Carbide lamps

[jimlews]

Whilst lying semi comatose under the chrimble tree, I got to wondering if ancient carbide lamps give as good a light as modern rechargeable ones.

Has anyone any experience of carbide? I believe it gives a very white light (?).

[Jdsk]

I have one. But now only for fun.

The light output is surprisingly good... not sure how to show this... might do a comparison with something modern...

Happy Christmas

Jonathan

[tenbikes]

I have , and just occasionally, use a carbide light for caving.

There are legitimate environmental issues with them but they give a lovely warm light which casts few shadows.

Mostly i use modern LED now, as do 99% of cavers. Lasts ages, nil fumes, no heat ( good and bad) has a significant reach which the carbide lacks. But the colour of the modern lights are very cold.

[jimlews]

Thanks for the encouragement, Jonathan.

I've been reading some riders accounts from the 1920s - 1930s and now quite fancy trying them out.

eg.

"I turned on the water in my lamp, apply a match, close the front with a snap, pull on a pair of gloves and I'm ready for the off"

And

"I turn on the regulator of my lamp a notch as the moon is now slipping over the horizon and the road is darker".

From:
Sixty six years a cycle tourist
by Cliff Pratt.

[thirdcrank]

Bearing in mind how rubbish battery bike lamps used to be, you have to wonder why they ever superseded carbide lamps. I think they were only really used in the era before rear lamps became compulsory; I don't ever remember seeing a carbide rear lamp although I've heard it suggested there were some who got the acetylene via a tube from the front lamp.

They were before my time for cycling use, but my dear old dad used to rave about them and eventually bought one second hand around 1960. It was in a bit of a sorry state and I renovated some of it in metalwork classes at school when we were allowed to do our own little projects. It was never all that brilliant and the smell meant my mother wouldn't have it in the house to sort it out.

I remember that around that time carbide was listed in Ron K's Everything Cycling so either people were still using it or he was stuck with a lot of old stock.

AIUI, cavers used helmet-mounted acetylene lamps until quite recently. I don't know if there was something that made them particularly useful in that environment. Loads on ebay

https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_from ... =nc&_pgn=1

(Edit The lamp was in a bit of a sorry state, not me.)

[Mike Sales]

I remember buying carbide from Halfords. This would be around 1965, and for schoolboy pranks, not bike lights. Presumably it was sold for lighting purposes though. I think I remember a long, narrow, tin with a press-fit lid, coloured black and yellow.
Great fun. I wish they still sold it!

[andrew_s]

I used to use a carbide light for caving, until I packed it in around 1994. I should expect it was in widespread caving use until white LEDs came in (2005?).

You got lots of light, probably up to about 200 lumens, very even and with a good colour, but it didn't focus well, both because of the large flame area, and soot on the reflector.
For cycling, I would expect that the longer beam of electric was a factor in their demise, along with the work involved with maintenance (spent carbide goes pretty solid if you leave it in the lamp for a couple of weeks).

[Ugly]

I have never seen a carbide rear light, but many front lights had a nozzle to which you attached a rubber hose to supply gas to to a rear lamp.

[jb]

We used carbide for caving lights because they could be recharged underground, even when we stopped using them in favour of converted Oldam lamps, I always had one at the bottom of the sack as a backup.
The joke was you never got stuck if the guy behind you had an carbide lamp.

I bought a proper miners lamp a while ago, it had a lovely fan shaped flame, a far better light than the crude stinky lamps we had.

[Brucey]

I found a couple of interesting pictures



Calcium Carbide; judging from the typeface used on the packaging this could be from the 1920s, or even earlier...?

Carbide lamp in action;



The lamp above has a flint/toothed wheel to light the flame with. I wouldn't be at all surprised if you couldn't burn yourself quite badly on those parts, trying to relight a hot lamp.

Electric lights of all kinds tend to have smaller emitters and can more easily throw a beam as a result. With a larger emitter (eg the flame above) you can still throw a beam, provided you scale the reflector to match the emitter size. If you want a well-defined beam with such a lamp, a parabolic reflector about the size of a pudding basin might do it....?

cheers

[thirdcrank]

Carbide bike lamps seem to have had a bullseye lens and a flat reflector.

[9494arnold]

I have seen Carbide Lamps used in anger on Veteran Cycle Club Camp over the years. Usually a brief nighttime ride to the pub, publicised as the 'Matchlit Ride'
Lighting more than adequate, apparently you have to have them turned up when riding to compensate for the draft, when you stop you have to turn them down (or off). I know this because when I arrived at the venue there was a bike parked that looked like it was about to self destruct, the owner came out when I mentioned it and explained this to me.
Have seen rear light as you say supplied with Carbide via the reservoir in the front lamp.

[PT1029]

In the 1980's a friend had a carbide lamp (I think for caves, he studied geology/mining). He used to use it when cycle camping. We went to the campsite toilet block one evening, he put his carbide lamp on the window sill above the sinks. Well, the windows had been dribbling condensation onto the window sill all evening, and all of a sudden the window sill was a flame in a Christmas pudding sort of way!

[mattsccm]

I have some motorcycle versions. Front and rear. The latter is tolerable in that it doesn't get as much wind to mess it about and a small bright light is what is needed. Front is no more than a "bobby dodger" by modern standards.

[thirdcrank]

From Brucey's pic, it appears that the speleologists' version of a carbide lamp has/had no glass protecting the flame, which would surely be useless on a vehicle. I assume the "Auto" on the top of that lamp means "self" as in self-lighting as it has the flint wheel already mentioned.