NightHawkIL

There's nothing particularly wrong with that. Lighter fluid gives off very little vapor at room temperature, which is what would make using a liquid such as gasoline so dangerous. The lighter fluid burns on the wood in the same way lantern oil or wax burns on a wick. If it were dangerous to light fires with lighter fluid it would not have lasted long on the market as charcoal starter. The danger would be if the bottle was kept near the fire where it could spill out on the floor.

Now that is spectacularly cool! I would guess what is being used as the liquid is petroleum based. Perhaps a very heavy motor oil with very fine non transparent particles in it - something like black iron oxide. I hope you don't mind me attempting a replica of this myself. The tabletop itself is likely also of great importance. It must have been very difficult to develop a flexible top that would remain suspended at the exact same level over the liquid. Perhaps it is under mild pressure to maintain the even surface.

Well, iron(III) oxide and lead(II) oxide are both orangish, though iron is a very deep red orange, whereas the lead oxide is almost white. Either way, in your case what you cleaned off is very likely almost entirely iron oxide. It poses no threat. Vacuuming will likely not remove the stains unfortunately. I've had some success cleaning iron oxide with a little vinegar. I believe that would even help get rid of any lead salts if by chance they are present.

Well since nobody else is answering I'll give my less than expert opinion. You likely have a variety of lead salts, lead, and rust/dirt from the car. Unfortunately, lead salts are not very soluble. You should be able to clean what little could have been tracked in from a single battery with soap and water. Use gloves, as lead salts are quite poisonous. Even so, I very much doubt there is enough there to hurt your cats after a quick wash. If by chance the reaction you posted took place, much of the lead salts will have been broken down into metallic lead - which is much less poisonous.

Ok here's what I don't get: Why would anyone in their right mind want to discredit global warming? Be it correct or not, the steps being taken to prevent global warming are certainly not bad for the environment. I have been in countries with less environmental controls and it's not pretty. Every inhabitant of the cities having a constant cough among other more severe health problems due to bad air - I witnessed this in Mongolia. So long as global warming is a public issue it brings out other environmental concerns. An individual concerned with global warming might be less likely to throw a bottle out their window simply because they have taking care of the environment on their mind. As someone who very much enjoys the outdoors, I do not dispute global warming - even though I am not convinced of the part humans play.

After seeing the sticky thread in this part of the forum I had to speak up... First some safety: The experiment described uses corrosive chemicals and mixtures capable of burning without presence of atmosphere. It should be done outdoors in cotton clothing as fire protection, with chemically resistant gloves, and of course lab goggles. In case of fire, wait for initial reaction to subside, then use a class D extinguisher - do not attempt to put out fires with sand or water. A recent experiment of mine involved the production of the highly reactive element sodium from sodium hydroxide and another less reactive metal, in this case magnesium. The reaction is as follows: 2Mg + 2NaOH = 2MgO + 2Na + H2 The magnesium (finely powdered) first ignites burning in atmospheric oxygen contained in the reaction vessel. This initial reaction produces enough energy to initiate the primary reaction. The Mg has enough desire for the oxygen contained in the NaOH to actually rip it from the hydroxide group, freeing hydrogen gas and sodium. The reaction is violently exothermic. More than enough energy is released to ignite the hydrogen gas which burns as the reaction progresses. The sodium is produced in a liquid state due to the temperature of reaction, and some of it vaporizes giving the flame a strong orange/yellow color. To keep the sodium from burning immediately upon production, a loose fitting lid is placed over the reaction vessel, allowing the burning hydrogen to escape, but sealing the vessel off from atmosphere once completed. The lid is then not removed until the reaction cools to air temperature, at which point mineral oil should be added to the resulting slag to prevent further oxidation of the product. Presumably this experiment could be preformed with other metals acting upon the hydroxide group, such as aluminum - in fact, I've heard aluminum gives a better yield because of a lower reaction rate and temperature which vaporizes much of the Na using Mg. I have not yet tried it. It is also quite likely that this process could free most if not all metals from their hydroxides because the reaction does not involve the metal contained in the hydroxide, but the hydroxide group alone. All hydroxides should therefore be susceptible to separation via magnesium and possibly aluminum. I will conduct further experimentation in warmer weather. Here is a video of the experiment being conducted: Ideally, purification and removal of the sodium from the MgO slag would be as simple as heating the mixture under mineral oil to the melting point of sodium, at which point it would gather together. So far I have been unable to do that successfully. It is possible the products needed to be heated longer or they needed to be more finely ground beforehand to free the sodium, again, more experiments will be preformed in warmer weather. Just thought I would let you all in on this very simple synthesis for highly reactive metals. - Ben (NightHawkInLight) Merged post follows: Consecutive posts mergedI had not read through the entire stickied thread to see that someone had already posted my videos, and that they were deemed inappropriate for this site. Feel free to remove this thread if that is so.

I have written out a process for synthesizing NC using an acid salt method, in this case sulfuric acid/potassium nitrate. The yield is very high quality with a quick and clean burn. I developed it to avoid the need for conc. nitric acid, which both reduces cost and safety hazards. There are other synths out there using acid salt processes, but I think I have developed the one so far to yield the best quality NC. The synthesis as well as a video of the result can be found here: http://www.grassrootsdiy.com/NC.htm As you can see in the video, the quality is more than good enough to leave my hands totally unscathed - even with the excessive amounts I ignited in them. Obviously in your own case, don't attempt igniting anything in your hands without extensive testing of the product of each individual synthesis.