Lighting A Carbide Miners Lamp
| Field | Miner's and Caver's |
| Went Obsolete | mostly obsolete as of 2006 |
| Made Obsolete By | Cheap, Lightweight electric headlamps. |
| Knowledge Assumed | Ability to keep ones spent carbide from blowing up in your backpack. |
| When useful | Some cavers still use carbide. This is more prevalent in Europe, and in expedition length cave trips. (multi day) |
A carbide lamp basically consists of two chambers. One that holds calcium carbide and another that contains water. The water area is above the calcium carbide area so the water can slowly trickle through a dropper into the carbide. The mixing of the two creates acetylene. The acetylene exits the carbide chamber through a felt filter leading to a small pipe that leads to a tip. The tip is the pilot or jet where the acetylene is lit and is in the center of a large chrome reflecting dish next to a flint lighter.
To light, turn on water dropper full the crank back to almost closed. This allows an excess of water to mix with carbide. You should here bubbling and start smelling the acetylene. Cup your hand over the reflector trapping the gas between it and your hand. Wait a second then quickly brush your hand along the lighter making a spark while you are moving your hand away from the reflector and forthcoming flame. This should result in a satisfying whump and burst of light. You will now need to adjust the dripper so your flame is consistent and does not extinguish.
These lamps held their popularity because of the exceeding bright white light the acetylene creates. Not many ordinary bulbs can create that amount of light for the same duration with the minimal amount of materials. The waste created from the carbide water reaction is a grey dust and is most probably more environmentally sound then used batteries. With the advent of LED lights, there is finally a competitor for the old fashioned carbide lamp.
Supplies for old lamps can still be purchased at places like Bob & Bob(approve sites).
