Agamassan is a porous substrate used to safely absorb acetylene and thus allow the transport, storage and commercial use of the otherwise unstable gas.
Acetylene can readily explode when in liquid or solid form or while being pressurized, if it is pure.
In 1896, French chemists Georges Claude and Albert Hess discovered that large quantities of acetylene could be dissolved in acetone and rendered nonexplosive.
Before Dalén's work, numerous attempts were made to find a mass sufficiently elastic to withstand shock without crumbling and producing cavities filled with explosive acetylene gas.
Acetylene is shipped and stored in metal cylinders filled with agamassan, which is half-filled with dimethylformamide (DMF) or acetone.