and its exterior visible. Its pipes, both for gas and sludge, must be of large bore (say 1 inch), and fitted at every dip with an arrangement for withdrawing into some closed vessel the moisture, &c., that may condense. The number of c.o.c.ks, valves, and moving parts must be reduced to a minimum; c.o.c.ks which require to be shut by hand before recharging must give way to water-seals. It must be simple in all its parts, and its action intelligible at a glance. It must be easy to charge--preferably even by the sense of touch in darkness. It must be easy to clean. The waste lime must be easily removed. It must be so fitted with vent-pipes that the pressure can never rise above that at which it is supposed to work. Nevertheless, a generator in which these vent-pipes are often brought into use is badly constructed and wasteful, and must be avoided. The water of the holder seal should be distinct from that used for decomposing the carbide; and those apparatus where the holder is entirely separated from the generator are preferable to such as are built all in one, even if water-seals are fitted to prevent return of gas. Apparatus which is supposed to be automatic should be made perfectly automatic, the water or the carbide-feed being locked automatically before the carbide store, the decomposing chamber, or the sludge-c.o.c.k can be opened. The generating chamber must always be in communication with the atmosphere through a water-sealed vent-pipe, the seal of which, if necessary, the gas can blow at any time. All apparatus should be fitted with rising holders, the larger the better. Duplicate copies of printed instructions should be demanded of the maker, one copy being kept in the generator-house, and the other elsewhere for reference in emergencies.

These instructions must give simple and precise information as to what should be done in the event of a breakdown as well as in the normal manipulation of the plant. Technical expressions and descriptions of parts understood only by the maker must be absent from these rules.

ADDENDUM.

BRITISH AND FOREIGN REGULATIONS FOR THE CONSTRUCTION AND INSTALLATION OF ACETYLENE GENERATING PLANT

Dealing with the "conditions which a generator should fulfil before it can be considered as being safe," the HOME OFFICE COMMITTEE of 1901 before mentioned write as follows:

1. The temperature in any part of the generator, when run at the maximum rate for which it is designed, for a prolonged period, should not exceed 130 C. This may be ascertained by placing short lengths of wire, drawn from fusible metal, in those parts of the apparatus in which heat is liable to be generated.

2. The generator should have an efficiency of not less than 90 per cent., which, with carbide yielding 5 cubic feet per pound, would imply a yield of 4.5 cubic feet for each pound of carbide used.

3. The size of the pipes carrying the gas should be proportioned to the maximum rate of generation, so that undue back pressure from throttling may not occur.

4. The carbide should be completely decomposed in the apparatus, so that lime sludge discharged from the generator shall not be capable of generating more gas.

5. The pressure in any part of the apparatus, on the generator side of the holder, should not exceed that of 20 inches of water, and on the service side of same, or where no gasholder is provided, should not exceed that of 5 inches of water.

6. The apparatus should give no tarry or other heavy condensation products from the decomposition of the carbide.

7. In the use of a generator regard should be had to the danger of stoppage of pa.s.sage of the gas and resulting increase of pressure which may arise from the freezing of the water. Where freezing may be antic.i.p.ated, steps should be taken to prevent it.

8. The apparatus should be so constructed that no lime sludge can gain access to any pipes intended for the pa.s.sage of gas or circulation of water.

9. The use of gla.s.s gauges should be avoided as far as possible, and, where absolutely necessary, they should be effectively protected against breakage.

10. The air s.p.a.ce in a generator before charging should be as small as possible.

11. The use of copper should be avoided in such parts of the apparatus as are liable to come in contact with acetylene.

The BRITISH ACETYLENE a.s.sOCIATION has drawn up the following list of regulations which, it suggests, shall govern the construction of generators and the installation of piping and fittings:

1. Generators shall be so constructed that, when used in accordance with printed instructions, it shall not be possible for any undecomposed carbide to remain in the sludge removed therefrom.

