I worked several years ago on a plantation site in Chesterfield Virginia
which, at the end of the 19th century, installed an acetylene gas lighting
system. The apparatus, as I understand, had some method of bring calcium
carbide and water together at a measured rate--the age-old method for
making acetylene--within a large bell-type compressor. It pumed the gas
into the house wherre it lit, among other things, a very impressive
chandelier.
 
Dan Mouer
Virginia Commonwealth University
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http://saturn.vcu.edu/~dmouer/homepage.htm
 
On Wed, 1 Apr 1998, M. Jay Stottman wrote:
 
> Does anyone have any information on late 19th-century residential gas lighting
> systems?.  More specifically, a gas machine system like the Springfield Gas
> machine.  This system included a machine that generated lighting gas from
> gasoline, an air pump, and pipes.  I may be excavating such machinery at
> Ashland, Henry Clay's Estate in Lexington, Ky. in the Fall.  It seems that the
> air pump included a large circular stone that is similar to a mill stone.  I d
o
> not know what the actual function of the stone was, but it was carved with the
> Springfield name.  Has anyone ever encountered such machinery archaeologically
?
>  Any information would be very helpful.
>
> Thanks,
>
> M. Jay Stottman
> University of Kentucky
> Kentucky Archaeological Survey
>