Newport News Shipyard carbide shack incident

Welding engineer racing fire department to a carbide shack fire to prevent water-based suppression (which would generate more acetylene). Illustrates acetylene-from-calcium-carbide on-site generation.

Acetylene was discovered by Edmund Davy — Sir Humphrey Davy's brother, I think — in 1836. But it wasn't until 1862 that a guy named Wöhler determined he could produce acetylene easily by reacting water with calcium carbide. If you pour water on calcium carbide, it generates acetylene and calcium oxide. If you go to a shipyard, that's typically how they do it. Anybody been to a shipyard that has a carbide shack? I remember a story at Newport News. I was down there once, sitting in the office where the welding engineers sit, and the alarm went off in the shipyard. The fire department was rushing to wherever it was, and another engineer came in and said, "well, they got a fire down at the carbide shack." The welding engineer jumped out of there as fast as he could to beat the fire department to the carbide shack so they didn't douse it with water. Because if you put water on the carbide you're just going to get a bigger flame — you'll be generating acetylene. That's why they have a carbide shack. Storing acetylene is a problem.