The unusual object by my grilling shed

FarmerTom

In a separate post I had asked readers if anyone could guess what an object in our backyard might be.  If you're interested, here it is, the buried cylinder in front of my ATV.

And here's the answer:

Our old house at one time had carbide gas lights. Perhaps a stove as well.  (There's the BBQ connection for the purists)   Long before my time, but we saw evidence of the holes bored in joists for the piping runs though the piping is no longer there.  There are some fixtures in our meat house that I assume were once gas lights in the house.  Only have the tubing and burners, no globes on them.

This is looking into the pit with the carbide reservoir removed.  

I'm guessing this held the carbide.  When doing some grade work for the grilling shed, we hooked into, and tore out some of the line going into the house.  We though it was buried deeper but it was only about  6" deep.  So that's it.  If anyone knows anything about these, I would appreciate any info.  I have no intention of trying to make it operational bur would be interested in knowing how it worked.  I'm familiar with small carbide lights as I have one I used many years ago when I did a little spelunking.  But this is much different.  The label says it could hold 200 lbs of carbide and operate 200-6" burners.  Well that's all folks.   Thanks for your interest.   

SciAggie

That’s interesting. I’ve never seen that for a house - man what a fire hazard...
A friend of mine had an old carbide generator that was used along with an oxygen bottle for a cutting torch. It was no longer functional, but really cool to look at. 

Foghorn

I was hoping it was a secret entrance to an underground speakeasy.

Kayak

The calcium carbide was bought from Union Carbide, and mixed with water to produce Acetylene. Under low pressure it was probably pretty safe, but keeping the generator away from the house seems like good practice. There is a big one in the Adirondack Experience museum in NY.

https://poststar.com/lifestyles/before-electricity-some-had-acetylene/article_a13c0de5-f821-58e5-af21-8f87a87a88db.html

rifrench

Interesting home accessory, a touch of history!

OhioEgger

Fascinating. Never heard of that used in a house, although I used one of the old carbide miner's lamps on my helmet for spelunking back in the day. I still have mine too!
Also had a little toy carbide cannon that made quite a bang.

dmchicago

Very cool. 

thetrim

That’s really kewl.