Net's Funniest Kitchen Disasters
Vince Gibboni
>ro...@cco.caltech.edu (Brenda J. Roder) writes:
>> Supposedly when the first dishwashing liquid came out, someone in
>> Cincinnati (home of Proctor and Gamble who probably came out with said
>> liquid), dumped a case of the stuff into the big fountain downtown.
>
> My mother several times told me that story, only about a college friend
> of hers and the fountain at Rockefeller Center in NYC. Supposedly the
> newspaper photos exist and someone chould check the whole thing out.
>
When I was a teenager, a regular week-end thing to do was to dump
about of quart of dishwashing detergent into one of the fountains at
the mall (kind of of an extra-curricular science project). The effects
are actually pretty impressive - one fountain really generates a lot
of suds which kind of ooze over the side and flow down the floor like
lava or an oil spill or something. Eventually, a teem of cheerful
janitors arrive, cordon off a section of the mall and shut down the
fountain. Anyway, I suspect that both the Proctor and Gamble and the
Rockefeller Center stories are true as this sort of thing happens fairly
regularly.
Man, you should have seen them kicking Edgar Allan Poe
- John Lennon
Robert O'Brien
Still not really _kitchen_, but before I left Sacramento in 1982, I had
a redwood hot tub in the back yard, and a couple of times each season, we'd
dump in a whole box of "Mr. Bubble" and snow the yard.
Makes for a fun tub party once in a while----->|-----
I'll see if I can get Ken to scan up a GIF of the
"Full moons over the snowscape" slide...
Bob "rearrange *that* diode, and you'll get a smiley" O'Bob
Dale Tanigawa
>>> Supposedly when the first dishwashing liquid came out, someone in
>>> Cincinnati (home of Proctor and Gamble who probably came out with said
>>> liquid), dumped a case of the stuff into the big fountain downtown.
There are a few legends here at the UW involving Drumheller Fountain, which
is bordered on one side by the chemistry building. Drumheller is a nice
big pondish sized fountain. One of the legends is that someone launched a
can of sodium from the chemistry building into the fountain---sodium reacts
explosively with water. The other is slightly more entertaining. Supposedly,
a grad student dumped a failed experiment in the fountain where it reacted
with all the duck shit to become something else entirely. The resulting
substance was a flourescent orange-yellow, and heavier than water so you
couldn't see it from looking from above (due to aforementioned duck shit).
When the fountain was turned on for its daily display, it sucked the stuff
off the bottom and spewed it into the air, resulting in a nice orangey-yellow
water plume, and lots of flourescent glow-in-the-dark ducks.
JKF
>There are a few legends here at the UW involving Drumheller Fountain, which
>is bordered on one side by the chemistry building. Drumheller is a nice
>big pondish sized fountain. One of the legends is that someone launched a
>can of sodium from the chemistry building into the fountain---sodium reacts
>explosively with water. The other is slightly more entertaining. Supposedly,
>a grad student dumped a failed experiment in the fountain where it reacted
>with all the duck shit to become something else entirely.
Pranks like tossing stuff into fountains may seem funny to the perp's but
they often don't realize that they wandered across the line into vandalism.
We have a fountain at Virginia Tech, right on the plaza between the library
and bookstore. People used to come by and toss boxes of detergent and
other things in there, watch it foam up, then run away before Security
came along. Result of their fun: the fountain being stopped, the fountain
works being taken to pieces to get all the detergent (or whatever got
thrown in this time) out, and a lot of wasted man hours. Eventually the
administration just stopped putting water in it at all, and now it just
sits there idle except on home football weekends and Founder's Day and
stuff. Sure, it's fun for the thirty seconds people stand there watching
it foam, but it's really kinda pointless and wasteful.
Joel "working for the university changed my point of view on some things" Furr
jf...@polaris.async.vt.edu
William Lewis
> ... Supposedly,
>a grad student dumped a failed experiment in the fountain where it reacted
>with all the duck shit to become something else entirely. The resulting
>substance was a flourescent orange-yellow, and heavier than water so you
>couldn't see it from looking from above (due to aforementioned duck shit).
