Word: blowtorch
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Dates: during 1920-1929
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Hottest Flame. Dr. Irving Langmuir of the General Electric Company described his discovery of a flame hotter than hydrogen burning in oxygen (oxy-hydrogen). He made atomic hydrogen burn in an atmosphere of molecular hydrogen. His hydrogen blowtorch melted tungsten wire like an icicle, indicating that its heat was at least 7,000° F. Playing on a sheet of chrome steel the flame left molten pools behind it. Significance: steel girders could be welded silently instead of noisily riveted;* the welds would not (as when an oxyhydrogen flame is used) be oxidized and thus weakened, they would be annealing...
...efficiency of a fragile flask of Lewisite* they had had installed in the vault by a Chicago firm. Other bankers hastened to ask questions, order flasks of Lewisite for their own protection. Other yeggs scowled at the thought of having to add to their equipment-jimmy, "soup" (nitroglycerin), oxyacetylene blowtorch - a gas mask of exceedingly high impenetrability...