Carbide Lamps: the Caver's Friend

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Carbide lamps work by reacting calcium carbide with water to produce acetylene gas, which burns with a very bright white flame. Introduced at the turn of the century, carbide lamps were widely used for home lighting, bicycle and automobile headlamps, miners' lamps, and lighthouses. They are still used today by a dedicated subculture of spelunkers (cave explorers), providing among the highest light-for-weight ratio of any lamp until the development of LEDs.
Miners' Safety Lamp Video: • Miners' Safety Lamps: ...
SOURCES
legacy.caves.org/member/mfraley/
web.archive.org/web/201012060...
zenodo.org/record/1428938#.Y5...
www.biographi.ca/en/bio/willso...

[@user-ph1uo1uu1z]

On another caving trip in Texas, 3 of us were exploring a passage that had poor ventilation. We noticed that all three of us had carbide lamps that were suddenly failing. This was an indication of low oxygen and we were also feeling it. We quickly exited this bad air passage having been warned by our lamps.

[@user-ph1uo1uu1z]

My Carbide lamp saved my life. In 1986, we were exploring a vertical cave in North Alabama and I was as usual lighting my way with my Autolite carbide lamp. There was a 90' entrance drop followed by a 100' long crawl and then another 100' drop. We rigged this with a continuous 400' rope and rappelled in. Water flowed in a fall into the entrance pit and throuigh the horizontal crawl and another falls down the 100' drop. At the bottom of the 100' drop was large chamber exposed to continuous spray from the falls. This was followed by along nasty corkscrew crawl that eventually terminated in a sump. It took a couple hours to explore this crawl and return to the bottom of the 100' drop. Once at the bottom of the 100' drop we found that our rope was missing. Somebody had pulled it up and we were trapped. The pit was overhung and there was no way to climb it. Fortunately, we had arranged to meet another caving group at the Scotsboro Pizza hut at 6:00 pm and this was our "Call out" time meaning that if we were not there then they would activate a rescue. The problem was this was over 6 hours to be stuck at the bottom of this pit with very cold water spray and wind coming down the pit. There were two of us and my friend had new PolyPro expedition grade insulation under his coveralls. Expecting only a short trip, I was wearing only cotton coveralls. He could stay warm enough but I would die of hyperthermia EXCEPT. I had a large garbage bad stored in my helmet that I punchec a hole in the bottom and put it over my head. My carbide lamp I put under the bag to warm myself. This kept me from succumbing to hyperthermia. The wait was awful. The sound of the other caver down the pit was truly wonderful with them calling to see if we were there. We never found out what happened to our expensive 400' rope but I still have my old AutoLite lamp.

[@OceanusHelios]

I went spelunking, dangerously unequipped with two 20 year olds and I was in my early twenties. No equipment. They brought D-cell flashlights. I brought a larger 12 volt. We were inside of there for hours and it was trecherous. On the egress their flashlights were dead. We came out with only a small fraction of light left on our only flashlight. We had gooseggs. We could have died in so many ways. I will never, ever, do that again. Nor would I recommend it to anyone. Do not do it without a professional guide. Nobody even knew where we were when we did it. We could have died slow painful and miserably sad deaths, and our families wouldn't have known what happened to us for weeks. We parked the car well away from the cave. We didn't want to get caught because the cave ahd a blocked entrance we got past. The cave was off limits. It was so bad in there my athleticism and wits is what saved our necks.

[@pareidoliarocks]

Always a large garbage bag inside my helmet also!

[@saginaw60]

Are you guys crazy?

[@TheBoatPirate]

Always have at least 3 preferably 5 backup light sources, food and water for each person in caves. And a cave plan left with someone not going in.

[@finaloption...]

I can't even watch videos of people going down these caves and mines.

[@jankrusat2150]

My late father was a geologist and former miner. i still have several of his carbide lamps and used them to explore caves and abandoned mines i ireland.

[@pattijacksonpattipowerswrestle]

I would absolutely hate to have to confess to all the stuff we did with carbide when it was still sold at hardware stores locally. But probably dangerous but fun stuff. One of the most interesting was taking mason jars, weight them, fill them with carbide then drop them in one of the deepest parts of our lake (300 feet). The pressure either ruptured the jars or collapsed the lids but eventually bubbles would come up. I have no idea why it was fun, but it was. Then the whole acetylene balloon thing with tea candles that would go up in the night air then eventually explode. It doesn't take much to entertain me! They stopped selling it probably because of people like us who played with it.

[@ElectraFlarefire]

Thank you for actually lighting and demonstrating it. The only thing better than a neat piece of history is something that still works!