>When the fountain was turned on for its daily display, it sucked the stuff
>off the bottom and spewed it into the air, resulting in a nice orangey-yellow
>water plume, and lots of flourescent glow-in-the-dark ducks.
This may be the same incident, or it may be unrelated, but maybe three
years ago someone dumped a lot of bright day-glo dye (a sort of yellowish
green) into the fountain. It was close enough to the usual color of the water
that out of the corner of your eye you might not notice it, except if
you look more closely it's obviously artificial. After a few days of
speculation as to what it was, it was discovered to be fluorescin (?),
a dye used for marking lakes and streams. After a week or two it
decomposed harmlessly (or so they say... but if you look closely,
in the dark of night, the mutant fish can be seen scheming in the depths..
muahahahaha...!)
There are a bunch of other legends associated with Drumheller. Its
unofficial name is Frosh Pond, and most people have a friend or
a FOAF who knows someone who was dumped in at some point. (Not unlikely;
I've seen at least two (presumed) sorority initiaition rituals there
in the middle of the night.) Other legends:
-- It's bottomless.
-- There are maybe 3 feet of water, covering N feet of gooey muck,
such that if one were to jump in, one would become hopelessly
stuck and drown, your body being added to the sludge.
-- Somewhere in there, there is a Volkswagen (details of how it got
there vary) which is just barely covered by the water.
Most of these were debunked a while ago when they drained the fountain
to clean it & do some maintenance on the water jets. A friend of mine
was standing nearby when they pumped the water out, and reported lots of
mud, tree branches, misc junk, but no Volkswagen. For a while after this
it was possible to see the concrete bottom of the foutain, but the waters
have long since returned to their original opacity.
Some mornings when the water jets are turned off, tired fowl will
congregate on the iron ring on which are mounted the smaller jets
(there's one central fountain surrounded by a bunch of lesser spouts.)
Since this ring is just under the water, it's not apparent that it's
there, or even that the birds are standing on anything, thus giving rise
to the solemn and mysterious phenomenon of the Mystic Circle of Ducks. =8)
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Mary Shafer
Not only did we put dish soap and bubble bath in the fountains of
local establishments when in high school, we also put in shark
repellent, which is a fluorescent green/orange dye. (Several of
my friends were the children of test pilots and the dye came from
the survival supplies.) As I recall, the dye didn't color the
fountains but it did color the deposits around the edges from our
hard water.
Ah, youth. Ah, vandalism. (Particularly the fuzzy duck decal on
the door of the CHP patrol car.)
--
Mary Shafer DoD #0362 KotFR sha...@ursa-major.spdcc.com
Stephen Graham
>is bordered on one side by the chemistry building. Drumheller is a nice
>big pondish sized fountain. One of the legends is that someone launched a
>can of sodium from the chemistry building into the fountain---sodium reacts
>explosively with water.
Yep. At the college I went to, about the third week in each term, there
would be a dull boom about 10:20 some morning. And people would turn
to each other, and say "Oh, Prof. [mumble] is teaching Chem 23.
He's just dumped some sodium into Lyman Lakes again." Fairly common
experiment. But amusing.
--
Stephen Graham
gra...@cs.washington.edu uw-beaver!june!graham
Bruce Tindall
[Re vippysue students foaming fountains:]
> but it's really kinda pointless and wasteful.
Unlike usenet.
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Bruce Tindall
chemistry class we were shown a movie of chunks of each element in the
same column of the periodic table as sodium being tossed into a basin.
By the time they got to cesium it was time to call in the Richter scale.
Bruce "I come to bury cesium, not to praise it" TIndall
No parking EXCEPT FOR BOB
>Sodium dumped in water blows up real good, true. But in high-school
>chemistry class we were shown a movie of chunks of each element in the
>same column of the periodic table as sodium being tossed into a basin.
>By the time they got to cesium it was time to call in the Richter scale.
to me, "each element" implies that they did *all* of them.
How'd they store the Francium, did it show?
A teaspoon of that stuff would probably invite disaster.
I always wanted to figure out how to get some dime-sized chunks of sodium
coated in something solid and water-soluable, like maybe sugar...
toss 'em and wait a bit...
