“non-automatic.” The points to be attained in a good generator are:—
| 1. Low temperature of generation. |
| 2. Complete decomposition of the carbide. |
| 3. Maximum evolution of the gas. |
| 4. Low pressure in every part of the apparatus. |
| 5. Ease in charging and removal of residues. |
| 6. Removal of all air from the apparatus before generation of the gas. |
When carbide is acted upon by water considerable heat is evolved; indeed, the action develops about one-twentieth of the heat evolved by the combustion of carbon. As, however, the temperature developed is a function of the time needed to complete the action, the degree of heat attained varies with every form of generator, and while the water in one form may never reach the boiling-point, the carbide in another may become red-hot and give a temperature of over 800° C. Heating in a generator is not only a source of danger, but also lessens the yield of gas and deteriorates its quality. The best forms of generator are either those in which water rises slowly in contact with the carbide, or the second main division in which the carbide falls into excess of water.
It is clear that acetylene, if it is to be used on a large scale as a domestic illuminant, must undergo such processes of purification as will render it harmless and innocuous to health and property, and the sooner it is recognized as absolutely essential to purify acetylene before consuming it the sooner will the gas acquire the popularity it deserves. PurificationThe only one of the impurities which offers any difficulty in removal is the phosphuretted hydrogen. There are three substances which can be relied on more or less to remove this compound, and the gas to be purified may be passed either through acid copper salts, through bleaching powder or through chromic acid. In experiments with these various bodies it is found that they are all of them effective in also ridding the acetylene of the ammonia and sulphuretted hydrogen, provided only that the surface area presented to the gas is sufficiently large. The method of washing the gas with acid solutions of copper has been patented by A. Frank of Charlottenburg, who finds that a concentrated solution of cuprous chloride in an acid, the liquid being made into a paste with kieselgühr, is the most effective. Where the production of acetylene is going on on a small scale this method of purification is undoubtedly the most convenient one, as the acid present absorbs the ammonia, and the copper salt converts the phosphuretted and sulphuretted hydrogen into phosphates and sulphides. The vessel, however, which contains this mixture has to be of earthenware, porcelain or enamelled iron on account of the free acid present; the gas must be washed after purification to remove traces of hydrochloric acid, and care must be taken to prevent the complete neutralization of the acid by the ammonia present in the gas. The second process is one patented by Fritz Ullmann of Geneva, who utilizes chromic acid to oxidize the phosphuretted and sulphuretted hydrogen and absorb the ammonia, and this method of purification has proved the most successful in practice, the chromic acid being absorbed by kieselgühr and the material sold under the name of “Heratol.”
The third process owes its inception to G. Lunge, who recommends the use of bleaching powder. Dr P. Wolff has found that when this is used on the large scale there is a risk of the ammonia present in the acetylene forming traces of chloride of nitrogen in the purifying-boxes, and as this is a compound which detonates with considerable local force, it occasionally gives rise to explosions in the purifying apparatus. If, however, the gas be first passed through a scrubber so as to wash out the ammonia this danger is avoided. Dr Wolff employs purifiers in which the gas is washed with water containing calcium chloride, and then passed through bleaching-powder solution or other oxidizing material.
When acetylene is burnt from a 000 union jet burner, at all ordinary pressures a smoky flame is obtained, but on the pressure being increased to 4 inches a magnificent flame results, free from smoke, and developing an illuminating value of 240 candles per 5 cubic feet of gas consumed. Slightly higher values have been obtained, but 240 may be taken as the average value under these conditions.Burners. When acetylene was first introduced as a commercial illuminant in England, very small union jet nipples were utilized for its consumption, but after burning for a short time these nipples began to carbonize, the flame being distorted, and then smoking occurred with the formation of a heavy deposit of soot. While these troubles were being experienced in England, attempts had been made in America to use acetylene diluted with a certain proportion of air which permitted it to be burnt in ordinary flat flame nipples; but the danger of such admixture being recognized, nipples of the same class as those used in England were employed, and the same troubles ensued. In France, single jets made of glass were first employed, and then P. Résener, H. Luchaire, G. Ragot and others made burners in which two jets of acetylene, coming from two tubes placed some little distance apart, impinged and splayed each other out into a butterfly flame. Soon afterwards, J. S. Billwiller introduced the idea of sucking air into the flame at or just below the burner tip, and at this juncture the Naphey or Dolan burner was introduced in America, the principle employed being to use two small and widely separated jets instead of the two openings of the union jet burner, and to make each a minute bunsen, the acetylene dragging in from the base of the nipple enough air to surround and protect it while burning from contact with the steatite. This class of burner forms a basis on which all the later constructions of burner have been founded, but had the drawback that if the flame was turned low, insufficient air to prevent carbonization of the burner tips was drawn in, owing to the reduced flow of gas. This fault has now been reduced by a cage of steatite round the burner tip, which draws in sufficient air to prevent deposition.
When acetylene was first introduced on a commercial scale attempts were made to utilize its great heat of combustion by using it in conjunction with oxygen in the oxy-hydrogen blowpipe. It was found, however, that when using acetylene under low pressures, the burner tip became so heated as to cause the decomposition of some Oxy-acetylene blowpipe.of the gas before combustion, the jet being choked up by the carbon which deposited in a very dense form; and as the use of acetylene under pressures greater than one hundred inches of water was prohibited, no advance was made in this direction. The introduction of acetylene dissolved under pressure in acetone contained in cylinders filled with porous material drew attention again to this use of the gas, and by using a special construction of blowpipe an oxy-acetylene flame is produced, which is far hotter than the oxy-hydrogen flame, and at the same time is so reducing in its character that it can be used for the direct autogenous welding of steel and many minor metallurgical processes.
References.—F. H. Leeds and W. A. Butterfield, Calcium Carbide and Acetylene (1903); F. Dommer, L’Acétylène et ses applications (1896); V. B. Lewes, Acetylene (1900); F. Liebetanz, Calcium-carbid und Acetylen (1899); G. Pelissier, L’Éclairage à l’acétylène (1897); C. de Perrodil, Le carbure de calcium et l’acétylène (1897). For a complete list of the various papers and memoirs on Acetylene, see A. Ludwig’s Führer durch die gesammte Calcium-carbid-und-Acetylen-Literatur, Berlin. (V. B. L.)
ACHAEA, a district on the northern coast of the Peloponnese, stretching from the mountain ranges of Erymanthus and Cyllene on the S. to a narrow strip of fertile land on the N., bordering the Corinthian Gulf, into which the mountain Panachaicus projects. Achaea is bounded on the W. by the territory of Elis, on the E. by that of Sicyon, which, however, was sometimes included in it. The origin of the name has given rise to much speculation; the current theory is that the Achaeans (q.v.) were driven back into this region by the Dorian invaders of the Peloponnese. Another Achaea, in the south of Thessaly, called sometimes Achaea Phthiotis, has been supposed to be the cradle of the race. In Roman times the name of the province of Achaea was given to the whole of Greece, except Thessaly, Epirus, and Acarnania. Herodotus (i. 145) mentions the twelve cities of Achaea; these met as a religious confederacy in the
