Acetylene Headlights

[springer1]

A really cool short video about how to operate Acetylene Headlights using a carbide generator. The french motorcycle's headlight shown at the end of the video even had a hi / lo beam !

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rBCMVsD-00

[Limey]

I used to wear an acetylene lamp on my helmet in my early caving days back in the Mendips and Derbyshire! We called 'em 'stinkys' because the acetylene gas smelt so bad. Had to put them in old WW2 ammo boxes when diving through a sump. Not much fun surfacing the other side and having to find the lamp and the matches before you could see. That was a real definition of pitch black!

[Limey]

My old gear was like this - we replaced the old 'pith' helmets with plastic construction site ones eventually.

carbide.jpg (29.77 KiB) Viewed 2446 times

[springer1]

My old gear was like this - we replaced the old 'pith' helmets with plastic construction site ones eventually.

carbide.jpg

Wow, how was the light regulated ? - was it carbide & water - or "white" Coleman type gas ?

[Limey]

My old gear was like this - we replaced the old 'pith' helmets with plastic construction site ones eventually.

carbide.jpg

Wow, how was the light regulated ? - was it carbide & water - or "white" Coleman type gas ?

The lever on the top was moved to regulate the flow of the water into the lower container. There were raised edges to prevent it sliding by mistake. It was carbide in the lower chamber and water in the top one. A little wheel and flint (like a cig lighter) provided the spark for lighting. That was next to useless so we carried matches when we could. The thing on the top, that looks like a spider is, is a set of wires for unblocking the jet if it gets clogged up.

[springer1]

The lever on the top was moved to regulate the flow of the water into the lower container. There were raised edges to prevent it sliding by mistake. It was carbide in the lower chamber and water in the top one. A little wheel and flint (like a cig lighter) provided the spark for lighting. That was next to useless so we carried matches when we could. The thing on the top, that looks like a spider is, is a set of wires for unblocking the jet if it gets clogged up.

Thanks very much for the explanation - my Dad was a timberman in the Bethlehem Steel iron ore mines in Pa, working on the braces etc until he then worked as a lineman for the electric co. I have lots of info on the lineman part, but none on the work in the mines. Much appreciated and I really think you and others who worked (& still work) in the mines are heroes.

[Limey]

I never worked in the mines. I was a caver. As I was a Civil Engineer I was often asked to lead explorations on newly discovered caves. Had to lug theodolite and other gear into them so we could measure and create maps of them as we explored. Lots of stories there! Kudos to those old miners who used the carbide lamps. Hit a pocket of methane and the flame would ignite it. The advent of the electric helmet lamp (we called them 'NIFE cells' as they had a Nickel(Ni)-Iron(Fe) based battery) eliminated death from methane explosions in mines. Prior to that they carried canaries in cages - if they dropped dead there was gas and they needed to get out.

[you you]

I never worked in the mines. I was a caver. As I was a Civil Engineer I was often asked to lead explorations on newly discovered caves. Had to lug theodolite and other gear into them so we could measure and create maps of them as we explored. Lots of stories there! Kudos to those old miners who used the carbide lamps. Hit a pocket of methane and the flame would ignite it. The advent of the electric helmet lamp (we called them 'NIFE cells' as they had a Nickel(Ni)-Iron(Fe) based battery) eliminated death from methane explosions in mines. Prior to that they carried canaries in cages - if they dropped dead there was gas and they needed to get out.

It was the Davy Lamp not the electric lamp that reduced deaths from methane explosions over the naked flame in mines.

[Limey]

Correct - I got ahead of myself! Thanks Sir Humphrey Davy! Although that was a hand carried lamp and not a helmet lamp.