That reminds me of a warning about using carbide as a makeshift light source. One time my buddy decided he would build a little glow light for the camp and grabbed a 2 gallon milk jug, tossed in a handful of carbide and some water, poked a hole in the cap and lit the escaping acetylene. So we're all standing around checking out the scene, and suddenly this big whump comes from my friend's hand, where he is holding the milkjug. He is afraid to look because he doesn't know if he even has a hand anymore (couldn't feel it on the end of his arm for a while, it turned out). No damage done fortunately, but we had to wait for minutes for our eyes to adjust back from the big flash of the milk jug. Apparently the back pressure in the jug was more than the little caphole could handle, and it either anurismed the jug and the flame caught the escaping gases just right, or it reached critical pressure (I think about 32 psi maybe) and detonated.

Either way, it made for a good laugh. We still talk about it around the campfires. I especially remember the look on my buddy's face as I turned on the flashlight and shined it on him, then slowly moved the light towards the end of his arm....

ROTFLA ha ha ha ha ha......BMGA <img src="/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" />