Comments on: Saturday Morning Science Experiment: Meat Stick Blowtorch

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Because zucchinis are disgusting of course.

This isn’t an accurate portrayal of how much energy is in it. I don’t see any antimatter.

By: Metanonymous

Metanonymous — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

…this man is obviously prejudice against male homosexuals.

By: glittertrash

glittertrash — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

This is much, much cooler than when we set cashews on fire in high school to determine their caloric content.

By: dougrogers

dougrogers — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Gil 1) because vegetables are part of a healthy balanced diet and 2) try hanging on to three flaming meat sticks with *your* bare hands.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

This is similar to what BBC’s Bang Goes The Theory did when they made rocket fuel using toffee, peanuts and aluminium.

By: zygeist

zygeist — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Theo Gray had a pretty good explanation for the cucumber when we last saw Food Torches back in April: http://boingboing.net/2009/04/15/bb-video-the-flaming.html

By: wonderama

wonderama — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

A friend of mine did something similar over the summer with a flame thrower. There are about 8 episodes – here’s a taste: http://chickswithfire.blogspot.com/2009/06/cookin-with-gas-episode-four-steak.html

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Where can I get goggles like that? Seriously, those goggles are awesome.

By: Zachatree

Zachatree — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Ah the power of the sausage. Although makes you wonder what goes into one…

By: kpkpkp

kpkpkp — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

That was not nearly as Macho (Man) as I’d hoped.

By: Mitch

Mitch — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Someone has been watching McGuyver and taking notes.

By: jonathan_v

jonathan_v — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Just to reiterate the constant criticism of these things:

Thermal lances burn ____ at a really high temperature to cut things. The ___ is usually iron. The only thing these experiments do is swap out the Iron nozzle , which is what is burned, with food.

It’s the HIGHLY FLAMMABLE Oxygen Gas that powers these lances that is cutting these things, NOT the food.

The lance just creates the conditions at which something can be burned at a REALLY REALLY REALLY high temperature.

By: querent

querent — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

jesus christ! that’s fucking alarming!

By: ellingson

ellingson — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

At first I didn’t notice the oxygen tube going into the bottom of the cucumber. I guess I’ll need more than a Bic lighter and lunch to bust of jail someday.

By: crysharris

crysharris — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Is it only me that wonders how many calories the average human contains and what one could destroy with a “human lance”? If that much energy is released from some Slim Jims, how much more spectacular would it be with a larger, albeit unwieldy, meat stick?

Gruesome, yes. Intriguing, certainly.

By: Rob

Rob — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Oxygen is not flammable.

It helps other things burn, but in and of itself can not catch fire. All of the energy is coming from the sausage.

By: ackpht

ackpht — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

The food is the fuel, oxygen is the oxidant. Remove either and there is no combustion. If something will burn, and you throw pure oxygen at it really fast, it will burn really fast. Heat from the reaction melts the material being cut, and gas flow blows the melted material through the cut and out of the way of the torch, improving the effective cutting speed.

By: knodi

knodi — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

What? Oxygen doesn’t burn? Then why is liquid oxygen labeled “Danger, highly flammable”?

By: Fang Xianfu

Fang Xianfu — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

The cucumber is presumably a nod to this, which did it first:

http://boingboing.net/2009/04/15/bb-video-the-flaming.html

but with bacon, which clearly makes it much awesomer than this peperami monstrosity.

By: Guesstimate Jones

Guesstimate Jones — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Great…one more thing for the TSA to freak out about…

By: Dewi Morgan

Dewi Morgan — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

knodi; Burning is the adding of oxygen to flammable stuff. You *can* burn oxygen, to get ozone, I guess… but I think the “flammable” warning is just a simplification for warning purposes.

The cucumber is to provide a cold wet wrapper which won’t easily burn through, at least until the water boils off.

By: danlalan

danlalan — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

“Burning” is a term applied to a relatively rapid chemical reaction in which one chemical, like carbon or iron or magnesium, undergoes an exothermic (gives off heat) bonding with oxygen, or oxidation. The atmosphere provides the necessary oxygen for burning in something like a campfire or candle. But atmospheric oxygen is only roughly 20% of the atmosphere. By using a tank of pure oxygen a person can significantly increase the speed of the reaction by raising the amount of oxygen available to react. By blowing oxygen across the chemical being oxidized, in this case the carbon in the meat sticks, it speeds the reaction up even more by removing the products of the oxidation reaction and allowing more oxidation reactions to take place.

The warning labels are on the tank because of this property, not because the oxygen itself can be oxidized. If they are properly marked, it should contain the warning that it is an oxidizer.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Look up top in BB’s new headline thingy, where it says “wrath of snack sausages”. Then watch this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQjdHUX2T4c

OOOOHHHH Yeah

By: arkizzle / Moderator

arkizzle / Moderator — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Jonathan,

Thanks so much! For the whole video I was racking my brain for the term Thermal Lance :)

By: arkizzle / Moderator

arkizzle / Moderator — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Here’s a Bacon Lance!!

http://www.popsci.com/bacon

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

>
> Where can I get goggles like that?
>

Any welding supply store will sell them.

They are so dark you can hardly see anything in a normally lit room. Once you light your oxy-acetylene torch up, then you can see. Those things are seriously bright. Can’t look at ‘em with the naked eye.

By: Alex_M

Alex_M — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Dewi, no, you can’t ‘burn’ oxygen to ozone – ozone is significantly higher in energy than oxygen (which is why it’s a more powerful oxidant, which is why it’s toxic)

And for the rest who are confused: Oxygen gas itself can’t ‘burn’. As said, it needs a fuel. By adding liquid oxygen to these sausages/cucumber, he’s making it burn _faster_. More energy being released in a shorter amount of time means more heat gets generated. But the _total_ amount of energy is the same as if you’d burned the sausages/cubumber in air.

This is basic thermodynamics.

By: Sork

Sork — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

The sausage energy is more clearly shown in the Mythbusters salami rocket episode.

By: IamInnocent

IamInnocent — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Gummy bear meat?

By: frankieboy

frankieboy — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

No wonder they give me heartburn.