13T - Carbide Gas Light Generator

[Darin Hull]

I haven’t seen an operational carbide gas light generator in person and have only read about them. I was looking at the internal baskets of one I purchased last year which is pictured below. I decided to see if if the bottom one held water. The lower basket leaked water. I was curious if the only water tight compartment was supposed to be the actual top water tank or the basket, also.

I haven’t used carbide before and didn’t know if the byproduct was such that the bottom basket didn’t need to be water tight.

Thank you,
Darin

[Scott_Conger]

The result of dripping water on the calcium carbide, as you know, is the chemical reaction which creates acetylene gas...the faster it drips, the more gas you get and with a proper seal between the two tanks, if the pressure builds up too much, it (in theory) will slow the drip (best to keep things under control though as lights are expensive!)

The resulting byproduct of the reaction is a wet sloppy sludgy mess of calcium carbide byproduct. That's the fun mess that gets cleaned out after the night parade!

Wherever water can seep out of the lower container, is where that material will crawl into.

If you are going to make a functioning system, do a LOT of research on brass and copper fittings and copper acetylide prior to building your piping system

[namdc3]

Yes, the tank should hold water. The byproduct that will end up in this tank is calcium hydroxide. It is quite corrosive, and you’ll want to wash and air out the generator and internal parts well after use. I used POR-15 on the inside of the generator, which has held up well. I also line the lower basket with a crock pot liner, which makes cleanup a lot easier. Just be sure to not block the flow of gas to the outlet. I echo Scott’s recommendation to do some research on copper and high-copper brass. I chose to use stainless steel line, painted black.