DIYbanter - View Single Post - American Chopper episode got even more reckless

In article ,
(Nick Muller) wrote:

AL wrote:

Doesn't acetylene combust spontaneously at around 15psi? Can you get 15 psi
by squeezing the baloon?

Can't be. The red line at my acetylen bottle's pressure regulator is at
8 bar (116psi).

Can be/is. See the rest of the thread. At 14.5 PSI or so, pure acetylene
doesn't take much more than a "dirty look" to get a sufficiently large
quantity of it to deflagrate. The same quantity at 15 pounds of pressure
is all but guaranteed to do so before you even get a chance to apply the
dirty look. What's INSIDE the cylinder is almost all dissolved in
acetone soaked into one of several porous materials packed into the
cylinder. (volcanic pumice is the packing material I'm most familiar
with personally, although it's my understanding that many other things
have been used over the years) There is very little free acetylene in
the cylinder because pressure drives it into solution with the acetone,
much the same way pressure forces the CO2 fizz back into soda,
preventing it from reaching a density and quantity sufficient to start
and support the deflagration sequence, allowing the cylinder and the
tiny space in the regulator and valve to be safely taken to a hair over
250 PSI before further problems start to develop.

Does it have to be in the presence of oxygen?

No, it can disintegrate without O.

Correct.

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