Editing Acetylene (section)

=== Carbochemical method ===
The first acetylene produced was by Edmund Davy in 1836, via potassium carbide.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Institution |first1=Smithsonian |title=Carbide Lamps |url=https://www.si.edu/spotlight/mining-lights-and-hats/carbide-lamps |website=Smithsonian Institution |language=en}}</ref> 
Acetylene was historically produced by hydrolysis (reaction with water) of calcium carbide:<ref name="Myers" />
:{{chem2|CaC2 + 2 H2O -> Ca(OH)2 + C2H2}}

This reaction was discovered by [[Friedrich Wöhler]] in 1862,<ref>Wohler (1862) [https://books.google.com/books?id=6zIzAAAAYAAJ&pg=RA1-PA220 "''Bildung des Acetylens durch Kohlenstoffcalcium''"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160512225014/https://books.google.com/books?id=6zIzAAAAYAAJ&pg=RA1-PA220|date=12 May 2016}} (Formation of actylene by calcium carbide), ''Annalen der Chemie und Pharmacie'', '''124''': 220.</ref> but a suitable commercial scale production method which allowed acetylene to be put into wider scale use was not found until 1892 by the Canadian inventor [[Thomas Willson]] while searching for a viable commercial production method for aluminum.<ref name="Willson">{{cite web |title=A National Historic Chemical Landmark - Discovery of the Commercial Processes For Making Calcium Carbide and Acetylene - Commemorative Booklet |url=https://www.acs.org/content/dam/acsorg/education/whatischemistry/landmarks/calciumcarbideacetylene/commericialization-of-calcium-carbide-and-acetylene-commemorative-booklet.pdf |website=American Chemical Society |publisher=ACS Office of Communications |access-date=10 October 2024 |date=1998}}</ref>

As late as the early 21st century, China, Japan, and Eastern Europe produced acetylene primarily by this method.<ref>{{cite book |doi=10.1002/0471238961.0103052007011414.a01 |chapter=Acetylene from Hydrocarbons |title=Kirk-Othmer Encyclopedia of Chemical Technology |year=2000 |last1=Gannon |first1=Richard E. |isbn=9780471484943 }}{{quotation needed|date=October 2024}}</ref>

The use of this technology has since declined worldwide with the notable exception of China, with its emphasis on coal-based chemical industry, as of 2013.  Otherwise [[Petroleum|oil]] has increasingly supplanted [[coal]] as the chief source of [[Redox|reduced]] carbon.<ref>{{cite book |doi=10.1002/14356007.a04_533.pub2 |chapter=Calcium Carbide |title=Ullmann's Encyclopedia of Industrial Chemistry |date=2013 |last1=Holzrichter |first1=Klaus |last2=Knott |first2=Alfons |last3=Mertschenk |first3=Bernd |last4=Salzinger |first4=Josef |pages=1–14 |isbn=978-3-527-30673-2 }}</ref> 

Calcium carbide production requires high temperatures, ~2000&nbsp;°C, necessitating the use of an [[electric arc furnace]]. In the US, this process was an important part of the late-19th century revolution in chemistry enabled by the massive [[Hydroelectricity|hydroelectric power]] project at [[Niagara Falls]].<ref>{{cite journal |last=Freeman |first=Horace |year=1919 |title=Manufacture of Cyanamide |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5SAzAQAAMAAJ&q=calcium+carbide&pg=PA232 |url-status=live |journal=The Chemical News and the Journal of Physical Science |volume=117 |page=232 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210415083126/https://books.google.com/books?id=5SAzAQAAMAAJ&q=calcium+carbide&pg=PA232 |archive-date=15 April 2021 |access-date=2013-12-23}}</ref>