2. The limit of pressure in any part of the generator shall not exceed that of 20 inches of water, subject to the exception that if it be shown to the satisfaction of the Executive of the Acetylene a.s.sociation that higher pressures up to 50 inches of water are necessary in certain generators, and are without danger, the Executive may, with the approval of the Home Office, grant exemption for such generators, with or without conditions.

3. The limit of pressure in service-pipes, within the house, shall not exceed 10 inches of water.

4. Except when used for special industrial purposes, such as oxy- acetylene welding, factories, lighthouses, portable apparatus containing not more than four pounds of carbide, and other special conditions as approved by the a.s.sociation, the acetylene plant, such as generators, storage-holders, purifiers, scrubbers, and for washers, shall be in a suitable and well-ventilated outhouse, in the open, or in a lean-to, having no direct communication with a dwelling-house. A blow-off pipe or safety outlet shall be arranged in such a manner as to carry off into the open air any overmake of gas and to open automatically if pressure be increased beyond 20 inches water column in the generating chamber or beyond 10 inches in the gasholder, or beyond the depth of any fluid seal on the apparatus.

5. Generators shall have sufficient storage capacity to make a serious blow-off impossible.

6. Generators and apparatus shall be made of sufficiently strong material and be of good workmans.h.i.+p, and shall not in any part be constructed of unalloyed copper.

7. It shall not be possible under any conditions, even by wrong manipulation of c.o.c.ks, to seal the generating chamber hermetically.

8. It shall not be possible for the lime sludge to choke any of the gas- pipes in the apparatus, nor water-pipes if such be alternately used as safety-valves.

9. In the use of a generator, regard shall be had to the danger of stoppage of pa.s.sage of the gas, and resulting increase of pressure, which may arise from the freezing of the water. Where freezing may be antic.i.p.ated, steps shall be taken to prevent it.

10. The use of gla.s.s gauges shall be avoided as far as possible, and where absolutely necessary they shall be effectively protected against breakage.

11. The air s.p.a.ce in the generator before charging shall be as small as possible, _i.e._, the gas in the generating chamber shall not contain more than 8 per cent. of air half a minute after commencement of generation. A sample of the contents, drawn from the holder any time after generation has commenced, shall not contain an explosive mixture, _i.e._, more than 18 per cent, of air. This shall not apply to the initial charges of the gasholder, when reasonable precautions are taken.

12. The apparatus shall produce no tarry or other heavy condensation products from the decomposition of the carbide.

13. The temperature of the gas, immediately on leaving the charge, shall not exceed 212 F. (100 C.)

14. No generator shall be sold without a card of instructions suitable for hanging up in some convenient place. Such instructions shall be of the most detailed nature, and shall not presuppose any expert knowledge whatever on the part of the operator.

15. Notice to be fixed on Generator House Door, "NO LIGHTS OR SMOKING ALLOWED."

16. Every generator shall have marked clearly upon the outside a statement of the maximum number of half cubic foot burners and the charge of carbide for which it is designed.

17. The a.s.sociation strongly advise the use of an efficient purifier with generating plant for indoor lighting.

18. No composition piping shall be used in any part of a permanent installation.

19. Before being covered in, all pipe-work (main and branches) shall be tested in the following manner: A special acetylene generator, giving a pressure of at least 10 inches water column in a gauge fixed on the furthest point from the generator, shall be connected to the pipe-work.

All points shall be opened until gas reaches them, when they shall be plugged and the main c.o.c.k on the permanent generator turned off, but all intermediate main c.o.c.ks shall be open in order to test underground main and all connexions. The gauge must not show a loss after generator has been turned off for at least two hours.

20. After the fittings (pendants, brackets, &c.) have been fixed and all burners lighted, the gas shall be turned off at the burners and the whole installation shall be re-tested, but a pressure of 5 inches shall be deemed sufficient, which shall not drop lower than to 4-1/2 inches on the gauge during one hour's test.