X-Message-Number: 8197
Date: Fri, 9 May 1997 09:00:12 -0700 (PDT)
From: Doug Skrecky <>
Subject: To build a fire... with liquid oxygen

Not much relevance to cryonics aside from the liquid oxygen bit, but I
have a feeling the humour might be appreciated here. -Doug

---------- Forwarded message ----------
>LIGHTING CHARCOAL GRILLS or WHY ENGINEERS ARE THE WAY THEY ARE... 
>
> Our subject today is lighting charcoal grills. One of our
> favorite charcoal grill lighters is a guy named George Goble
> (really!!), a computer person in the Purdue University
> engineering department. Each year, Goble and a bunch of other
> engineers hold a picnic in West Lafayette, Indiana, at which
> they cook hamburgers on a big grill. Being engineers, they began
> looking for practical ways to speed up the charcoal-lighting
> process. "We started by blowing the charcoal with a hair dryer,"
> Goble told me in a telephone interview. "Then we figured out
> that it would light faster if we used a vacuum cleaner." 
>
> If you know anything about (1) engineers and (2) guys in
> general, you know what happened: The purpose of the
> charcoal-lighting shifted from cooking hamburgers to seeing how
> fast they could light the charcoal. 
>
> From the vacuum cleaner, they escalated to using a propane
> torch, then an acetylene torch. Then Goble started using
> compressed pure oxygen, which caused the charcoal to burn much
> faster, because as you recall from chemistry class, fire is
> essentially the rapid combination of oxygen with a reducing
> agent (the charcoal). We discovered that a long time ago,
> somewhere in the valley between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers
> (or something along those lines).
>
> By this point, Goble was getting pretty good times. But in the
> world of competitive charcoal lighting, "pretty good" does not
> cut the mustard.
>
> Thus, Goble hit upon the idea of using - get ready - liquid
> oxygen. This is the form of oxygen used in rocket engines; it's
> 295 degrees below zero and 600 times as dense as regular oxygen.
> In terms of releasing energy, pouring liquid oxygen on charcoal
> is the equivalent of throwing a live squirrel into a room
> containing 50 million Labrador retrievers.
>
> On Gobel's Web page (the address is http://ghg.ecn.purdue.edu/),
> you can see actual photographs and a video of Goble using a
> bucket attached to a 10-foot-long wooden handle to dump 3
> gallons of liquid oxygen (not sold in stores) onto a grill
> containing 60 pounds of charcoal and a lit cigarette for
> ignition. What follows is the most impressive charcoal-lighting
> I have ever seen, featuring a large fireball that according to
> Goble, reached 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit. The charcoal was ready
> for cooking in - this has to be a world record - 3 seconds.
> There's also a photo of what happened when Goble used the same
> technique on a flimsy $2.88 discount-store grill. All that's
> left is a circle of charcoal with a few shreds of metal in it.
> "Basically, the grill vaporized," said Goble. "We were thinking
> of returning it to the store for a refund."
>
> Looking at Goble's video and photos, I became, as an American,
> all choked up with gratitude at the fact that I do not live
> anywhere near the engineers' picnic site. But also, I was proud
> of my country for producing guys who can be ready to barbecue in
> less time than it takes for guys in less-advanced nations, such
> as France, to spit. Will the 3-second barrier ever be broken?
> Will engineers come up with a new, more powerful
> charcoal-lighting technology? It's something for all of us to
> ponder this summer as we sit outside, chewing our hamburgers,
> every now and then glancing in the direction of West Lafayette,
> Indiana, looking for a mushroom cloud.
>
>Engineers are like that.

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