Posted on 03/29/2011 9:13:07 AM PDT by thackney
I know a guy who built an audio amplifier using a home-built plasma triode. Made with a bunsen burner.
So now the municipal fire department can close shop in favor of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers?
Very interesting - I’d like to read more on this!
Yea, I remember looking at the flicker from candles while listening to music. Far out!
Maybe they could build a flamethrower that can shoot balls of fire at a good distance, sort of like photon torpedoes. I would need one of these for shooting squirrels in my backyard.
“Since the time humans first began to control fire around 400,000 years ago...”
Would love to see a source to back this up.
Fantastic fire haarp into forest fires let’s give it a real whirl
“Since the time humans first began to control fire around 400,000 years ago...”
Would love to see a source to back this up.
Fire trucks and their electric wands will be common some day?
But how does it work? Cademartiri acknowledged that the phenomenon is complex with several effects occurring simultaneously. Among these effects, it appears that carbon particles, or soot, generated in the flame are key for its response to electric fields. Soot particles can easily become charged. The charged particles respond to the electric field, affecting the stability of flames, he said.
Combustion is first and foremost a chemical reaction arguably one of the most important but its been somewhat neglected by most of the chemical community, said Cademartiri. Were trying to get a more complete picture of this very complex interaction.
Cademartiri envisions that futuristic electrical devices based on the phenomenon could be fixed on the ceilings of buildings or ships, similar to stationary water sprinklers now in use. Alternatively, firefighters might carry the flame-tamer in the form of a backpack and distribute the electricity to fires using a handheld wand. Such a device could be used, for instance, to make a path for firefighters to enter a fire or create an escape path for people to exit, he said.
The system shows particular promise for fighting fires in enclosed quarters, such as armored trucks, planes, and submarines. Large forest fires, which spread over much larger areas, are not as suitable for the technique, he noted.
Cademartiri also reported how he and his colleagues found that electrical waves can control the heat and distribution of flames. As a result, the technology could potentially improve the efficiency of a wide variety of technologies that involve controlled combustion, including automobile engines, power plants, and welding and cutting torches, he said.
###
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (U.S. Department of Defense) and the U.S. Department of Energy funded this study.
http://wildfiretoday.com/2011/03/28/fight-fire-with-an-electric-wand/
I know for a fact it was 400,001 years ago.
I am thinking that a p.o. squirrel running around the outside of your house with his tail on fire is not a good thing.
Very interesting..It is. Wondering how practical it may be. Where does the fire triangle get broken? Heat, oxygen and fuel?
A well-known effect in night clubs with loud sound systems. They call it “bassing” the candles. (long “a” sound)
Plasma flame triode: http://www.sparkbangbuzz.com/flame-amp/flameamp.htm
I didn’t know Harvard still did some hard science, I doubt this is in the 15th Century Romanian Feminist Philosophy Course.
lol
Wikipedia probably.
Fire was used by Homo erectus in northern China more than 400,000 years ago, and there is sketchy evidence suggesting that it may have been used long before that (Gowlett, 1984, pp. 181-82).
http://www.dieoff.org/page137.htm
"...field created an organized flow of charged particles inside the flame, and that the flame was literally pushed away from the burner and put out."
It seems like the flame is separated from the fuel when the charged particles line up and the flame is either separated by being pushed away or allowed to waft up separate from the fuel source? Not really sure.
You can also make a loudspeaker out of an acetyline flame—my fellow engineering students would do this at our annual open house.
Then there was the “Ionovac” tweeter, marketed by DuKane and Electro-voice. No diaphragm, just a small volume of ionized gas. You used it for frequencies above several kilocycles, and had a top end for dogs and bats.
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