Re: [DL] Night Train - Good news/bad news (spoilers gone, slightly OT now).

["Jeff Yates" <jyates@primaryfunction.com>]

I was watching the science segment on Letterman one night, and the guest kid
demonstrated such a thing.  He had a gas hotplate, and he lit a popsicle
stick on fire.  Small flame, burned slow.  Next, he held some long wood
shavings over the flame (looked like stiff strings) and the clump burned
quicker.  Then he had a flexible tube of sawdust that he blew through the
flame, resulting in a small puff of flame.  He was proving that surface area
affects burn rate.  He then took a tube of baking flour -- very fine, lots
of surface area -- and nearly set the stage on fire with a tremendously
large and fast fire ball.

So, lump of coal burns slowly -- large(ish) mass with small surface area.
Coal dust/powder burns very very fast as every particle burns at once --
same mass, just about nothing but surface area.

Same can be said for gasoline.  Liquid gasoline only burns on the surface of
the liquid.  But let the fuel evaporate for a while, and the vapors will
explode (burn all at once).

Interesting facts, not directly on topic, but I'm sure a Mad Scientist will
use it somewhere...

Jeff Y.
Marshal for the Dynamite Gang

----- Original Message -----
From: "Cort Jensen" <Gomorra@email.msn.com>
To: <deadlands@gamerz.net>
Sent: Sunday, July 22, 2001 7:41 AM
Subject: Re: [DL] Night Train - Good news/bad news (spoilers)


> Coal is not explosive...coal dust is highly explosive (so is grain dust..a
> previously filled grannery, now empty, is a huge explosion waiting to
> happen)
>
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> Cort Jensen
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