monoceroset (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} monoceroset) wrote,@ 2008-05-06 01:02:00 |
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Isopropyl alcohol sucks at burning
A short while before midnight the power to at least eight or ten blocks in our neighborhood blacked out. Misha have a basement apartment, so it got dark as darkness, and I had no idea where the flashlight was. So we went to the nearest open store (the Safeway closest to us was down as well, by the way), bought a couple of flashlights, and returned home. I wanted some valerian tea, so I broke out my alcohol lamp and one of my lab stands and made the tea in a 600 mL beaker, sticking a probe thermometer in to go off at 95° C so I'd know when it was done. I didn't have any denatured ethyl alcohol, which is what you're supposed to put in it, so I tried 99% isopropyl instead.
It took forever and, as you can see, the flame was so sooty that it coated almost the entire outside of the beaker with black crud. I was hoping that the isopropyl alcohol would do the job, because it's much cheaper than denatured alcohol. I really should get a proper burner that uses bottled gas.
Of course, nearly the instant the thermometer went off, the power came back on.
The tea's OK, though.
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| From Other Photogr... |
A short while before midnight the power to at least eight or ten blocks in our neighborhood blacked out. Misha have a basement apartment, so it got dark as darkness, and I had no idea where the flashlight was. So we went to the nearest open store (the Safeway closest to us was down as well, by the way), bought a couple of flashlights, and returned home. I wanted some valerian tea, so I broke out my alcohol lamp and one of my lab stands and made the tea in a 600 mL beaker, sticking a probe thermometer in to go off at 95° C so I'd know when it was done. I didn't have any denatured ethyl alcohol, which is what you're supposed to put in it, so I tried 99% isopropyl instead.
It took forever and, as you can see, the flame was so sooty that it coated almost the entire outside of the beaker with black crud. I was hoping that the isopropyl alcohol would do the job, because it's much cheaper than denatured alcohol. I really should get a proper burner that uses bottled gas.
Of course, nearly the instant the thermometer went off, the power came back on.
The tea's OK, though.
