Carbide Lights

Someone mentioned these a bit ago so I did a bit of web searching and came up with multiple sources. One of the more exotic, and expensive these days, forms of lighting but still apparently used by some cavers.

Made in India. https://www.lehmans.com/c-31-carbide-lamp.aspx

Petzl Aceto Carbide Lamp: Amazon.com

Petzl Ariane Headlamp: http://www.amazon.com/Petzl-Ariane-Headlamp-One-Size/dp/B002SQCSB8/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1416341410&sr=8-4&keywords=carbide+lamp

The Ariane takes up to 400 grams of carbide per the description so is apparently sizable.

I know that I have seen a number of pre WWI cars and motorcycles with carbide lighting. Pretty well gone by about 1912 for cars due to electric starters requiring a sizable generator and battery. Motorcycle use lasted a bit later.

I have a Petzl Ariane which I have used for caving. The flickering flame gives of a very pleasant light, triggering a primal feel of comfort from fire. In cold caves we can all put our helmets in front of us and stand in a ring around them to get a little warmer. Sometimes this little moral booster is surprisingly effective.

It is however a pain in the * in tight squeezes, and can leave ugly burn marks if your head is too close. I generally don’t bring it, but if I’d be going to a cold wet cave and knew that others would be bringing them I would, just for that little campfire feeling during a break.

I suppose carbide cannon must still be available. They are mostly cast iron with water and flint. My son’s could shoot a Star Wars action figure across the yard.

What kind of carbide cannon? I’ve always wondered if the “Conestoga” company was lying when they say
“*Big-Bang® Cannons won’t fire projectiles. Putting objects in the barrel will only inhibit the full effect of the cannon’s blast.”

Considering that they use the same general principle as a potato gun, or even a true gun, I suspect that it is BS. The problem might be to get adequate blocking of the barrel by the projectile if the front opening is necked down compared to the barrel behind it. You need decent sealing between the projectile and barrel.

I’ve used a very old Justrite lamp for caving. They do give off a nice light but man they smell like crap.

LOL...yep..that's Acetylene gas they give off...big stinker for sure.

LOL we used to use artisanal carbide cannons primarily for noise during winter holidays when I was a kid. Try to do that now and you’d probably get in jail or worse.
We used carbide burners when camping in the Danube Delta for light cooking and such. Great use of carbide but not very safe.

Ah, this is about carbid cannons now :-)

In the Netherlands old milk churns are used as carbid cannons, with a football pressed in the opening for the right pressure build-up, they shoot the ball 100+ meters away. It still is a national pastime everywhere outside the cities, although milk has not been collected in milk churns anywhere for decades now.

Love the photo, but that thing does look a little scary. Was that everyone’s EDC in the 1800s?

Or you could stick a piece of carbide in a plastic bottle with water, put the cap on then run away. Don’t try it folks !!!

The blast is aided by some sort of ignition :-)

I’ve heard of cavers running out of water and peeing in them… Now that’s a smell I’d rather not experience!

Gotta love the Dutch…

The one thing you don’t want to do is fill a beach ball/inner tube from an oxy-acetylene torch. Some lady did that around Austin a few years back (thinking it was just compressed air). Blew up in her car and totally shredded it. And there was a guy that did it on purpose in his back yard… broke just about every window for a block around.

Carbide lights…neato

Wanna see something crazy…Google “Punkin chunkin”

Real men toss anvils…

no no no

Real men CATCH anvils

:smiley: :smiley: :smiley:

That’s some wicked cool stuff blasting an anvil in the air for sure

People take anvil shooting rather seriously. Precision machined surfaces, etc. People put thousands of dollars into their anvils.

A friend of mine makes cannons. You can shoot a golf ball up to around 7 miles. Past that and the cover comes off. He also has one that shoots D-cells.

I saw a report today that the huge explosion in China involved calcium carbide — that’s the fuel used by miner’s lamps.

CaC2 + 2 H2O → C2H2 + Ca(OH)2

C2H2 is acetylene gas. Inside the miner’s light, as the gas evolves it quickly pushes out any air, and the stream of pure acetylene coming out of the tip burns.
But acetylene mixed in air is explosive over a wide range.

One common experience using a miner’s lamp for caving I recall was — they’re ignited with a little spark made by turning a rough steel wheel on a flint (typical mechanical spark lighter). Cup your hand over the reflector, feel the gas, whip your hand away over the spark wheel. POP and then a flame. If you did it too quickly, sometimes some acetylene in the delivery tube behind the flame tip would POP throwing the tip out (it was a press fit tip, as a safety factor, so you wouldn’t blow up the brass container).

Chasing down those little tips was — something to plan not to need to do.

The report on the China explosion mentioned that the firefighters knew there was calcium carbide in there somewhere but not where, so they had to keep pouring water on the fire.