Bob "or did you go to HS long enough ago that it was Virginium?" O'Bob
--
Brian Wyld
>In article <1992Dec30....@samba.oit.unc.edu> Bruce....@launchpad.unc.edu (Bruce Tindall) writes:
>>Sodium dumped in water blows up real good, true. But in high-school
>>chemistry class we were shown a movie of chunks of each element in the
>>same column of the periodic table as sodium being tossed into a basin.
>>By the time they got to cesium it was time to call in the Richter scale.
>
>
>to me, "each element" implies that they did *all* of them.
>How'd they store the Francium, did it show?
>A teaspoon of that stuff would probably invite disaster.
Well, the technicians at my school always stored such things under oil. Even
the moisture in the air is enough to cause a fair amount of oxidation.
One of the technicians did tell me about when she worked at Glasgow
University, and they had a little problem with some cesium. Apparently, the
stores there had some rather OLD sections, and they were having a clearout.
On one shelf were some bottles so old that the labels had given up long ago,
and fallen off somewhere. They were filled with lumps of stuff in a clear
liquid....
The common practice when opening such bottles, in order to avoid any risk of
releasing poisonous compounds, is to, ah, open them under water....
A fair sized explosion followed, several people were hurt and that sink was
never the same again. I think they opened the other bottles with a little
more care....
Isn`t chemistry fun kiddies?
Brian "one lump or two?" Wyld
--
<bri...@spider.co.uk : Spider Systems, Stanwell St, Edinburgh, Scotland >
<My opinions, ok? : 031 554 9424 : Short sigs save bandwidth >
Susan McIntosh
sha...@spdcc.com (Mary Shafer) writes:
>Not only did we put dish soap and bubble bath in the fountains of
>local establishments when in high school, we also put in shark
>repellent, which is a fluorescent green/orange dye.
This reminds me of the trick some classmates played on our high
school arch rivals: intact dead shark in the swimming pool. And
one trick they played in return: a pile of car tires around our
flag pole. (The tires couldn't be cut off for some reason or another
and had to be individually hoisted up and off the flag pole. We
stationed one of the band trumpeters beside the pole and he played
a charge everytime one of the poor custodians managed to remove
another tire.)
The mom of a friend of mine had gone to the same high
school years ago ... in her day the police department was
a trailer several blocks from the school. Their favorite
trick was the time they discovered all the police were out
at some emergency or another and used some kid's pickup to
*relocate* the police trailer. :-)
susan
James Davis Nicoll
>
>One of the technicians did tell me about when she worked at Glasgow
>University, and they had a little problem with some cesium. Apparently, the
>stores there had some rather OLD sections, and they were having a clearout.
>On one shelf were some bottles so old that the labels had given up long ago,
>and fallen off somewhere. They were filled with lumps of stuff in a clear
>liquid....
>
>The common practice when opening such bottles, in order to avoid any risk of
>releasing poisonous compounds, is to, ah, open them under water....
>
>A fair sized explosion followed, several people were hurt and that sink was
>never the same again. I think they opened the other bottles with a little
>more care....
>
local university's collection of waste chemicals. One of the more interesting
bottles was labeled 'picric acid' (sp?), which is fairly unstable when
crystalised. The bottle had no fluids in it, so I decided to treat
it as though it had crystals in it, and not move it until I had informed
my boss. However, being young and stupid, I also decided to continue
inventorying. The next container was full of silver nitrate, so I
marked it and moved it to the section I was storing the containers
I had dealt with, without much concern, since I didn't regard it as
a potential bomb. In doing so, I clipped the alleged picric acid with
my elbow, knocking it onto the floor, between me and the door and on
the other side of a bucket of lithium pellets. As it turned out,
it was just an empty bottle with a misleading label, but I didn't
know that as it was falling. Most stressful...
James Nicoll
Bruce Tindall
>bottles was labeled 'picric acid' (sp?), which is fairly unstable when
From the Georgia Institute of Technology Handbook of Interesting
Substances, 6th ed. (Atlanta: Olympic(tm) Hype Press, 1991):
"pickrick acid, K(subscript3)H, a major constituent of fried chicken
and axe handles, also used as a neck rubefacient. The ion K(subscript3)
is a cheap -- and until the FBI can catch him, free -- radical, first
isolated at the University of Leicester."