[@Spritetm]

Carbide is also traditionally used at least in the east of the Netherlands (but likely in other places as well) in the New Years celibration. People make a small hole in a metal milk can (the large ones used on the farm to traditionally collect the cows' milk in), put some carbide and water in there, put the lid back on (although nowadays people tend to put a football in the hole rather than the lid, for safety reasons), wait a while, then put a flame to the hole. The generated acetylene explodes violently, shooting the lid or ball far away. Search YT for 'carbidschieten' if you want to see videos, it's sometimes been scaled up to ridiculous levels.

[@CanadianMacGyver]

I've heard of similar traditions in several other places, including Indonesia and the Philippines, where they use bamboo to contain the explosion. They also used to sell small toy cannons (the most famous being the "Big Bang" brand) that operated on the same principle.

[@airspeedmph]

Oh yeah, we use to make potato "bazookas" using big plastic pipes and of course carbide. Pretty noisy and scary, and they had a surprisingly long range.

[@crusinscamp]

@@CanadianMacGyver The Big Bang cannon is still manufactured by The Conestoga Company in Allentown, PA. The calcium carbide is a coarse powder (about like coarse ground pepper) that comes in sealed metal tubes called Bangsite.

[@MichaelEdelman1954]

My father told me about doing that with milk cans, as a child growing up in Detroit in the 1920s.

[@musab.k.9870]

In my country, carbide is also used traditionally for Eid celebrations. People build a makeshift cannon (usually out of bamboo, some people wrap the cannon with wires or bicycle chains for strength, those with more money would use a steel water pipe), where carbide and water is mixed in it. The cannon is fired by putting a fire source on a touch hole.

[@amandagardner565]

i'm the secretary of a classic/historic vehicle club in Victoria Australia, a friend was showing me his collection of carbide miners lights and as they were used on early motor cars i asked for him to come give a talk at a club meeting. (he was an explosives man in Vietnam & Mining) he turned up just before the meeting ended and was shocked to find a room full of 60 to 70 people (we had advertised the talk in the club magazine) what really surprised me and everyone was how bright and "cool white" the light was when the room light were turned off it was one of the best presentations i've seen in 20 years in the club, i'm sure car clubs would be happy for any collectors to do presentations.

[@fredblonder7850]

A couple points: 1) Acetylene is explosive enough that it can be ignited by a flint-striker. Other gas lamps operating on coal-gas or natural gas need to be lit by a match, a wick or an electric spark. 2) A subtle feature of the acetylene lamp is that the water flow into the lower chamber through the same hole that allows the acetylene to escape. This means that as long as the pressure in-the lower vessel is great enough, it will not admit water. When the pressure drops, more water can enter, reviving the reaction. Thus the lamp is self-regulating. If a home was too far from the city to have commercial gas, the choice was to use acetylene or gasoline fume lighting. The apparatus for generating gasoline fumes was quite elaborate. The last gasoline-fume lighting system was shut down in 1958. An acetylene explosion also generates a massive amount of soot, so if it explodes in your face it will leave you looking like Wile E. Coyote after having a bomb go off.

[@CanadianMacGyver]

As you've likely noticed, I'm starting to remake some of my earlier videos with improved audio and video quality. When I eventually remake my video on the use of town gas as vehicle fuel, I might include a section on gasoline fume lighting. Also, thanks for the info on the self-regulating nature of the lamp; that never came up in my research and I kind of wish I could add that to the video now!

[@davewilson4493]

I witnessed an explosion underground when a caver friend curiously opened a sealed plastic drum he found (after shaking it up) which turned out to contain not-entirely-spent carbide. My memory is of a cloud of white smoke pouring out of the drum (probably a mixture of gas and dust), followed by seeing his realization of the problem and his desperate and ultimately unsuccessful attempt to close the lid before the flame from *his* carbide light ignited the cloud. There was one hell of a bang, which echoed quite a few times up and down the very large shaft which we were sitting close to the edge of, and then a distinct smell of singed hair, but I don't recall anything in the way of soot, at least not on him. Then there was a somewhat high-pitched "What the **** was that?" coming from a second friend who had just gone over the edge, and who was in the middle of doing a rebelay onto his first >100m long single-section abseil, which is a definite psychological hurdle in itself (even though anything above 15-20m is in reality high enough to make further worrying about possible worse outcomes somewhat moot). I can only imagine what adding a large and unexpected explosion to that must have felt like. However, once I could see that there was no actual harm done other than to pride, I couldn't help but do the standard caver thing and burst out laughing, which I'm not sure my first friend has entirely forgiven me for, even though this was in the late 80s and he also had form in those days for this kind of thing. The lights we used back then with a waist-mounted generator remote from the helmet mounted burner used a gas exit pipe separate from the water dropper, so there was no self-regulation for them beyond limited back-pressure from flow resistance at the burner jet. That was fine, though if one happened to end up wading in deep enough water, water pressure could turbocharge the light to seriously impressive levels of flame size and light output. I do still miss carbide in some ways. The colour temperature of the light was comfortingly warm, and with a properly-working generator, if you were waiting somewhere cold and miserable, you could unclip the generator from your harness, clamp it between your upper thighs and get a maybe somewhat token but nevertheless psychologically significant amount of heat from it.

