It is
extensively employed as a solvent.
Acetone is not only useful for dissolving solids but it will under
pressure dissolve many times its volume of gaseous acetylene. This is a
convenient way of transporting and handling acetylene for lighting or
welding.
If instead of simply mixing the acetone and acetylene in a solution we
combine them chemically we can get isoprene, which is the mother
substance of ordinary India rubber. From acetone also is made the "war
rubber" of the Germans (methyl rubber), which I have mentioned in a
previous chapter. The Germans had been getting about half their supply
of acetone from American acetate of lime and this was of course shut
off. That which was produced in Germany by the distillation of beech
wood was not even enough for the high explosives needed at the front. So
the Germans resorted to rotting potatoes--or rather let us say, since it
sounds better--to the cultivation of _Bacillus macerans_. This
particular bacillus converts the starch of the potato into two-thirds
alcohol and one-third acetone.
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