Hi team
When I worked at TVR Cars in the early sixties I remember being involved
with 'curing' some magnesium alloy wheels I'd machined ( I once nearly
burnt the machine shop down when the magnesium swarf caught fire (too thick
a cut).
The procedure was organized by my boss John Thurner who designed the Mk 3
'wishbone' chassis and was head of the Experimental department. John
obtained a large rubber tank which was half filled with one of two main
curing components which were water and, if I remember rightly, 'nitric'
acid. As John was about to pour the second component into the tank, and the
fact that he'd decided to do the curing on a piece of waste ground two
hundred yards from the main building, I remembered my school chemistry. I
said, "Just checking John, but bearing in mind the large quantities of acid
and water we're using is it pouring acid into water or water into acid that
causes the explosion??" - This made John put the second container down and,
although we both realized that battery topping up was the water to sulfuric
acid procedure, he rang Rolls Royce (where he was previously a design
engineer) to double check various acid reactions with water and the mixing
thereof. John obviously got it right because I'm here to tell the tale. As
I've forgotten the procedure, my question to any chemists on the FOT list
is, is there a hard and fast rule with the safe mixing of water with all
acids?
Paul
|