Bruce "free explanations to foreigners upon request" Tindall
Tony Wingo
parking EXCEPT FOR BOB) wrote:
>
> I always wanted to figure out how to get some dime-sized chunks of sodium
> coated in something solid and water-soluable, like maybe sugar...
> toss 'em and wait a bit...
>
When I was in high school (a long, long time ago) we once had a substitute
chemistry teacher who attempted to demonstrate the reaction of sodium and
water. Now, the sodium in our lab was kept in a jar full of light mineral
oil. So he takes a tiny piece of sodium out of the jar and drops it into a
beaker of water. Nothing happens (since the piece was coated with oil). So
he takes a bigger piece and drops it in. Nothing happens. He takes an even
bigger piece and drops it in. About this time, the oil diffuses off the
first two pieces, allowing them to cantact the water. That reaction rinsed
the oil off the biggest piece.
It was spectacular.
-tony "I wouldn't be a substitute teacher for anything" wingo
Daniel Segard
I've heard that it is possible to coat sodium in gelitin so that it
won't react with water -- for a while at least. The trick I had heard was
that you toss these into a person's gas tank and then eventually the small
amount of water in the gas will disolve the geletin and react with the
sodium -- causing the gas tank, the car and the occupants to blow up.
Works better with a gas tank that isn't filled to the brim I gather, need
some amount of air to react with the gas. Not a very sure fire <a hmm>
method of killing someone, since you can't be certain of when the geletin
is going to disolve, whether the person will be in the car at the time,
etc. I think the source for this is "The Poor Man's James Bond" or the
"Anarchist's Cookbook" or something like that.
bill nelson
:
: I've heard that it is possible to coat sodium in gelitin so that it
: won't react with water -- for a while at least. The trick I had heard was
: that you toss these into a person's gas tank and then eventually the small
: amount of water in the gas will disolve the geletin and react with the
: sodium -- causing the gas tank, the car and the occupants to blow up.
: Works better with a gas tank that isn't filled to the brim I gather, need
: some amount of air to react with the gas. Not a very sure fire <a hmm>
Yeah - that is what they claim. However, you need water - the sodium does
not react with gasoline. It is also very unlikely to work. I would expect
the gasoline fume concentration to be far too high - not enough oxygen
for much of a reaction to occur.
: method of killing someone, since you can't be certain of when the geletin
: is going to disolve, whether the person will be in the car at the time,
: etc. I think the source for this is "The Poor Man's James Bond" or the
: "Anarchist's Cookbook" or something like that.
It was in one or the other. Such things only work in their imagination.
They should have tried it - they would have been disappointed. It is not
too surprising that it is such books - they are both riddled with such
stupid and inaccurate ideas.
The best thing about the books is, someone who tries some of the procedures
listed is likely to kill themselves before they can harm anyone else.
Bill
John Pipkins SSE SMCC
How would you get it in the geletin (which is mostly wa-wa) without
"interesting" things happening?
khar...@fnala.fnal.gov
Yes, I think this trick was from _The Poor Man's James Bond_.
The suggested method was to place the Sodium metal into a geletin capsule,
like the type used for medication. The capsule is dry, there is no moisture
present. A bb is added to the capsule to weigh it down so it will sink to
the bottom of the gas tank. The geletin dissolves in the condensed moisture
(water) in the gas tank...BOOM!
Don't know if it would work, and don't care to find out.
Ken
Greg Pasquariello
> dse...@nyx.cs.du.edu (Daniel Segard) writes:
> :
> : I've heard that it is possible to coat sodium in gelitin so that it
> : won't react with water -- for a while at least. The trick I had heard was
> : that you toss these into a person's gas tank and then eventually the small
> : amount of water in the gas will disolve the geletin and react with the
> : sodium -- causing the gas tank, the car and the occupants to blow up.
> : Works better with a gas tank that isn't filled to the brim I gather, need
> : some amount of air to react with the gas. Not a very sure fire <a hmm>
>
> Yeah - that is what they claim. However, you need water - the sodium does
> not react with gasoline. It is also very unlikely to work. I would expect
> the gasoline fume concentration to be far too high - not enough oxygen
> for much of a reaction to occur.
