[2][3] A 2007 textbook repeats this claim, describing lead carbide as a green powder with formula PbC2 that is decomposed by hydrochloric acid HCl to acetylene C2H2 and lead(II) chloride PbCl2.
[4] A compound analyzed as lead carbide PbC2 has also been obtained accidentally, as a thin layer (about 10 μm thick) on the inner wall of a graphite crucible that had been used to heat a lead-bismuth eutectic alloy for 100 hours at 1073 K in a helium atmosphere.
[5]: p.27 [6] Several reports of "lead carbide" synthesis appeared in the early 19th century, and were widely cited and copied into textbooks during the next few decades.
[1]: p.67 Also in 1820, Berzelius claimed that the pyrolysis (decomposition by heat) of iron-lead cyanide resulted in a double iron and lead carbide, FeC4·2PbC4.
[9] In 1823 Göbel from Jena obtained, by pyrolysis of lead tartrate in a closed vessel, a black powder that ignited spontaneously in contact with air, and believed it to be a carbide of lead.