This ‘Autocet’ automatic acetylene gas generator was built by Croydon-based Weldcraft Limited sometime in the mid-1950s before being installed at the Trafford Park works operated by Associated Electrical Industries (AEI) and eventually General Electrical Company (GEC). This manufacturing works specialized in the production of low-pressure turbines.

The generator has a cylindrical metal body approximately six feet tell and three feet in diameter which is painted white. At the top of the generator is a replaceable carbide hopper which would control to pouring of carbide into the tank below which would contain water. Inside the tank is an automatic stirring agitator. On the outside of the tank is a set of pressure gaskets with relief and outlet valves. The generator, when installed, would be connected to gas lines which would pump the acetylene gas to storage tanks, as well as being connected to a sludge outlet pipe which would remove the byproduct of the water-calcium carbide reaction. A label is found at the front of the tank which identifies this object as a generator and lists the pressure of the tank when in use at 9 P.S.I.

Acetylene is a colourless gas first discovered in the early 19th century which, when set alight, is one of the hottest burning chemical gases currently known. Acetylene gas has subsequently become a widely produced chemical for use as a flammable gas for heating and lighting buildings, and for industrial welding and cutting.

One of the earliest and most common forms of acetylene production was by mixing water and calcium carbide, which would produce acetylene gas which could then be stored or pumped through pipes. This particular design of acetylene generator was design by Weldcraft Limited in the 1950s and has an automatic design which allowed for a more efficient production of high-grade acetylene, primarily for the purposes of fueling gas welding and cutting equipment.

Four of these ‘Autocet’ generators were purchased by Associated Electrical Industries (AEI) in the 1950s to replace less efficient low-pressure acetylene generators. This particular generator was installed at the Trafford Park factory, which was a manufacturing centre for various low-pressure turbines. AEI would later be acquired and merge with General Electrical Company in 1969, including the manufacturing unit at Trafford Park.

By the 1950s other methods of producing acetylene gas were developed, and overtime many companies found it cheaper to purchase pressurized acetylene pellets from a supplier than to have in-house water-calcium carbide acetylene generators. By the 1980s water-calcium carbide acetylene generators were almost entirely surplus to requirement. This ‘Autocet’ generator eventually ceased operation at Trafford Park in 1981, making it one of the very last water-calcium carbide acetylene generators to be in industrial use in the UK.