>
> : method of killing someone, since you can't be certain of when the geletin
> : is going to disolve, whether the person will be in the car at the time,
> : etc. I think the source for this is "The Poor Man's James Bond" or the
> : "Anarchist's Cookbook" or something like that.
>
> It was in one or the other. Such things only work in their imagination.
> They should have tried it - they would have been disappointed. It is not
> too surprising that it is such books - they are both riddled with such
> stupid and inaccurate ideas.
>
Actually the "recipe" was a bit different, though I'm not sure if this would
work either...
It was something like putting metallic sodium into one gelatin (pill) capsule
and calcium carbide into another. Presumably when the capsules dissolve
the explosion occurs. I don't know if there is a reaction or not, nor will
I attempt to find out.
BTW, they called these things "fireflies". It's amazing what one remembers!
> The best thing about the books is, someone who tries some of the procedures
> listed is likely to kill themselves before they can harm anyone else.
>
> Bill
--
--
Greg Pasquariello g...@unify.com Hobnobbing with the ancients
Unify Corporation or
(916) 928-6258 ...!uunet!unify!grp
Mark Monninger
As I remember, several years ago one of the car magazines (Road & Track, I
think) decided to test this. They put 5 or 10 lbs of sugar in the tank of
a car (don't remember what make) and drove it around. The only problem
they had was that the undissolved sugar clogged the fuel filter. They
finally removed the tank and cut it open (carefully) and discovered that
none of the sugar had dissolved...sugar apparently isn't soluble in
gasoline. Anyone else remmeber this? Any comments?
Mark
rha...@isdres.er.usgs.gov
the valves and chamber. Soon enough it will stop the engine with enough sugar
added to it. The partizans in Norway did this to German cars in WWII, although
those cars ran on pretty poor grades of gasoline anyway. Didn't take much
to mess them up.
I remember one story (true or not, now I can't remember), where on
an arctic adventure, the bad guy(s) put sugar in the gasoline to prevent
pursuit of the snowmobiles. The good guys drained the tanks, added water
to the gasoline, and shook it up. The sugar dissolved into the water, the
water was seperated from the gasoline by centrifugal force, and the gas
replaced in the snowmobiles and the bad guys brought to justice. If it
isn't a true story, at least the logic is good, even if the engineering
wouldn't work.
lee hadden
David Aaron Tepper
ma...@bigfoot.sps.mot.com (Mark Monninger) writes:
[sugar-in-gas-tank UL deleted]
>They
>finally removed the tank and cut it open (carefully) and discovered that
>none of the sugar had dissolved...sugar apparently isn't soluble in
>gasoline. Anyone else remmeber this? Any comments?
Well, if sugar is a polar molecule, and gasoline is nonpolar, I imagine
they wouldn't dissolve. It wouldn't work that way.
ObUL: Leaking battery acid reacts with the sugar to form steam and a
black, gummy substance which can be identified as carbon. _This_ is how
that trick works.
Tep
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just a little while, open your eyes and look at the | me chastity...
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JJJJJust JJJJJohn
> I remember one story (true or not, now I can't remember), where on
>an arctic adventure, the bad guy(s) put sugar in the gasoline to prevent
>pursuit of the snowmobiles. The good guys drained the tanks, added water
>to the gasoline, and shook it up. The sugar dissolved into the water, the
>water was seperated from the gasoline by centrifugal force, and the gas
>replaced in the snowmobiles and the bad guys brought to justice. If it
>isn't a true story, at least the logic is good, even if the engineering
>wouldn't work.
I think this was from Alistair MacLean's _Night_Without_End_.
In one of George Hayduke's _Get_Even_ books (and in Abbey's _Monkey_Wrench_
_Gang_), Karo syrup is suggested instead of sugar. Of course, Hayduke also
suggests putting styrene in the oil...
