What is the statute of limitations on a thread? 
Picking up on one from 9 years ago:

Has anyone had experience with calcium carbide
furnaces?  I see on a thread from 1998 (see below)
that we may have an acetylene
gas furnace as mentioned below.  We're working on a
late nineteenth-century site an came down on a layer
of crazy brick red dust with white wormy inclusions. 
We heard from local informants that there may have
been a carbide furnace located on the site.  If anyone
has had experience excavating one of these features
please let me know!

Sarah

Date:         Thu, 3 Sep 1998 09:49:39 -0400
Reply-To:     HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY <[log in to
unmask]>
Sender:       HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY <[log in to
unmask]>
From:         Nancy O'Malley <[log in to unmask]>
Subject:      Re: residential gas lighting systems
Content-Type: text/enriched; charset="iso-8859-1"

>
 
<italic>Dan Mouer asked the following. I am
italicizing my response and
clarification. 
 
</italic>>
 
>Nancy, I don't want to misadvise you....are you SURE
that gasoline was
involved?
 
> It sound to me like you could have a
 
>fairly common (in upper-crust homes) gas generator
that used acetylene
gas. The
 
>gas is produced by wetting down calcium
 
>carbide with water. The reaction takes place in a
hole that is capped
with a hea
 
>vy bell-shaped weight which compresses
 
>the gas and sends it through the pipes to light the
chandeliers, etc.

Sarah E. Miller, Public Archaeologist/Director
St. Augustine Public Archaeology Regional Center
Florida Public Archaeology Network
Flagler College
P.O. Box 1027, 74 King Street
St. Augustine, FL  32085-1028

Cell:  	904-669-3265
Fax:    904-823-9477


       
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