Author Topic: Random possibly useful fact  (Read 32016 times)

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TheoK

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Re: Random possibly useful fact
« Reply #435 on: June 30, 2013, 03:15:13 AM »
This is how a pyrotechnic composition, crimson/red stars, might change in 145 years:

From Browne, an Englishman, 1868:

Strontium nitrate 49.2
Potassium chlorate 24.6
Sulfur 18.5
Chertier's copper 3.1
Fine shellac 3.1
Fine charcoal 1.5

From George Washington Weingart, once the most known American pyrotechnician, 1947:

Strontium nitrate 38.7
Potassium chlorate 38.7
Charcoal, airfloat 12.9
Red gum or shellac 6.5
Dextrin 3.2

From David Bleser, also an American, around 1995-2000:

Strontium nitrate 38
Potassium chlorate 38
Charcoal, airfloat 12
Red gum 6
Hexachlorobenzene 2
Dextrin 4

From me, 2013:

Strontium nitrate 39.5
Potassium chlorate 39.5
Charcoal, airfloat 12
Red gum 7
Chlorowax or PVC 2

Why and how did it change?

First of all, back in Browne's days, firework stars were small and slowly burning. Chemicals were of poor quality. So they mixed potassium chlorate with sulfur, which is a reactive but dangerous composition. As if that wasn't enough, they also added the extremely instable Chertier's copper for quicker burning and higher ignitability. Back then it was considered stable, though. Everything that didn't explode spontaneously was considered stable in 1868.

In Weingart's version the sulfur and Chertier's copper are removed, although Weingart still used picric acid for another red composition! The amounts of strontium nitrate and potassium chlorate are now equal. Stochiometrically they have almost the same oxidizer value, so it is suitable. Weingart used dextrin as a binder. He lived in New Orleans, so it was no problem drying the stars. Back in Browne's days the binder was a shellac solution, not included in the formula.

David Bleser changed it very slightly and added 2% of hexachlorobenzene, a chlorine donor. He too used dextrin as a binder, living in California, if I remember correctly.

Hexachlorobenzene is now impossible to get hold of, so I use either chlorowax or PVC. Parlon is also an option. Chlorowax melts at a low temperature but PVC on the other hand burns at a high temperature, making the colour more brilliant, which is important since this composition contains no metal fuels.

With the humidity here dextrin isn't a good option as a binder. The hygroscopic strontium nitrate will maybe never fully dry. So I use the red gum as the binder and in the alcohol used as solvent I have 10% phenolic resin, which is also a binder but not as good a fuel as red gum.

 :nerdy:

Offline Queen Victoria

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Re: Random possibly useful fact
« Reply #436 on: June 30, 2013, 11:00:36 AM »
:toporly:

the photographer needs a tilt and shift lens to photograph the building correctly.
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Offline Queen Victoria

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Re: Random possibly useful fact
« Reply #437 on: June 30, 2013, 11:01:49 AM »
If Lit and Lestat ever get together, G_d help the world. 
A good monarch is a treasure. A good politician is an oxymoron.

My brain is both uninhibited and uninhabited.

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TheoK

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Re: Random possibly useful fact
« Reply #438 on: June 30, 2013, 11:03:12 AM »
 :agreed: :eyelash: :viking:

TheoK

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Re: Random possibly useful fact
« Reply #439 on: July 07, 2013, 09:01:07 AM »
Latin puer means "boy", but the plural, pueri can mean children of both sexes, pretty similar to English "guys".

Just like English "boy" puer was also used to adress adult slaves.
« Last Edit: July 07, 2013, 09:03:34 AM by Lit »

TheoK

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Re: Random possibly useful fact
« Reply #440 on: July 08, 2013, 05:39:52 AM »
English "fuck" and German "ficken" are cognates with Latin pugnus=fist  :laugh:

TheoK

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Re: Random possibly useful fact
« Reply #441 on: July 13, 2013, 06:35:17 AM »
The motto of Austria-Hungary, Indivisibiliter ac Inseparabiliter isn't correct Latin according to classical rules. Ac can only stand before consonants, except h. Before vowels and h it is atque  :nerdy:

Offline Icequeen

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Re: Random possibly useful fact
« Reply #442 on: July 14, 2013, 07:12:40 AM »
Rubbing alcohol really does work wonders on ink stains.

Found a beautiful brushed suede type comforter at the thrift shop, unfortunately it was all rolled up and too big to unroll and check every inch of it...so I took a chance with $8.

Got it home to unroll it and find that one huge corner of it was filled with the ballpoint pen artwork of a child.  I've had good luck removing small stains, but the magnitude of this "Picasso" really looked hopeless. :zombiefuck:

It is now fresh from the washer/dryer and covering my futon, completely inkless.
 

Offline 'andersom'

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Re: Random possibly useful fact
« Reply #443 on: July 16, 2013, 05:17:32 AM »
Rubbing alcohol really does work wonders on ink stains.

Found a beautiful brushed suede type comforter at the thrift shop, unfortunately it was all rolled up and too big to unroll and check every inch of it...so I took a chance with $8.

Got it home to unroll it and find that one huge corner of it was filled with the ballpoint pen artwork of a child.  I've had good luck removing small stains, but the magnitude of this "Picasso" really looked hopeless. :zombiefuck:

It is now fresh from the washer/dryer and covering my futon, completely inkless.
 

It really is good. Last time I had a job like that, the thicker patches of ink did not completely disappear though. Maybe I should give it a second try.
I can do upside down chocolate moo things!

TheoK

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Re: Random possibly useful fact
« Reply #444 on: July 21, 2013, 12:50:00 PM »
"Firework" would be ignis artificialis in Latin, considering the names it has in the Romance languages.

Offline DirtDawg

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Re: Random possibly useful fact
« Reply #445 on: July 31, 2013, 12:04:00 AM »
 totally random, but ...


Yesterday was my mom's seventy sixth birthday.

Fucking WOW!!

She is still healthy and she keeps livestock (over one hundred goats, forty something sheep, a few heads of cattle, many hundreds of fowl and enough dogs to help keep them all safe from the coyotes) on her father's old family land (about one hundred seventy acres in the vast west Texas plains) along with two of her brothers.

I hope she lives forever!

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Jimi Hendrix: When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace. 

Ghandi: Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.

The end result of life's daily pain and suffering, trials and failures, tears and laughter, readings and listenings is an accumulation of wisdom in its purest form.

Offline Queen Victoria

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Re: Random possibly useful fact
« Reply #446 on: July 31, 2013, 08:57:43 AM »
 :2thumbsup: to dear old mum
A good monarch is a treasure. A good politician is an oxymoron.

My brain is both uninhibited and uninhabited.

:qv:

TheoK

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Re: Random possibly useful fact
« Reply #447 on: August 07, 2013, 04:10:42 AM »
In Austria they say "Energie" with a hard g. In Germany the g is soft.

TheoK

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Re: Random possibly useful fact
« Reply #448 on: August 24, 2013, 01:25:54 PM »
Latin imperium comes from in+paro=I prepare/arrange/intend. In Spanish it's imperio. In Venezuela imperio usually is a derogatory term for the US.

Offline conlang returns

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Re: Random possibly useful fact
« Reply #449 on: August 24, 2013, 07:18:32 PM »
Everything that didn't explode spontaneously was considered stable in 1868.




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