--John "Karo always clogs *ME* up" Wichers
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harsh, which made them || 121 Museum St #2, Somerville Ma. 02143
tough to chew. - Danno || Jesus died for your sins; make it worth his while
|| 3.0 x 10^8 m/s - It's not just a good idea, it's the LAW! ||
Wayne McDougall
> dse...@nyx.cs.du.edu (Daniel Segard) writes:
> :
> : I've heard that it is possible to coat sodium in gelitin so that it
> : won't react with water -- for a while at least. The trick I had heard was
> : that you toss these into a person's gas tank and then eventually the small
> : amount of water in the gas will disolve the geletin and react with the
> : sodium -- causing the gas tank, the car and the occupants to blow up.
> : Works better with a gas tank that isn't filled to the brim I gather, need
> : some amount of air to react with the gas. Not a very sure fire <a hmm>
>
> Yeah - that is what they claim. However, you need water - the sodium does
> not react with gasoline. It is also very unlikely to work. I would expect
> the gasoline fume concentration to be far too high - not enough oxygen
> for much of a reaction to occur.
>
Doesn't the sodium reduce the water, thus producing its own oxygen?
Change of topic:
Notice the alleged burgular stuck in the chimney claiming to be santa? This
shows that the the woman smelling her moulding husband in a similar prediciment
could have happened, so IT MUST BE TRUE.
--
Wayne McDougall, BCNU
"I hate quotations." - Ralph Waldo Emerson
bill nelson
:
: Actually the "recipe" was a bit different, though I'm not sure if this would
: work either...
:
: It was something like putting metallic sodium into one gelatin (pill) capsule
: and calcium carbide into another. Presumably when the capsules dissolve
: the explosion occurs. I don't know if there is a reaction or not, nor will
: I attempt to find out.
I know the procedure - I have both of the books. However, my statement
still stands. Even if you could get a reaction, there would either be
no fire, or a very disappointing one. The people who dreamed up the idea
forgot that oxygen would also be necessary - and it would have to be
present in the right proportions.
As an example of the stupidity - why would you want to add calcium
carbide? All it does is create acetylene, when it reacts with water.
What did they think - that gasoline was not good for a FAE?
Bill
bill nelson
: The sugar in the gas tank is carmelized when the gasoline is ingnited, coating
: the valves and chamber. Soon enough it will stop the engine with enough sugar
It cannot be carmalized - if it does not get dissolved and transported to the
cylingers in the first place.
The US government, as part of their "Guerrilla Warfare" studies, tried this
(among many other ideas). The found that it did not work. There was no damage
to the engines.
Bill
Phil Gustafson
>calcium carbide
I was very pleased to discover that "Big Bang" toy cannon are still
available. Small ones are $29.95 and large ones $69.95 at Eric Fuch's
notable hobby store near the foot of Tremont Street in Boston.
These devices, which I had assumed had been legislated into oblivion,
include a little pot of water, a tiny spoon, and a flint-and-steel
sparker. One measures out a bit of calcium carbide with the spoon,
allows it to dissolve in the water, and uses the sparker to ignite
the resultant vapor. The resulting kablooie is delightful. I would
have bought one for my young nephew just for the fun of showing him
how to work it, but the thought of an enraged sister-in-law stayed my
hand.
In younger days, I proved that carbide can lift coffee cans to surprising
levels. It still seems to be a good source of loud noises and minimal
risk.
Phil "Actually, Bill Nelson is the afu'er who knows how to make
loud noises" Gustafson
>the explosion occurs. I don't know if there is a reaction or not, nor will
>I attempt to find out.
>
>BTW, they called these things "fireflies". It's amazing what one remembers!
>
>
>> The best thing about the books is, someone who tries some of the procedures
>> listed is likely to kill themselves before they can harm anyone else.
>>
>> Bill
>
>--
>
>--
>Greg Pasquariello g...@unify.com Hobnobbing with the ancients
>Unify Corporation or
>(916) 928-6258 ...!uunet!unify!grp
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| Opinions outside attributed material are mine alone. |
| Satirical matter is not necessarily identified as such. |
David Lesher
# The sugar in the gas tank is carmelized when the gasoline is ingnited,
Maybe.....
As I recall, the OSS went to considerable trouble to find an
consistent way to immobolize cars & trucks. It was not simple.
