Tid bits

[geoman]

Mark, DON"T you give away the answer!

acetylene tanks,

why is the small one called an MC tank and the next size up called a B tank?

[James Storm]

Only giving a clue. They were once used for headlight systems.

Stormy(not the moron)Weather

[Stormin Mormon]

I know the answer..... but we'll see if anyone else does.

[Travis Jordan]

Abbreviations for motorcar and bus, respectively.

[Stormin Mormon]

Bzzt! No point!

Try: Motorcycle, and Buick.

[geoman]

Wow, and I thought that I had something in the bag!

Your all correct. Headlights on cars and buses used acetylene for fuel. The MC stands for MotorCar, the B tank was used in Buses.

I asked a supplier if they would exchanged tanks form other suppliers and they said yes because they are 100% standard in the industry, and he continued to pass along this info.

You all win a cigar!

Rich

[Stormin Mormon]

Plumbing Glossary --- B

[ A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z ]

Term Definition

B Tank Acetylene tank holding 40 cu.ft. of gas, used for plumbing, once used to fuel Boats, thus the name.

[Stormin Mormon]

************** PBIZ Quiz - More on the Prestolite story.

Thanks to Bill, I ended up with a bit of controversy on this week's Quiz. Here was the PBIZ Quiz: "We commonly use the "B" tank style for our rigs but Bill P. of PA pointed out that the smaller tank -- the one we use in crawl spaces etc. Is called the MC tank. What does the MC stand for?"

According to research and feedback from PBIZ members, there are two camps for the MC tank size designation. One group says "Motor Carriage" and the other group says "Motor Cycle." The stronger evidence, including antique advertisements and catalogs I've stumbled across suggests that MC may indeed be "Motor Cycle" because during the brief period between acetylene generators and electrical lighting Prestolite offered a popular compressed gas conversion kit.

There's even confusion over the "B" size tank. Does "B" stand for "Bus" or is it "Buick?" Buick offered Prestolite lighting on its luxurious automobiles in the early 1900s. (Personally, I've had Prestolite tanks with the fancy "Prestolite" script on the side and the off center outlet which was supposedly designed for proper operation in automobiles. At the time, I didn't know I had a bit of history in my hands!

If anyone has any "light" to shed on the subject send me the info and we'll share it here. Thanks!

[DIMwit]

goo gull. I looked it up when you first posted the question and I found the answers within seconds. Honesty kept me from responding with the answers, cause I had no idea what the tank size letters stood for, even though I had used them both in the mid 70's when I borrowed the plumber's torch from a friend to do some 3 and 4 inch copper sweating of a soil stack.

Bob

[~^Johnny^~]

What size is a B file, then?