The mantle is now ready for use, but is so fragile that it can scarcely be touched without breaking, and such handling as would be necessary for shipment would be out of the question. It is therefore strengthened temporarily by being dipped into a mixture of collodion and castor oil, which, when dry, forms a firm but elastic jacket surrounding all parts. It is this collodion jacket that is burned away when the new mantle is placed on the burner before the gas is turned on. Quite recently the method of manufacturing mantles used by Clamond has been revived. In this method the cotton thread is dispensed with, the thread used being made from a paste containing the mantle material itself. The paste is placed in a proper receptacle the bottom of which is perforated with minute openings, and subjected to pressure, squeezing out the material in long filaments. When dry these are wound on bobbins, and, after being treated by certain chemical processes, are ready for weaving into mantles. It is claimed for mantles made on this principle that they last much longer and retain their light-emitting power more uniformly than mantles made by the older process. THE INTRODUCTION OF ACETYLENE GAS When the incandescent mantle had been perfected so as to be an economical as well an as efficient light-giver, the position of coal gas as an illuminant seemed again secured against the encroachments of its rivals, the arc and incandescent electric lights. But just at this time another rival appeared in the field that not only menaced the mantle lamp but the arc and incandescent light as well. Curiously enough, this new rival, acetylene gas, had been brought into existence commercially by the electric arc itself. For although it had been known as a possible illuminant for many years, the calcium carbide for producing it could not be manufactured economically until the advent of the electric furnace, itself the outcome of Davy's arc light. Even as early as 1836 an English chemist had made the discovery that one of the by-products of the manufacture of metallic potassium would decompose water and evolve a gas containing acetylene; and this was later observed independently from time to time by several chemists in different countries. No importance was attached to these discoveries, however, and nothing was done with acetylene as an illuminant until the last decade of the nineteenth century. By this time electric furnaces had come into general use, and it was while working with one of these furnaces in 1892 that Mr. Thomas F. Wilson, in preparing metallic calcium from a mixture of lime and coal, produced a peculiar mass of dark-colored material, calcium carbide, which, when thrown into water, evolved a gas with an extremely disagreeable odor. When lighted, this gas burned with astonishing brilliancy, and, as its cost of production was extremely small, the idea of utilizing it for illuminating was at once conceived and put into practice.