On Fri, 5 Mar 1999, CTBrown wrote:

> When working in the salt mines under Cayuga Lake I remember seeing some old
> carbide gas lamps for hats, maybe check with mining museum. I was under the
> impression that these lamps generated their own gas.

That jogs my memory. A while ago, I worked on an old synagogue that uses
to have what they called "gas pressers" in the yard to fuel their gas
lights.  I did some research and found that sodium carbide was reacted
with some simple compound, water perhaps, to make acetylene gas.  The
reaction was very simple, seems like magic, but it works.  I guess the
next queston is where did they get ample supplies of carbide in the 19th
Century.

Dean Koga