Five Brothers and a War

Experiments with Lighting

The shortages of electricity in the van Pelt household made life miserable. Serious attempts were undertaken to combat dark evenings—as electricity was turned off to conserve natural resources—mostly coal. The van Pelts came up with a few options to create their own light. On at least a theoretical basis, some of the experiments showed real potential. However, it soon became clear that they all had a rather short lifespan. There were two options that held greater promise than the others. The first attempt at creating light came from Leendert, who brought home a karbietlamp (“carbide lamp”). Calcium carbide was invented in 1888, and when mixed with water was used to produce a flammable gas, acetylene, and a solid, calcium hydroxide—and heat—a lot of heat. Early automobile headlights used carbide lamps until they were replaced with electric lamps. The same thing was true of lighthouses. The idea with carbide lamps was

for drops of water to be added to the calcium carbonate at a certain rate, which would produce the flammable gas. The amount of gas would change the size of the flame at the burner, and thus the amount of light it produces. When the gas was ignited, a bright light was produced. A lamp would have calcium carbide placed in a lower chamber, the generator. The upper reservoir was then filled with water. A threaded valve or other mechanism was used to control the rate at which the water was allowed to drip into the chamber containing the calcium carbide. By controlling the rate of water flow, the production of acetylene gas was controlled. This, in turn, controlled the flow rate of the gas and the size of the flame at the burner, and thus the amount of light produced.

van Pelt

Leendert set up the lamp on the table in the middle of the living room. He started the water flow and then lit the lamp. Everyone was very impressed with the brightness that bathed the room. Apparently though, it is critical to get the water flow just right, and to be sure to vent the heat out as quickly as it is generated, because it did not take too long for the apparatus to explode, shooting a part of the lamp straight into the air, embedding it the ceiling. After the initial shock had worn off, humor took over. For weeks thereafter, they laughed often and loudly about the experiment. Leendert was not as amused as the boys, however. This led to the next attempt at creating light. For the second option, an old bicycle was used. It was placed in the living room, and the back wheel was propped off the floor to allow free spinning. Next, the dynamo which had been on the front wheel was moved to the back wheel. The dynamo was then connected to the headlight, which was aimed at the white ceiling, allowing a modest amount of room lighting. This would at least enable some reading to occur, as otherwise evenings would be long and boring. On December 21, in Holland, the sun sets at about 4:30 pm and rises again at 8:45am. On March 1, it has increased to about 7:30am and 6:45pm. Long evenings throughout the winter lead to dark rooms.

Five Brothers and a War

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