[@allangibson8494]

Acetylene is a high explosive. It is impact sensitive and is therefore stored in bottles as a saturated solution of acetylene in acetone soaked plaster which desensitises it…

[@BasementEngineer]

@@allangibson8494 That is not the only, or the main reason for storing acetylene in that fashion. Compressed acetylene will explode at pressures greater than about 15 psig. At that low pressure not much gas can be stored in a reasonably sized container, consequently the gas is dissolved in acetone which in turn is absorbed by the "sponge" material in the storage container.

[@allangibson8494]

@@BasementEngineer The “impact sensitive” part covers the pressure issues as well…

[@jeffreyplum5259]

My Grandfather was a coal miner. He started out at 12, driving horses for a limestone mine. He was in an area of West Virginia where both coal and limestone were mined. My father used carbide lamps for fishing and camp activities at night. I miss the smell of carbide in those lamps. Thank you very much for reminding me of those happy years in the 1960s. Images from that time come back to me as I look at your lamp.

[@badscrew4023]

In the early 80's, the Calcium Carbide was easy to find on not so well protected construction sites. We then early teens been collecting it and using to make all sorts of dangerous experiments, involving loud explosions and bright flashes. Innocent times :D I'm surprised no one died, the accidents were only more or less grave injuries...

[@user-ph1uo1uu1z]

Every real caver was expected to be able to "Recarbide" in total darkness in case your other two independent light sources failed. 1. Take lamp off helmet and take plastic "dump bag" out of your pack. 2. Unscrew the base of the lamp and dump the spent carbide inn the dump bag. Use the closed tip brush you wear around your neck to help extract the spent carbide. 3. Pull the new carbide from your pack, you keep it in a plastic baby bottle for protection from water. Pour enough of the carbide rocks into the lamp base till you can feel it is 2/3 full. 4. Pull out the squeeze bottle you use for lamp water, open the water reservoir on the upper part of the lamp and fill the reservoir with water. 5. Adjust the water flow lever till you can feel the dripper dripping onto the palm of your hand about 1 drop every three seconds. 6 Let the drops fall into the base of the lamp and hear the sizzle as acetylene is produced. 7. Apply your saliva to the lamp base gasket for a better seal and screw the base to the top. 8 Bring the flame tip up to your tongue within 1 cm. You should feel the exiting acetylene on your tongue. If you dont feel it, Take the tip brush from around your neck and use one of its wires to clear the orifice. Check for acetylene flow again. 9. Cup your hand over the orifice with space under the palm of your hand to trap acetylene. The side of your palm away from your thumb should be against the striker. 10. Quickly move your hand across the striker to produce a spark. There should be a loud "POP" as the lamp lights. Although it has been 34 years since I last used a carbide lamp for caving, I think I could still light my lamp in total darkness

[@mauriceholder1386]

When i was a kid my uncle.gave me an old.dented carbide lamp. I used it for years camping. It was a good source of light ( not super bright ) and super reliable.

[@Pamudder]

I used to do a lot of caving. While I preferred an electric miner’s lamp as my primary light source, I carried a carbide lamp both as a backup light and for heat. We carried large plastic garbage bags as an emergency layer of insulation. On one trip a member of a party was becoming very cold. Pulling a garbage bag over her head with holes for her head and arms and holding a carbide lamp so the heat rose into the garbage bag stopped her shivering and warmed her in short order.

[@robertsaget6918]

real men of genius! I bet she was so glad to have a man thinking ahead like you 🥰

[@larrygriffis]

I used a carbide lamp for caving in Indiana in the late 60s. On one trip I was standing on an elevated area next to a large room looking down but the ceiling rock slopped down right in front of me. A friend near by yelled at me and I looked up and realized that I had inadvertently "fried" a poor bat that had been clinging to the wall. That flame had been lethal.

[@davidholder3207]

As a young boy I had a bicycle carbide lamp. Not very good when it rained since mine had no glass! At age about 12 upgraded to electric with a dynamo running on the tyre wall. If you cycled fast enough the bulbs blew.