# I remember one story (true or not, now I can't remember), where on
# an arctic adventure, the bad guy(s) put sugar in the gasoline to prevent
# pursuit of the snowmobiles. The good guys drained the tanks, added water
# to the gasoline, and shook it up.
Ice Station Zebra, or maybe another by the same author....
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Kim Greer -- rjj
> I remember one story (true or not, now I can't remember), where on
>an arctic adventure, the bad guy(s) put sugar in the gasoline to prevent
>pursuit of the snowmobiles. The good guys drained the tanks, added water
>to the gasoline, and shook it up. The sugar dissolved into the water, the
So let's see here. We've got the Arctic (implying cold), snow (implying
cold, probably below freezing), and water. So then just how did they keep
the sugar-water solution from freezing before it could get to the engine?
Not being from the frozen north country and being unfamiliar with snow
mobiles, I don't see how this came about. Do snowmobiles have gas tank
warmers, or did I miss something that says water in gas stays liquid?
(Which I doubt, since even down here we can have gas lines freeze up on
cars.)
--
Kim L. Greer
Duke University Medical Center k...@orion.mc.duke.edu
Div. Nuclear Medicine POB 3949 voice: 919-681-5894
Durham, NC 27710 fax: 919-681-5636
Simon E. Booth
I saw in a cheezy horror film once (forgot the title) where this high school
student flushes sodium down a toliet, and the princinal drinking from a
drinking fountain nearby gets sprayed.
Is this accurate or art imitating UL?
Simon
STella
>The US government, as part of their "Guerrilla Warfare" studies, tried this
>(among many other ideas). The found that it did not work. There was no damage
>to the engines.
But, dammit, that's not how you DO it.... I once participated in the
making-crazy of a stupidly exploitative boss. I and the other Wobs (I
am not, have never been, a dues-paying Wobbly, but I know where my
heart is) did not put sugar in the gastank. We didn't put sugar in
his tank every few days for weeks. We didn't put LOTS of sugar in his
tank.
But we did litter the parking lot with empty sugar packets and take
the gascap off his tank, leave it sitting on the top of the car.
He kept taking the car in, and taking the car in. And our waitron
co-conspirator kept saving us empty sugar packets.
Sugar in the tank is not about fucking with the engine; it's about
fucking with the owner of the car's confidence.
Another fun one, one I found most amusing, was dropping a few pennies down the
gas-filler. Rattle, rattle.
STe...@xanadu.com 1016 E. El Camino Real, #302, Sunnyvale, CA 94087
STella%thelem...@dec.com Don't blame me, I voted Libertarian!
bill nelson
: bi...@hpcvaac.cv.hp.com (bill nelson) writes:
:
: > Yeah - that is what they claim. However, you need water - the sodium does
: > not react with gasoline. It is also very unlikely to work. I would expect
: > the gasoline fume concentration to be far too high - not enough oxygen
: > for much of a reaction to occur.
: >
: Doesn't the sodium reduce the water, thus producing its own oxygen?
Nope. The sodium reacts with the water to produce free hydrogen and sodium
hydroxide.
Bill
Dan Wright
: Another fun one, one I found most amusing, was dropping a few pennies down the
: gas-filler. Rattle, rattle.
When I was a kid my dad installed a metal cage-like thing that stuck down
into the gas pipe far enough to admit a pump nozzle, but which would
supposedly prevent a siphon hose from reaching the gasoline.
The thing fell into the tank the first year we had the truck. The tank was
right behind the seat-back in the truck's cab. For the next nine years my
family heard the thing rattle slowly and faithfully from one side of the
tank to the other each time we took a right turn after having previously
taken a left turn or vice versa. It became second nature to us.
Then we got a new truck. My little brother did not like the new truck.
He was plainly distressed whenever he rode in it. His worst moments were
during corners. We finally understood that he missed the sound of the
thing scraping back and forth in the gas tank. To him, there was NO WAY a
truck could successfully execute the familiar set of turns on the way to
our house without making that rattling sound at the correct times, so
obviously the truck was not taking us home.
However, my dad did not see fit to put a metal cage-like thing into
the gas tank of his new truck.
Yes, I can see how things rattling in the gas tank might terrorize
a person who has no mechanical aptitude.
-- Dan Wright