Posted by Tom Napier on March 03, 2012 at 06:14:07 user Didymus.
In Reply to: Re: Beckfoot Lighting posted by Peter Hyland on March 02, 2012 at 02:40:06:
I was looking at PP for another reason and found further evidence that candles were a stock item at Beckfoot. In Chap 3 there is a reference to a bundle of eight candles that Nancy "had wheedled out of cook."
What I wanted to check was whether AR had specified the nature of the light that Slater Bob uses. I found the text (still Chap 3) does mention that it is an acetylene lamp. There is even a bad picture of it in "Slater Bob talks of gold."
We had an acetylene bicycle lamp around the house when I was a child. I never saw it used but it was a fascinating device. For those unfamiliar with them, acetylene lamps have two tanks, one above the other. Water from the top tank drips on to calcium carbide in the bottom tank to generate acetylene gas. This is fed to two fine jets facing each other at a 90 degree angle, producing a very bright fan-shaped flame.
Our lamp had a reflector, Bob's apparently does not.
The acetylene lamp also stars in PM Chap 24:
"What's that hissing?" said Peggy.
"Water on the carbide," said Dick, and caught Nancy's eye, and knew that she was thinking of saying the word,"Professor."