[@user-ph1uo1uu1z]

Recarbiding sometimes comes at innoportune times. I once had to recarbide while on rope. I was at least 50' up and the other cavers had climbed before me because they thought I would climb slowly using only prusik knots. I was actually faster than them using their fancy mechanical ascenders. But, they were all up the rope and crawled on to the next rope climb so I was by myself. I did everything very slowly and deliberately knowing that if I dropped anything it would be a long climb with a flashlight in my teeth. On another trip, I was in a tiny water filled room with about 2' of air space. One entered the room from one side by ducking under the wall under water and left it doing the same in the other direction. Again, I was by myself as the others had gone ahead. I had to recarbide while treading water. Unfortunately, I dropped my baby bottle filled with dry carbide. This meant the tiny room was filling with explosive acetylene gas. I quickly ducked under the exit wall with my flashlight in my teeth. We all had to go back through this room on the way out meaning we couldnt use carbide and even an electric light might trigger an explosion. On the way out, I went first using a Cyalume lightstick and jammed it into a crack in the wall in the tiny room.

[@Miata822]

When I was young I had a toy carbide cannon. The cast cannon body had a small water tank inside. A few grains of carbide were introduced and , after waiting a moment, a striker button was pushed producing a loud report when the gas ignited. Today acetylene is sold in "B" and the smaller "Mc" size cylinders. I was told, perhaps apocryphally, that these letters stood for "Buick" and "Motorcycle," vehicles that used the gas in their headlights.

[@26betsam]

We had the same carbide cannon. Great sport and probably why most people my age have hearing loss. living in the 60's was a fun time. Like my rock collection kit that had a big hunk of asbestos.

[@Miata822]

@@26betsam Yep, we had fun back then. I cleaned my Lionel train track with carbon tetrachloride and would cast toy soldiers out of lead.

[@jimurrata6785]

Bus and Motor Carriage. MC tanks are very handy these days when PEX & ProPress are common (not too much copper gets sweated in new construction.

[@Miata822]

@@jimurrata6785 That makes a lot more sense. The old guy who originally told me the other meaning 20+ years ago had many stories from the old days and rules-of-thumb that didn't always 100% match up with, you know, reality. I guess today I'm that old guy... but I only ever used the gas to build test rigs and 1st draft prototype HVAC stuff for our creations.

[@michaelmoorrees3585]

In the 1960s, and 1970s, it came in finer ground grains, under the brand name, "Bangsite", for the "Big Bang" cannons. I still have mine. The bottom end unit, which I bought at a fireworks stand for $10, in 1969. You can use the larger carbide chips, for the lamp, in this topic, in your carbide cannon. So doing gets you several shots, from just one small pebble.

[@Sodbusterrod]

Carbide lamps were used in coal mines with a safety cover not- always with the best results. In Carbonado, WA a miner removed his cover to light his pipe resulting in an explosion and co2 cloud killing 32 miners.

[@CanadianMacGyver]

It's true what they say: smoking kills.

[@hitchpost5822]

Just in case you are not aware wet carbide expands and has been known to rupture the brass bottom of a carbide lamp. It is recommended to only fill the bottom two thirds full to allow for expansion. I use vinegar to clean the stuck on spent carbide from the lamp bottom or carbide reservoir

[@CanadianMacGyver]

Yes: I only put a little bit of carbide in the chamber, so it should be fine. And thanks for the cleaning tip; the whole thing needs a good cleaning and polishing.

[@trevorhaddox6884]

CLR works great as well, it is calcium after all. Just make sure to scrape out as much as you can manually before adding chemicals as any unburnt fuel will react releasing gas.

[@hitchpost5822]

​@@trevorhaddox6884 I don’t know what the active ingredients are in CLR, but be careful you don’t eat through the brass bottom. I always try to not leave spent carbide in the lamp so I don’t use vinegar very often either.

[@akradr]

I doubt that. The porcelain tip or jet is press fitted and designed to pop out if under too much pressure.

[@hitchpost5822]

​ @akradr It is not the acetylene gas that ruptures the bottom it’s actually the resulting calcium from the chemical reaction that expands I have seen this happen to novice caver’s. At one time you could buy replacement bottoms but not anymore.at least not new. If you can get original instructions they warn about over filling and not allowing for the expansion of the wet carbide. The tip is for gas expansion from too fast a reaction (too much carbide gets wet too fast, this often happens when you have a valve malfunction)

[@PRH123]

Some were still using them when I was a Boy Scout in the 70’s. Not often, but they still had their place. Big advantage as opposed to batteries, they can sit on the shelf for years before you need to use them.

[@Inflorescensse]

James Turner Morehead of NC. I'm also from Greensboro as was he. I believe his son, John Motley Morehead III was Wilsons assistant in the process described above and much later founded the most prestigious UNC scholarship. the Morehead scholarship that my father received.

[@garydargan6]

I had 3 of them when I did caving . They were ,(here comes the pun), brilliant. They were also popular. So popular that all of them were stolen. On another note carbide bicycle lamps were the regulation when my mother was a child. So much so that when her uncle replaced his with a battery light the local policeman.issued a fine for not having a regulation carbide lamp.

[@Linus007]

Thank you for the great video. I use these lamps as part of a lighting source when I went caving 30 years ago. We had a requirement that we all needed at least three different sources of light while caving. Calcium carbide was one of those lighting types that we utilized. The others were battery operated.

