On Wed, 19 Feb 2014 11:46:28 +0000, David Billington
wrote:

On 19/02/14 11:35, John B. wrote:
On Tue, 18 Feb 2014 23:42:00 -0500, wrote:

On Mon, 17 Feb 2014 20:00:26 -0800, Pilgrim
wrote:

In article ,
wrote:

Somebody here must know the answer. Last Sunday we had some friends
over for brunch and one of the guys, a wood worker, told me about an
old house he worked on that was built before electricity was available
here on the island. He said there was a large steel tank sunk into the
ground and that "carbide" was poured into this tank to make
electricity for lighting. I'm thinking that what was really happening
was acetylene gas was being produced for gas lighting. I said as much
but he was pretty sure they were making electricity with the setup,
that it was some kind of battery. After looking online I am even more
convinced what he was looking at was an acetylene gas generator. But
since I'm not known for always being right, seeing as how I have made
one or two misteak's in the past; like speling or punctuatioin, I
though I'd ask the experts here if anyone has heard of "carbide
batteries".
Thanks,
Eric

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I don't think he is correct. When I was small during WWII we stayed for
part of a summer at a ranch in Montana. In the yard was a round tank
that stood about 18" above the ground that was said to be an acetylene
generator and the house was plumbed for gas light. I don't know how far
below ground the tank went or what was inside as I was forbidden to lift
the lid.

CP
In the late '50s, a local welding shop had two of these instead of
using bottled acetylene. One had been removed from a local church when
they changed thier lighting system over from gas to electricity. The
shop owner claimed that his cost was much lower due to much reduced
handling and transportation costs.
---

Gerry :-)}
London,Canada
Acetylene generators are fairly common in Asia, outside the big
cities. No bottle rental and calcium carbide and water are cheaper
then acetylene too :-)
A few years ago this was discussed and someone found a Swiss company
that made them still and was rather surprised. A quick search on "swiss
acetylene generator" turned up http://www.gloor.ch/pdf/P122_en.pdf .

they are very much alive

http://www.gloor.ch/en/index.html


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