Story Break
How They Work
Pressure, that there one its a sensitive one, when your dealing with explosive things. Did you know if it burns you can make it explode? If you do it right? All you need is some stuff and air, and show some spunk, then you can make it happen.
Some people, there afraid of pressurized stoves a little. Maybe its what makes them handy, not really so scary, the stoves. If you take an explosion and just stretch it out over time, then you have a nice hot flame, but no boom!
Thats the tricky part – no boom!
If you got a open stove that works at atmospheric pressure, then your burning something that aint too dangerous to start with, most days, and since its at atmospheric pressure already, it cant suddenly depressurize in a colorful way. Pressurized stoves work because the pressure in them forces the fuel to mix with air, once its let out, and if its done in exactly the right way, then you get a really hot flame. But its the pressurized stoves at the same time that use the most dangerous fuel.
This seems kind of bass awkward, but heres how it works. If you take some explosive fuel and throw a match at it, you get an explosion. Go figure once. Aint that a surprise.
If you take some explosive fuel and get it hot, and keep it locked up tight inside a can, and build up lots and lots of pressure, and then let it out through a little hole in one end you can get a nice, safe fire from it. It wont explode once its taught discipline.
Funny that way, isnt it?
You can squirt dangerous fuel out a hole because its pressurized, and it wants to get out, reasonably so, so even a squeaky-butt skinny little hole will do. And since the rest of the fuel is inside the can, even though its under a lot of pressure, well, its sealed off, and it cant burn. As long as it stays in there.
Now this is what I call an appropriate use of engineering talent. It took a while to come up with this here idea, pretty near forever because the centuries had to roll on and on while metallurgy came up to snuff, and machining got good enough to fit everything together with the right tolerances. You need the right metals put together the right way, and put together well enough to make this all happen. No cutting corners here, my friend. No, not even one, or you will blow your whole ass off.
So pressurized stoves are sort of more dangerous, but at the same time they are safer too, because the flame is confined to just one little place, right at the nozzle, and when you want to shut the sucker down, you turn the valve and shut the sucker down.
Period. End of story. Out.
You can tip the stove over (yep, while shes running) and just stand it up again, and either keep on going, or put it out with one turn of one valve. You cant do that if your burning a cup of fuel out in the open air. Just try it with a wood fire. Maybe you have.
How the heck about that?
Now, getting back to making things explode, it isnt just the stuff you would normally be wary of thats dangerous. We all know not to smoke, and if you do smoke you know enough not to do it while filling your tank with gas. The ones who dont learn this get nominated for Darwin Awards (all posthumous). Who the hell said evolution aint so?
So what did I say, anything that burns can explode if you work it right. Like pancakes. Before you add the buttermilk, take some powdered pancake mix, blow it across a candle flame, and enjoy. Do this outdoors. Its gonna be a show. Adults only, no kids.
Theres a guy calls himself Treebeard who likes a 2:1 mix of flour and corn starch. He blows this into a two-foot-high metal can with a lid on tight, then lights it, and blows the lid off it.
But thats amateur science fair stuff. If you want to get into the big time you need to get yourself a grain elevator, and then you can take out the whole town. Ruin your investment too, if you bought the place.
Theres the National Research Council. They put out a report which says grain elevator explosions are like airplane fuel tank explosions. “The underlying and by far the most important hazard is grain dust itself,” according to them. There team says that “a layer of dust just 1/64 of an inch thick, disturbed by a slight breeze, can create an explosive cloud.”
Explosive cloud. Hold that image. An explosive cloud of flour.
Guess what you need for an explosion? Fuel (wheat dust, also known as flour), air (full of oxygen), mixing (duh), confinement, and ignition. The report cites an attitude problem as a contributing factor. Heh. “Some owners of facilities with long explosion-free histories believe they have no need for concern,” the report says. “Most prevalent is a slowly developed complacency.”
In plain English this means that if your a dumb butt your going to get your dumb butt blown off, sooner or later. You need to pay attention to what your doing.
So hows your attitude, then? Bet you never worried about having your house explode while your making breakfast? Well, the world shes a more exciting place than we usually credit her for, so try paying attention. Give some respect to that pancake mix from now on.
Thats all I got to say for now.