[@Steve-cl7hr]

As a caver, I preferred my carbide light over electric because it produced a very even peripheral light that gradually condensed into a central spot. Until the development of white LED lamps, electric bulb lamps had inferior lighting, usually a brighter center spot with concentric rings that made it difficult to walk uneven ground.

[@johncoops6897]

That directly relates to the quality of the reflector, not the type of light source.

[@paulgillis4677]

I think the issue boiled down to the weak bulbs that were found in electric lamps (other than the very heavy & expensive miner's lamps.) The headlamp designer had to use a tightly focused reflector to get a reasonably bright spot of light. Once LED's & lithium batteries came along, it allowed for a very bright light that could run a long time, and a more diffuse reflector could be employed. I sure wish they'd had those back in my caving days!

[@johncoops6897]

@@paulgillis4677 - Just to add to your comments... As a very general rule of thumb, to produce any form of focussed beam (of whatever angle) the reflector needs to be at least 10 times the diameter of the light source. In effect, the reflector needs to wrap far enough around the sides to collect the sideways stray light and send it in the desired direction. The more reflector area the better, but that also means making it protrude further forward of the light source as well. . Vonsider that low voltage incandescent lamps (eg: 12V MR16) can use a more compact filament to produce a much better beam than a higher voltage (eg: Mains GU10) with the same sized reflector diameter (51mm). Similarly, a 12V 50W H4 lamp in a car headlight reflector provides heaps more light than a 12V 50W MR16 lamp inside a house downright. . So it's no only related to the light source output in itself, but also the optical constraints to "harness" that illumination. A minor's lamp obviously cannot be huge, so they needed to compromise in many ways. . Hence, the old incandescent miner's lamps usually only focussed a relatively small percentage of the total 360° (spherical in 3 dimensions) of light into a tight bright beam for mineral identification. The remaining majority of light would basically be lost as general spill light... not invisible but with a much lower intensity which would subsequently be absorbed by the dark coloured surroundings.

[@user-ph1uo1uu1z]

We lived waaaay in the woods in an old hunters cabin and went caving every Saturday. We emptied our spent carbide into "Dump Bags" and when we got home put these dump bags in the large plastic bags with the household trash. We burned the trash once a week as there was no trash pickup. One day, I stood over a bloated trash bag and dropped a match. There was a large explosion and I stood there stunned with my eyebrows singed off covered heat to toe in trash trying to figure out what had happened. Then I smelled the acetylene and realized the dump bag from a week ago had continued to generate gas. Likewise, "carbide bombs" were a thing at caving get togethers. Somebody would set one off and the whole valley would shake with an intense low frequency BOOM.

[@alexhayden2303]

When I was a kid, the local garage still had supplies of carbide and lamp oil sitting on the shelf. My brother used a Lucas, King of the Road bike lamp.

[@johncoops6897]

Probably the same Lucas that everyone knows as the Prince of Darkness.

[@oldgysgt]

In Boot Camp in the 1960's we used carbide lights to darken the sights of our m14 when we were qualifying at Edson Range.

[@warmstrong5612]

I've got a couple of these that were used for mining, one lightly used and one 'new in box'.

[@user-ph1uo1uu1z]

There were a bunch of manufacturers of these lamps, Guysdropper, Autolite, Premier, Justrite, Butterfly and more. In the 70s, Justrite made a plastic version that had a tendency to melt down. There was a cave ballad called "The Ballad of the Plastic Justrite". BTW, I carried enough carbide for a 36 hour trip (longest trip was 24 hours)at normal brightness. If necessary,, between the three of us we coulda had one lamp running at reduced light for a week

[@Alexander_Sannikov]

I had no idea these were so bright

[@lineinthesand663]

Ta the video. The explosive compound Cuprous Acetylide (Cu2C2) has often formed in piping systems for acetylene, where copper/Cu alloys were used. As a kid, I used to make it using cuprous chloride and carbide. Placed in foil and left on the road, it would make a very loud blast if run over. All the best from Africa.

[@johnransom1146]

I grew up in Woodstock Ontario. Carbide wilson had a mansion on prestigious VanSittart Avenue with Tiffany windows and a tower. Quite impressive. Became a convent later. Princeton is just east of Woodstock.

[@ericanderson2482]

Carbide lamps also provide a welcome bit of heat. Loved my lamps when caving. Hated people who failed to pack out their used material from their lamps.

