Description

The main use for calcium carbide is in the production of the flammable gas acetylene.
 When any grade of calcium carbide comes into contact with water, a chemical reaction immediately begins, which yields two new compounds, one of which is acetylene, a very useful flammable gas. This is the principal modern use of calcium carbide. Countries such as China use large amounts of acetylene as an industrial fuel, mainly because it is cheaper to make and use domestically than to import petroleum for the same purpose. Oddly enough, acetylene can also be used to speed up the ripening of fruit, in the same way that ethylene is used.
Another use of calcium carbide is in the making of some types of fertilizer. Calcium cyanamide is one of these, and is produced when calcium carbide reacts with nitrogen at high temperatures. Some steelmaking processes also require the use of calcium
 One of the older uses of this material was in a device called the carbide lamp. This was a type of lamp that took advantage of the fact that water and calcium carbide react together to make acetylene. These lamps were used in mines beginning in the late *9th century. The open flame produced by the burning acetylene in the lamp ruled out its use in coal mines, but miners of tin, copper and slate were able to benefit from its use.