Acetylene of 180°. Acetylene was discovered in 1836 by Edmund Davy, who identified it as a "new carburet of hydrogen". It was rediscovered in 1860 by French chemist Marcellin Berthelot, who coined the name "acétylène". Berthelot's empirical formula for acetylene (CH), as well as the alternative name "quadricarbure d'hydrogène" ("hydrogen quadricarbide"), were incorrect because chemists at that time used the wrong atomic mass for carbon (6 instead of 12). Berthelot was able to prepare this gas by passing vapours of organic compounds (methanol, ethanol, etc.) through a red-hot tube and collecting the effluent. He also found that acetylene was formed by
Calcium carbide turn of the 20th century. The method for the production in an electric arc furnace was discovered in 1892 by T. L Willson and independently by H. Moissan in the same year. Pure calcium carbide is a colourless solid. The common crystalline form at room temperature is a distorted rock-salt structure with the C units lying parallel. The reaction of calcium carbide with water, producing acetylene and calcium hydroxide, was discovered by Friedrich Wöhler in 1862. This reaction was the basis of the industrial manufacture of acetylene, and is the major industrial use of calcium carbide. Today acetylene is mainly