[@SuV33358]

Funny how now that I'm in my 50s, I love learning about so much stuff like this. When I was in school I couldn't have cared less. Thankful for KZbin so I can learn at my own pace. Cool content here. I just subbed...older but smarter 😊

[@Jotentertainer]

I saw your video on miners lamp and found one at the thrift store today!! I saw it and knew what it was Thanks to you...paid 10$ it's missing the "parabolic athena" tip and most likely seals ..I got the skeleton of said Lamp...😂

[@bl7355]

Carbide lamps were used on North Sea fishing trawlers well into the 20th century. During heavy weather, the crew would have to go below to conduct their business in empty paint tins etc so it could be thrown over the side. My grandfather, sitting on one of the empty drums that were used to transport the carbide, experienced a flash, followed by the smell of burning hair!

[@NoahSpurrier]

I had one of these. One issue is that that the calcium carbide reaction can eat through the brass of the lamp. I had my lamp blow out. It wasn’t that dramatic, but it was alarming and startling when it happened. You have to keep them clean. These are very bright and interesting lamps.

[@williamkuhns2387]

The reflector on your lantern is missing the flint striker wheel. The traditional way of lighting the flame was to put water in reservoir to start the gas flow, then place the palm of one hand over the reflector to concentrate the gas and quickly use other hand with thumb to strike the flint (just like a Zippo lighter) and voila!

[@CanadianMacGyver]

As far as I can tell, this particular model did not come with a striker wheel; there is no hole or mounting bracket in the reflector for one. And I do mention in the video that most carbide lamps had one.

[@BrysonorRed]

@@CanadianMacGyver yep you are correct the Baldwin design didn’t have a “self lighter” however in later years they were common with most lamps such as Guys Dropper, Auto-Lite, and Justrite which are the three best known brands of acetylene cap lamps

[@crusinscamp]

And if you leave your hand over the reflector for a bit, the acetylene gas accumulates and you get a satisfying POP when you light it!

[@ronbaughman1165]

Carbide lanterns were usually ignited one-handed, holding the hand over the reflector for a moment, then pressing down with that same hand on the striker wheel, sliding the hand to the side and it is on. I was an avid spelunker in the’70s.

[@user-ph1uo1uu1z]

I too miss the smell of carbide, it mixed with the smell of cave mud was sorta homey and made me relax

[@davida1hiwaaynet]

Fascinating! I have seen these before in a historical display at a salt mine, but had not really thought about them. The good old days were so fascinating!

[@CCRoselle]

Acetylene is a narcotic at concentrations of 33% and above! Pure acetylene gas was at one time used as an anesthetic called Narcylene. Popular with some dentists, "What me worry?"

[@motionsick]

I wish my phone would run on rocks and water.

[@petermainwaringsx]

My father had one of these for his bike. He used to buy calcium carbide from a local ironmonger.

[@philipdove6987]

Male Cyclists using carbide lamps in rural areas would often refill the water tank by urinating in it. On British railways maintenance crews and tunnel inspection teams used Carbide lamps until the early 1970s at least. some would have water tanks holding about a gallon of water' and could put out a very big bright light.

[@Matt_The_Hugenot]

I used to do a lot of caving, first of all with carbide then with electric lamps. When I started leading groups in the 1980s beginners and kids were still given carbide lamps but they quickly fell out of favour for a couple of reasons. First because marking walls with soot became considered vandalism and kids were always tempted. Second for safety, with the proliferation of fleece clothing and similar the risk of some child's sweater catching light was too great. The caves of the Mendips in the UK were particularly busy and often crowded so this may have had a bearing. When I was at school it was possible to dump a whole can of carbide into the science lab sinks, put the covers on, and have the ethyne/acetylene gas mostly come out of just one or two because the drains were interconnected. Then you could set light to them. 💥🔥😇

[@stevecastro1325]

Look up “Big Bang Cannons”; one of the most awesome parts of my childhood in the 60’s & 70’s.

[@TBizzell68]

My dad had one of these when I was a kid, I couldn’t get over how bright it was.

[@SardonicDog]

I don’t know why my dad let his 10-year old son buy a can of calcium carbide, but I’m glad he did and can still count to 10 with all my fingers.

[@brettclark8020]

They also serve as little space heaters. Not only is there heat from the flame, the reaction of carbide and water is very exothermic. So, as well as light, the lamp is emitting about 300W of heat. This can be useful to prevent or treat hypothermia in cold wet caving conditions.

[@larrythoman5555]

My dad had a welding setup that produced the Acetylene from carbide in a glass cylinder about 12" in diameter covered with a metal mesh.

[@Javelina_Poppers]

As a kid, we could buy these and the carbide at Western Auto stores. We used them when us tough guys would camp out in the back yard.

[@user-ph1uo1uu1z]

Our caving ropes (PMI cuz Bluewaters trash) all had soot marks about every 18 inches. We all climbed using prusiks in a "Sit-Stand" motion ascending about 18 inches on each cycle. When you stood, your lamp would get very close to the rope and if you werent paying attention (ie, scared to death) it would leave a soot mark on the rope.

