On Thu, 8 Nov 2001, Philip Pemberton wrote:
> > > I wonder how many accidental poisonings occurred?
> > A number, I would imagine, and especially in tight quarters. I got
> > exposed to some briefly during the `40s when the paper wrapping on some
> > decorative steel plate caught fire and the people nearest used a Carbon
> > Tet extinguisher to put it out. Rather pungent as I recall, so it does
> > provide some warning.
> A carbon tet extinguisher? IIRC the trade name for that stuff was "Halon"...
'Fraid not. Carbon Tetrachloride is a liquid at normal temperatures and
used to be the fire extinguisher of choice in hand-pumped extinguishers
for mobile - read cars, trucks, and buses - use. Halon, on the other
hand, is a gas at normal temperatures and is actually breathable for
short periods.
- don
> > Also in that same era we used to degrease various components of
> > Resnatron Radar jamming with carbon tet and acetone bare handed. No one
> > thought a thing of it except for the way it degreased your hide!
> Acetone. The one common solvent I hate to hell. It ripped apart the
> supposedly-chemical-resistant gloves I was wearing while I was using it and
> proceeded to cover my fingers in goop. Took me a week to get all the cack
> off. "Chemical resistant" my left sock.
>
> So what if I've chopped a year or so off my life expectancy? For that year
> or so, I've had a lot more fun than some people twice my age... Including
> making a "slugzapper" - a 150V low-current voltage source to keep the slugs
> away from my Dad's flower bed :-)
> Oh, then there was the time I "accidentally" made an EHT generator out of a
> solenoid coil and a few diodes, transistors, etc... It was supposed to be an
> LC oscillator...
>
> Later.
> --
> Phil.
> philpem_at_bigfoot.com
> http://www.philpem.f9.co.uk/
>
>
Received on Thu Nov 08 2001 - 18:07:37 GMT