Fun With Acetylene=FALSE 
2003 Reader Submission
Pending Acceptance
This story cannot be true as described. While acetylene is flammable, it alone cannot produce anything other than a fireball. No explosions, especially white hot ones. To make an explosion, it needs to be mixed with 50% pure oxygen to burn efficiently.
y shop teacher demonstrated this by filling one balloon with acetylene and another with a 50/50 mix of acetylene and O2. The acetylene balloon made a pretty cool (but harmless) fireball while the one with O2 exploded with a loud snap.
Another thing that needs investigation is that acetylene will spontaneously combust if pressurized above 15 psi. I'm not sure whether or not burying a bag in a 7 foot hole would cause that much pressure or not.
And how did he "waste" 3 torches? Torches don't wear out. Maybe he meant that he used up 3 tanks of gas?
Anyway, if that happened as described, he would have ended up with a stream of burning gas coming out of the ground. It may have eventually created a fireball but it wouldn't explode. Especially not with a white-hot flash. Submitted on 11/21/2002
Submitted by:
max
Reference:
shop class knowledge
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