Thread: Calcium Carbide + Water = Acetylene

Bsrlee, you beauty, got us onto oxy/acetelene bombs. Years ago (1973) I and 3 other fools made one in a big plastic bag. We were in a railway construction camp in the Pilbara and one of us had a car, so we took this monster about a mile away and used a length of rolled up dunny paper for a fuse. After we lit it we stood well back and waited and waited, we decided the fuse wasn't working too good so edged a bit closer then it went off. Did I mention we'd been drinking Fosters or Emu Export 36c a can? I can still see the huge orange fireball. We went back to the camp with our ears ringing and eyebrows singed. There were a lot of guys walking around wondering what they'd just heard.
Ah good old days.

Geoff.

Hilarious Geoff, you're far from boring

Thanks sjt, you'd change your opinion if we got onto the subject of braces and
brace tools.
I seem to recall a market gardener with a bird scarer that worked with carbide. It didn't ignite but used the gas generated to raise a wooden clapper that would drop with a
loud noise thus scaring the birds off his vegies.
Regards,
Geoff.

never did it myself, but the old man told me about the time when a few waggs let off 1/2 plug of jelly on top of a stump in the dead of night, just about stuffed the dairy cows and chooks close by.

I'm not imagining it am I? As soon as I read this thread I could smell the garlic.
Cheers,
Jim