Mike:
--it's dangerous to play with liquid oxygen (LOX) or use it around engines.
I chaired a LOX safety committee during the construction and operation of a
large DOE facility in Montana and had a lot of good input from the experts
at Kennedy Space Flight Center. They had one incident at KFC when a cloud of
LOX vapor drifted across a parking lot at ground level just after a shift
change when the engines in the cars were still warm, that plus a little
oil/grease on the engines, set about 30 cars on fire. Messed up the asphalt
too.
Impurities in the welds of aluminum LOX tanks have set off fast
aluminum-oxygen reactions and subsequent explosions--killed a guy at
Reynolds Co. during one of those happenings--just one of many examples of
LOX hazards.
And don't worry about freezing if you get LOX on your skin--worst thing is
it oxidizes your skin very fast, could melt your ears off.
Then there was the fire inside the Apollo capsule when an electrical spark
set off a raging fire inside the capsule--that was 100% gaseous oxygen at
near atmospheric pressure.
So I wouldn't use LOX or even gaseous oxygen anywhere near a sparking,
smoking engine containing oil, fuel, surrounded by various contaminants and
aluminum, etc.
Could be even worse if Keith walked by with a cigarette and an aluminum diet
Coke can!
Lance
----- Original Message -----
From: <DaCudaKid@aol.com>
To: <jon@infodestruction.com>; <ddahlgren@snet.net>
Cc: <land-speed@autox.team.net>
Sent: Monday, March 14, 2005 5:38 PM
Subject: Re: FW: electric water pump and thermostat
> I like your way of thinking except I wonder if using liquid oxygen would
be
> more effective. Learned at the physics lab at UCSB that liquid oxygen is
> -476
> degrees F (absolute zero), we were not to "play" with liquid oxygen as
unlike
> liquid nitrogen, liquid oxygen absorbs all heat instantly and where we
could
> pour liquid nitrogen in our hand and toss it from hand to hand with no
> consequences, if any amout of liquid oxygen touched you, that spot would
> freeze
> instantly (which made me wonder how much better that Cry O2 set up would
work
> with
> liquid oxygen instead of CO2)
>
> Mike in L.A.
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