🚀 go-pugleaf

maize@bilbo.bio.purdue.edu (Phillip SanMiguel) writes:

>In article <1993Jan25.141653.14526@craycos.com>, rh@craycos.com (Robert Herndon) writes:
>>As a safety comment, I would STRONGLY RECOMMEND AVOIDING the
>>use of lithium perchlorate with methanol.  Lithium perchlorate
>>is a strong oxidizer; mixed with a good fuel, such as methanol,
>>one possible result is a potent and rather unstable explosive.
>>Lithium perchlorate is also likely to eat one's torch wicks up,
>>although I cannot (and will not) verify this through personal
>>experience.
>
>  I have used lithium perchlorate in methanol as a torch fuel.  
>I also do not recommend it from a standpoint of safety.  It does eat
>wicks up, also the screws and metal sheathing and then the dowel
>wood underneath.  
>  But lithium perchlorate, itself, is not terribly unstable.  Organic
>perchlorates are  --  but they can't be formed just by mixing lithium 
>perchlorate and methanol (for example.)  
>  Methanol, by itself, burns with a pale, wimpy blue flame.  With
>the addtion of lithium or sodium perchlorate the flame becomes
>very bright and large.  I think tiny deposits of the metal perchlorates
>do form on the wick during burning and explode in sparks.  

  My concern here is not organic perchlorates being formed.
Perchlorate and any fuel (e.g., sodium perchlorate, potassium
perchlorate, or lithium perchlorate, and aluminum or charcoal or
sulfur or antimony trisulfide, ...) in a simple mechanical mixture
is usually explosive.  A very scary scenario for me is seeing some
juggler, unacquainted with perchlorates, dumping an ounce or so
into a bottle of methanol, stirring with a torch head, and having
the mixture go up.  It does not seem improbable that the result
would be glass shrapnel and a large cloud of dispersed methanol,
which might then ignite to form a large fireball.  Not someplace
I want to be...  Nor do I want this to happen to anyone.

  Methanol alone, due to its high vapor pressure and low flash
point, has caused many accidental lab fires/explosions and fatalities
due to accidental ignition.  Mixing it with a powerful oxidizer,
without careful observation of safety procedures, thorough knowledge
of quantities and ratios, and a careful review of the pyrotechnics
literature, strikes me as exceptionally dangerous.

  Mixing perchlorates with fuel for fireworks is a procedure done
very cautiously, and in small quantities.  It should never be done
in a glass or metal container, and should not be done without full
face protection, heavy clothing, and gloves.  Strong oxidizers, and
perchlorates are among the strongest, should not be handled casually
or lightly.  Whether we intend to make fireworks or not, we should
be no less cautious with mixtures as powerful and potentially as
dangerous.

Robert Herndon