Today's tidbits

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Mark
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re: Today's tidbits

Post by Mark » Fri Apr 01, 2005 2:46 pm

I remember in the 70's reading the McGraw Hill Science and Technology Encylcopedia, a neat color photo of a clear crystal with nothing else around, with a beam of green light popping out of one side of the facet mysteriously. An invisible wavelenght of light was beamed at the crystal and it phase shifted the light to a pretty green as if the light were originating out of the crystal out of nowhere.
Here's some other examples but more grandious.
Mark
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.1 ... .html?pg=6
http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn3750
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Mark
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re: Today's tidbits

Post by Mark » Fri Apr 01, 2005 2:54 pm

Here's something that might be fun if you had an ultraviolet producing fuel, say with some aluminum or magnesium which emits tanning rays when they burn. I use to put a smidge of 1000 mesh magnesium powder in my methanol fire ring thrower, but I only got glints of white light because most of it wouldn't catch by the time the ring had expanded to 6 feet in less than a second after firing it.
Anyway, if you watch the video demonstration of the white granules taken out into the sunlight, it might be interesting to coat the outside of a jam jar with something similar.
Mark
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Mark
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re: Today's tidbits

Post by Mark » Fri Apr 01, 2005 3:25 pm

Here's a "smell-seeing" idea. Maybe you could make a jam jar with dots that change colors when aldehydes are detected/smelled/seen.
Mark
http://www.scs.uiuc.edu/suslick/pdf/pre ... tonics.htm
http://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/docs/2001/109- ... tions.html
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re: Today's tidbits

Post by Mark » Fri Apr 01, 2005 3:42 pm

Or how about those temperature indicator strips, I have one on my fish tank. I think they use to make mood rings out the (cobalt compounds?), anyway you could test your jam jar to see how it was feeling with various fuels. Maybe have a color for when your jar is about to crack.
Mark
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Mark
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re: Today's tidbits

Post by Mark » Fri Apr 01, 2005 10:53 pm

I know it seem trivial, but a small jam jar would be enhanced by a little mood color jewelry. I'm guessing you could reach amethyst with one mounted on the outside of a jam jar. If you had it insulated somewhat perhaps you could see it "slowly" transition through all the colors.
Mark
http://www.moodcolors.com/mood-color_chart.htm
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re: Today's tidbits

Post by Mark » Fri Apr 01, 2005 11:10 pm

See "other uses" for ammonium nitrate, nitrous oxide causes fuel to burn almost as well as pure oxygen. There might be some specialized use for it in a pulsejet fuel, who knows.
Mark
http://web1.caryacademy.org/chemistry/r ... e/uses.htm

Someone mentioned a caution about using copper with acetylene, I've done the silver and copper explosives. I also remember reading where a small bottle of silver nitrate solution which was used to test for acetylene leaks was not put back in a cabinet properly, they left the lid loose on the bottle. When someone went to use the bottle and twisted the cap the bottle expoded from crystals formed around the threading. If you bubble acetylene through silver nitrate a white papery looking substance instantly forms. The tiniest amount is deafening when later dried. It's a good idea to scale this experiment way down, it's also sensitive to friction as you have read.
I thought it interesting that no gases are formed really in the explosion, it works more like a nuclear blast, by heating the air. Well anyway you can watch the video demonstrations, it's kind of interesting how the stuff "comes alive".
I once put some ammonium hydroxide, acetylene, and a short length of copper tubing in a jar and let it sit a few days. Then I took it out and let it dry and dropped the copper on the ground. It sparked from a thin layer of a peppy compound that had formed on the surface of the copper tubing. One time at the turn of the 1900's an incident happened where an acetylene gas line was clogged, the fellow attempted to blow into the pipe and the residue that formed exploded killing the man. So copper is not recommended for use with acetylene, especially if ammonia is around.
Mark
http://www.powerlabs.org/chemlabs/acetylide.htm
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Al Belli
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re: Today's tidbits

Post by Al Belli » Fri Apr 01, 2005 11:55 pm

Hi Mark,

Here is an interesting "read" about homemade explosives that can be made from commonly available materials.

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Al Belli

Sorry Al, some of that stuff was just stupidly dangerous, notably chlorate based pipebombs! Last thing we need is some kid blowing his arm off by following a link on the board - Tom

Mark
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re: Today's tidbits

Post by Mark » Sat Apr 02, 2005 12:26 am

I've mixed zinc dust and ammonium nitrate and you don't need the water to set it off. If it is humid out, ammonium nitrate will cake even, but anyway, you can often just mix the two and wait about a minute for the stuff to ignite by itself.
One of the prettiest colors can be made by mixing iodine crystals with ammonium nitrate and then add the zinc. A stunning blue cloud of smoke billows from the reaction cooling and turning to an intense violet soft beautiful smoke. One of the best chemistry demonstrations I have seen/done.
One time I added the zinc to the iodine and NH4NO3 in a mortar and pestle and it lit/spontaneously combusted before I had time to think, a hot fire from the reaction and a huge cloud of color engulfed me. It burns like sugar and potassium nitrate, rather peppy.
Mark
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re: Today's tidbits