[@robertschemonia5617]

Yes! Miners lamps! Calcium carbide, a paint can, a bit of water an CC in the can with a lit tea light candle, and you got one HELL of a noise maker. And, as a welder I am very well versed on the dangers of Acetylene gas, and how to handle it. If any you haven't seen it, you should take a minute to check out how it is possible to store acetylene at above 15psi without it getting all exlpode-y when you sneeze too close to it. The technology is deviously simple, and extremely effective. Kinda like a can of soda...

[@stevecastro1325]

And how much brighter would it be if the reflector was not tarnished!?

[@donaldhoot7741]

When I first caved we had these. The newer LED's are FAR superior. Great video!

[@StevieCooper]

I’m amazed at the brightness of the light it produces.

[@motionsick]

Nice video bro. Thanks for the demonstration, heard a lot about carbide lamps on mining videos but never seen one.

[@johncoops6897]

The pronounciation of Bouy as "Boo-eee" always makes me giggle. Took me ages to work out what he was talking about 😂 (Obviously, I am not American)

[@daruscole1586]

Carbide is or was used in model cannons. It is in a fine powder called bang powder and mixes with water in the cannon and ignited by a spark to make a bang.

[@ourv9603]

Not all cave explorers are SPELUNKERs. A Spelunker is one who goes DIVING in caves. !

[@mickymondo7463]

I've burnt my hand on several occasions climbing a wire ladder back out of a cave, or doing my best to avoid burning either my hand or the rope when abseiling underground. The nice thing about Carbide lamps is being able to carry much more Calcium Carbide than batteries, and water is easy to find underground. I dare say my moniker is still underground somewhere from sooting my name on the wall with a carbide lamp when I was caving with the school.

[@Srinathji_Das]

Awesome video! I really love the actual demonstration! Super bright!

[@Cornpops_Revenge]

Your content is truly excellent and under appreciated...

[@ottopartz1]

I decided to watch this video because my grandpa had a scar on his arm when I was a kid and he said that he crashed his motorcycle when he was a teenager and the acetylene headlight burned his arm because it was very hot. He kinda described how it worked and it confused me since being a kid i assumed the world was always electrified. Now here i am 40+ years later.

[@karlfimm]

My parents had stories about using these during ww2. I always wondered what they looked like in action, so thanks.

[@Doellimann]

I’ve always used one of these keychain lighters filled with a mixture of 1part diesel and 2 parts gasoline to blacken the sights on my rifle… worked quite nicely

[@kajbyman3006]

I recently came a cross your channel,wery interesting👍 Keep up the good work.

[@pauljohnstone4723]

My dad had a carbide lamp on his bicycle during the 1940's and early 1950's. Battery lights were to expensive to run and you did not have issues with electric bulbs failing.

[@jackjones9460]

I’ve often wondered about how carbide lamps worked and why they went away. Thank you for sharing.

[@groenekever]

In the netherlands we use it in old milkcans for new years. Big explosions

[@keithtanner2806]

The best light I have ever used.

[@klausbrinck2137]

Great episode...!!! 6:20 He essentially invented "sensorics" as a science... And today, our lives are based on electronic sensors. 8:07 Please don´t talk about mining, as though it were an average office-job... I knew some old people having such a lamp at home, and always wondered as a little kid, of why that stone-fuel always comes out of the lamp, the same size it got in, never seeming to become less... I had no idea, that the stones were absorbing the gaseous fuel, and now, I know... Those old people and their lamps didn´t exist anymore shortly thereafter, and so, I never got to ask them, of how it worked... And it´d have been complicated to explain it to other adults, and ask them instead, so, I never learnt...

[@dmikelyn]

Thank you once again Gilles!

[@r__and__r]

It's great to see you actually use this. I'd no idea it even existed.

[@craigd1275]

I love carbide lamps. I always wanted one since i was a kid 1960s. Always cost too much.

[@mrb.5610]

Good to see one fired up !

[@alancranford3398]

Thank you for sharing this century-old night vision device.

[@Carstuff111]

There are far too many people these days that see old and think "Useless" when it comes to technology such as this. And yet, this is going to be way more reliable when you need it most than a battery powered flashlight of any kind. Especially when its cold in a cave and modern batteries still do not deal well with that.

[@marklynch8781]

Thanks for explaining this, During my childhood I wondered how these worked as I never saw one , but was aware of them.

[@AIM54A]

+1 for having rocket propulsion elements on your book shelf. I met the author (George Sutton) a few decades ago and he was a wonder person with great engineering stories of the beginning of the rocket age.

[@thekenmathews]

Used a carbide light in the 70 & 80 when caving. Due the characteristic smell of decomposing carbide we called them “stinkies”. Still have a carbide cannon. Great fun.

[@kalvkusk]

I love this channel Keep up the good work!

