I've posted this on another forum, but thought it may be of interest here...
I'd seen these old lamps a few times, and got one cheap on ebay, the rim of the glass holder was damaged and it was pretty grubby.
I cleaned it up, made new leather washers for it, and bought some calcium carbide from a caving equiptment suppliers.
You put a few chunks of the ca carbide in the bottom section, put a sprung divider in place to stop the bubbling from blocking the drip inlet from the upper water chamber..
Fill up with plain water via the small inlet I'm holding, then you turn the drip controller (central knob) to drip water into the lower chamber. You turn it on full for a second or two, then back to very low, to get the reaction going, and acetylene gas is given off, heads to the burner, and you light it....
Its got a pretty pungent smell, wouldnt want to breath it in, but once lit its ok..
A bright yellow to white flame...
Certainly strong enough to see around with..
The base gets hot over time as the reaction carries on, as does the top section as youd expect...
It takes a little while, maybe a minute to get it light and running, you can set it dripping slowly to provide a small flame over a long time (and a bit of heat) but I'd be wary of using it in a tent.. Or turn it up to a stronger white flame, all regulated by changing the drip rate of the water..
It was good fun cleaning the lamp up and getting it going again, I'd guess the availablity of calcium carbide is the difficulty, but the half handful i used in it this evening is still going after 4 hours use...
I'd seen these old lamps a few times, and got one cheap on ebay, the rim of the glass holder was damaged and it was pretty grubby.
I cleaned it up, made new leather washers for it, and bought some calcium carbide from a caving equiptment suppliers.
You put a few chunks of the ca carbide in the bottom section, put a sprung divider in place to stop the bubbling from blocking the drip inlet from the upper water chamber..
Fill up with plain water via the small inlet I'm holding, then you turn the drip controller (central knob) to drip water into the lower chamber. You turn it on full for a second or two, then back to very low, to get the reaction going, and acetylene gas is given off, heads to the burner, and you light it....
Its got a pretty pungent smell, wouldnt want to breath it in, but once lit its ok..
A bright yellow to white flame...
Certainly strong enough to see around with..
The base gets hot over time as the reaction carries on, as does the top section as youd expect...
It takes a little while, maybe a minute to get it light and running, you can set it dripping slowly to provide a small flame over a long time (and a bit of heat) but I'd be wary of using it in a tent.. Or turn it up to a stronger white flame, all regulated by changing the drip rate of the water..
It was good fun cleaning the lamp up and getting it going again, I'd guess the availablity of calcium carbide is the difficulty, but the half handful i used in it this evening is still going after 4 hours use...
