The ones I remember from my shearing shed days were a galv container  and a  upside down insert with Y nozzle on top. A chunk of carbide, add  water, insert in  and hey presto, ice white light,  pretty loud, exposed and dangerous though.
Kev

I can only just remember these lamps being around. But I do remember as a kid an old friend of the family having a carbide scare gun. You could regulate the drip to determine the time between shots. I remember it being louder than a shot gun, he was a share farmer and used it to scare the kangaroos off his wheat crops. Also I remember it was always a competition in town on cracker night to see who could make the most noise and we would bring this scare gun to town and win hands down.