Bob Engelhardt wrote:
Abrasha wrote:

... After about half a minute they would hear a very loud bang
accompanied with a bright flash, as the lid was blasted off the can....


An example of how unstable acetylene is over a certain pressure? You
don't mention an igniter, so I'm assuming it was spontaneous.

That's how I remember it. In the online movies they seem to be using
what is a spark plug igniter. I remember the one from my childhood to
be just carbide and water.

I looked around a bit online, using Dutch search terms "karbiet" and
"melkbus". This seems to be a Dutch tradition to this day. I even
found photos of a couple of guys doing this with several milk cans
(melkbus in Dutch) simultaneously. The cans look exactly like the milk
can of my youth. http://tinyurl.com/ayln6

Go halfway down the page. In the top picture, you can actually see one
of the lids of the milk can fly off.

This is
giving me ideas. 8-)
Bob


--
Abrasha
http://www.abrasha.com