Prest-O-Lite

Potassium hydroxide, alcoholic, 7, 77 Potassium iodide, 4, 37 7, 14, 58 Potassium permanganate, 7, 18 8, 68 Potassium Phthalimide, 7, 8, 78 Potassium sulfate, 6, 2 Prest-o-lite tank, 8, 10 Propane-1, 1, 2, 3-Tetracarboxyuc Ester (Ethyl), 4, 29, 77 m-Propylbenzene, 4, 59 t 50-Propyl chloride, 5, 28 i-Propy] chloride, 5, 28... 

Morehead started promoting the use of acetylene for lighting, and calcium carbide plants were established in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, and Niagara Falls, New York. Morehead developed a high carbon fer-rochrome in 1897, which was used for armor plating in the Spanish-American War. In 1917, Union Carbide merged with the National Carbon Company, Prest-O-Lite (another calcium carbide producer), Linde... 

Union Carbide is now a shadow of its former self, having expended hundreds of millions of dollars in legal settlements due to the Bhopal explosion in 1984. The company was formed in 1898 to produce calcium carbide and from it acetylene. In 1917 the company merged with three other companies, Prest-O-Lite, Linde Air Products Company, and National Carbon Company, to form Union Carbide and Carbon Corporation. From 1940 to 1975, it was second only to Du Pont in chemical sales. 

Acetylene had several uses around the tinne of World War I, prinnarily because it burned with a hot, luminous flame. The oxyacetylene torch and automobile and bicycle headlamps made by the Prest-O-Lite Company are representative of this period. 

In an attempt to find a route to acetylene other than from calcium carbide, Prest-O-Lite sponsored research carried out by George 0. Curme at Pittsburgh s Mellon Institute. Curme s research, which was directed toward converting the gases produced during petroleum refining to acetylene, led to methods better suited for making ethylene than acetylene. Viewed from our present perspective, Curme s petroleum-based... 

Meanwhile, a very important, new use for acetylene had been developed, oxy-acetylene welding and cutting. The oxy-acetylene became popular because it gave a temperature of 6,000 to 7,000° F. contrasted with 4,000, the maximum attainable with the oxy-hydrogen flame. This application stimulated the invention of a safe method of compression acetylene to facilitate its storage and shipment. The challenge was met by the Prest-O-Lite Company, who devised a method involving the compression of acetylene to 300 p.s.i. into a cylinder packed with a solid absorbent saturated with. acetone. 

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