Post by Mark » Sat Apr 02, 2005 1:07 am

I haven't seen this design in the eBay reed valve site before so I thought I would post it. Maybe someone would like such a valve or something similar for a particular design.
A side note, I was using one of my jumbo spark plugs with the strange long electrode which is several times the length of the plug, I think they are used for some kind of deep reach spark ignited furnace, anyway, I screwed it in at the tip end of a Logan design with a 1 1/4 diameter plumbing pipe combustion chamber necked at the terminal end with a bell that goes down to 3/4 inch NPT thread that accepts this plug. The tip of the electrode extended beyond the combustion chamber and down into the center of the exhaust tube. When run with my buzz coil it can be seen arcing all around to the walls of the exhaust tube, if you look into the tail end of the pulsejet. Kind of neat and very crackly. A plug such as this.
Mark
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayI ... gory=35572
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re: Today's tidbits

Post by Mark » Sat Apr 02, 2005 7:46 am

It dawns on me I could melt my long electrode in the furnace of a pulsejet. Thanks Larry, your melt-o-rama Dynajet spark shooter comes to mind. And the early Dynajets also use to melt the plug or such before they learned to move it forward.
But still the large gap made for some neat crackly ignition. I suppose if I could have liquid or gaseous fuel flowing down the center of the electrode on this, or a more mainstream sized plug, I could mount it anywhere without fear of meltdown. It might be useful for some constant running timed ignition or PDE where heat would be a factor. Or you could kill the spark after the engine starts and use it solely as a fuel injector thereafter. The only drawback I see is having to use a segment of silicone or other non-conducting material such as ceramic tubing to keep the high voltage off your fuel tank.
I remember one site that had such a specialized spark plug for sale. I think I posted a link in the past. Maybe it wouldn't be too hard to make your own design.
Enough babble.
Mark
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Re: re: Today's tidbits

Post by Mark » Sat Apr 02, 2005 3:52 pm

Mark wrote:Or how about those temperature indicator strips, I have one on my fish tank. I think they use to make mood rings out the (cobalt compounds?), anyway you could test your jam jar to see how it was feeling with various fuels. Maybe have a color for when your jar is about to crack.
Mark
http://www.super70s.com/Super70s/Cultur ... d_Ring.asp
Today I saw a propane tank fuel level indicator at the hardware store. It is magnetic and you place it near the lower part of your tank and it measures the level of propane left. It has three rows of those colorful rainbow dots that change colors when you touch them. Yet another use for temperature indicator strips. You have to run the tank for it to work, to sense the temperature gradient.
Mark
http://www.barbecue-store.com/magneticg ... icator.htm
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re: Today's tidbits

Post by Mark » Sat Apr 02, 2005 4:03 pm

Here's some stuff that might be of interest. Just some stuff.
Mark
I thought these were cute, they would make for a good presentation for a tiny pulsejet if you could adapt them for fueling.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... otohosting
2000 degree hot paint for those who want to paint it black. Semi gloss or satin sheen, that is the question.
http://www.tempil.com/pdf/Pyromark_Tempalarm.pdf
http://www.tempil.com/
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re: Today's tidbits

Post by Mark » Sun Apr 03, 2005 4:26 am

I bought a length of this lamp all thread pipe the other day at a hardware store, it's hollow and comes in several small diameters for cheap. It's thinner than plumbing pipe and might be of use for some project where you wanted to trombone/thread into a combustion chamber or jam jar or small fire ring thrower that I like to play which works by aspirating a tiny pool of methanol on the bottom of a vessel up and out in a whoosh that forms the fire ring. At night it is pretty to see a green ring of fire launched straight up, and with mine, the ring doesn't become visible until about 3 or 4 feet above the vessel and it grows in diameter as it travels. My fire ring launcher uses 1/2 inch plumbing pipe and a pint canister, very simple to make really.
Mark
http://www.farm-home.com/cgi-bin/miva?/ ... B1066-2757~~~~~~~
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steve
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re: Today's tidbits

Post by steve » Sun Apr 03, 2005 4:31 am

oooo! more information on the fire ring launcher please!
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Mark
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re: Today's tidbits

Post by Mark » Sun Apr 03, 2005 4:56 am

Well as with many things, I discovered it by accident. I was trying to see if my pint canister would rev up with pipe inside of it. When I lit the top of the canister with the "volcano tube" inside it, it shot a fire ring straight up and out and nearly lit my garage ceiling on fire, the small amount of alcohol burned off quickly. I would spritz in about 5 or 6 shots from a finger pump sprayer filled with methanol and tinctured with boric acid for color. The tube is just off the bottom of the canister so as to allow ignition of the contents of the canister, the flame travels down the tube and ignites the chamber and everything is shot out back up the tube and the fire starts to develop only after it swirls and spins for about three feet away from the canister. From what I remember it finally gets about 5 or 6 feet in diameter about 10 feet up.
I made another canister with a spark plug in the side, but you can just as easily light the top of the "volcano tube".
I'll post a picture shortly of the canister and tube for you to see.
Mark
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