[TheForge] Re: old propane tanks

[Mike Spencer]

> You must have been in the military...

Not a chance. :-) OTOH, I was, in the 50s, what might today be called
a geek.  Only then it was chemistry, not digital {soft,hard}ware and
we were called Teenage Mad Scientists. I have the embedded bits of a
failed rocket launch to prove it. :-/

> I had an old acetylene generator in 1956. Daddy admonished me not to
> let it get over 15 psi.

I once rented an old farmhouse that was plumbed for gas lights and has
carbide acet generator in the cellar. Hadn't been used since the '20s.
I moved out because the estate sold the place to a real estate
flipper.  I probably should have stolen it.  Nobody would ever have
noticed.  Same for the bass ophcleid that was buried in a scrap metal
pile.  I just too honest for my own good I guess.

And there was a blacksmith shop near here (Blockhouse, NS) that had a
generator on a dolly with an O2 tank alongside.  I asked if maybe that
wasn't kinda dangerous.  The smith replied, "She blows up sometimes"
and pointed at the ceiling. Plastered cathedral ceiling maybe 12' up
had a big mushroom of soot over the generator.  Ah, well, that was a
smith who drank rum while he worked.  I guess a little acetylene
explosion is small potatoes after a pint of Cap'n Morgan.


- Mike

-- 
Michael Spencer                  Nova Scotia, Canada       .~. 
                                                           /V\ 
mspencer at tallships.ca                                     /( )\
http://home.tallships.ca/mspencer/                        ^^-^^