It was
evident, though, that that would not weaken the door appreciably,
even if the rivets were all driven through. Still they gave a
starting-point for the flame of the high-pressure acetylene
torch.
It was a brilliant sight. The terrific heat from the first nozzle
caused the metal to glow under the torch as if in an open-hearth
furnace. From the second nozzle issued a stream of oxygen under
which the hot metal of the door was completely consumed. The
force of the blast as the compressed oxygen and acetylene were
expelled carried a fine spray of the disintegrated metal visibly
before it. And yet it was not a big hole that it made--scarcely
an eighth of an inch wide, but clear and sharp as if a buzz-saw
were eating its way through a three-inch plank of white pine.
With tense muscles Kennedy held this terrific engine of
destruction and moved it as easily as if it had been a mere
pencil of light. He was easily the calmest of us all as we
crowded about him at a respectful distance.
"Acetylene, as you may know," he hastily explained, never pausing
for a moment in his work, "is composed of carbon and hydrogen. As
it burns at the end of the nozzle it is broken into carbon and
hydrogen--the carbon gives the high temperature, and the hydrogen
forms a cone that protects the end of the blowpipe from being
itself burnt up.
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