Industrial calcium carbideIn 1892, an industrial method for the production of calcium carbide was discovered by Thomas L. Wilson. He and business partner John Motley Morehead III, had an electric arc furnace, built of brick with a coal floor, at Spray, North Carolina. Willson was attempting to produce metallic calcium from coal tar and burnt chalk (lime) in the furnace with which he hoped to reduce aluminium oxide to produce aluminium, the goal of their business. Instead, by chance, he found a hard crystalline solid, which gave off a gas when dropped in water. The gas burned with a bright, smoky flame. A sample was tested by Dr. Venable, Morehead's chemistry professor. He identified the calcium carbide and acetylene gas. This discovery eventually led to the formation of Union Carbide Company, which Morehead cofounded.« |
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