[@mootpointjones8488]

Thank you, very illuminating 🤓

[@rodgerneeb301]

Spelunker's friend ...as long as there are no flammable gasses in the cave ...

[@BIG-DIPPER-56]

Very Enlightening ! Thanks ! 😎👍

[@unclestoma4699]

my grandparents have a cabin in upstate ny i remember finding one of these with my metal detector near there

[@jamesrivettcarnac]

I've wanted one of these for years

[@lohphat]

Calcium carbide is the fuel for the now banned “Big Bang Cannon” toys. You’d get a tube of powdered CC and the toy cannon had a reservoir for water. The n the breech had a little platform to our the powder onto then you’d place it into the cannon, turn a knob to dump the CC into the water then strike a plunger which had a standard lighter flint which would strike a gnarled plate to create a spark to ignite the gas.

[@davidgill2592]

I had one back in the sixties when I was caving. The light was far superior to the feeble electric lamps of the day. The carbide lamp gave a much brighter and widespread, diffuse light compared to the electric lamp which gave more of a spot. The main disadvantage which I found with carbide lamps was that if you struck your head on the roof or gave it any sort of jolt, this would cause more water to be forced into the base and a HUGE flame would be produced which generally went out due to the gas velocity exceeding the flame velocity. Oh, and definitely clean the base after use as the spent carbide eats through the metal of the base.

[@jimbagley5387]

I did a lot of caving in the 60s too. My carbide light gave much better light than the electric ones. I still have it.

[@LTCDRRAZOR]

I grew up caving with carbide. Love it and miss it. Though got to be careful with your gasket. Had a friend once tell me I had “caught fire” when it leaked and gas ignited and burned around the lamp. Still have my carbide lights, still in good working condition, and still have an ollld green drum of it.

[@daveh7720]

We sold cans of calcium carbide in the grocery store where I worked in the 1970s in Appalachia. I assumed it was for use by miners since we were in a coal mining area, but it seems I was mistaken. (I always wondered why they'd use a carbide lamp in a coal mine. Everybody knew flames weren't allowed in the mines; that's why the miners chewed tobacco instead of smoking.) There were a number of homes in the area that didn't have electricity or gas service. Maybe they had carbide gaslights.

[@stanislavczebinski994]

IDK how cave explorers got that title - but here in Germany, a "Spelunke" is a very low-end pub. I'd really like to know how that came to be.

[@David_Rafuse]

The "spel-" part comes from the Greek word for cave: "spelaion." The scientific study of caves is called "speleology."

[@aaronclair4489]

Oh man, the etymology of Spelunking. Of course, originally, it's from the Greek-derived Speleology, the study of caves. As the apocryphal story goes: in the 1950's, the National Speleological Society (the main American cave exploration society) wanted some respect for their members. So they invented the word "Spelunking" for the activity of exploring caves. It's derived from Greek, and therefore fancy, scientific, and respectable. Well, "spelunking" is a silly word, and pretty soon lots of Americans learned the fact that the silly word "spelunking" means exploring caves. So everybody who went in a cave started calling themselves a spelunker. But if everyone who goes in a cave is a spelunker, then that means that not all spelunkers are respectable cave explorers. Some don't have standards. Some are even amateurs. Disaster! So the NSS started using "caving" and "caver" to refer to people who go into caves with some level of training, mentorship, or experience; and "spelunking" to refer to going in a cave with just a lighter and some string. The word they invented became vaguely derogatory. Most people in the US still use the word "spelunking", because it's a very silly word. Most people in the US don't know that the word "caving" also means "exploring caves". In the US, if you say "I went caving", that means you've interacted with a caver, maybe the NSS. It's basically a shibboleth. Outside the US, English-speakers use the word "caving" and "caver" all the time. "Spelunking" is an American word.

[@IAmTheStein]

That's incredible. I want one

[@abandonedminesofpennsylvan266]

Carbide lamps were widely used in coal mines. Before carbide they used an oil "teapot " lamp. Safety lamps were also used but carbide and oil lamps were used more widely.

[@csmetrustee]

Open flames were very much used as lights in US coal mines for a long time. They had procedures for ensuring the area was safe first but obviously it was still risky and mining was and remains very dangerous work.

[@ralf-peter.schwarz]

Amazing!!!

[@user-ph1uo1uu1z]

There was a story about a young female caver whose lamp ran out in 586' Fantastic pit and she could not get to her water so she somehow pissed into her lamp. Now, I knew this girl pretty well and she never admitted to this but all the guys thought it was a good story about an attractive hard core caver.

[@rockets4kids]

I've known about these but I had no idea they were invented so late. I've always figured they were much older.

[@manatoa1]

Very neat

[@alexandertoshich765]

Very Cool!

[@jp-um2fr]

Superb.That's all I can say.