[TheForge] Forge explosion

Fri Oct 11 12:10:02 2002

Water on coal fires makes a lot of CO.

As  a boy I lived in London (UK) and at that time (50's & 60's0 the whole 
country used "coal gas" for heating and cooking.  Mostly hydrogen, this was 
made by passing superheated steam through a coal fire.  The idea was that 
the  hot carbon would reduce the steam to hydrogen but of course the by 
product was CO.  Accidental deaths from CO poisoning were commonplace.

A common recreation among juvenile delinquents was to drink "snake water" 
made by bubbling coal gas through a bottle of water.  Drinking it gave a 
one a mild case of CO poisoning which was considered fun.   The invention 
of Ecstasy was a big step forward for the UK :)

Adam

At 07:28 PM 10/10/2002 -0400, you wrote:
>     I have had explosions when using water to control the fire.
>Nothing serious but enough to have my undivided attention
>for a few seconds. Usually fire comes out the blower intake
>accompanied by a pretty good BOOM. One of our members -
>Northwest Ohio Blacksmiths - had a bellows blown apart
>while demonstrating at Auglaize Village. Removed some of
>the wood strips holding the leather around the bellows along
>with the leather/vinyl.
>
>Bob Willman
>The Eagle's Anvil
>Bowling Green, Ohio
>WB8NQW
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Bob Ehrenberger" <[email protected]>
>To: "theforge" <[email protected]>
>Sent: Wednesday, October 09, 2002 23:30
>Subject: [TheForge] Forge explosion
>
>
> > Hi guys,
> >
> > The other day when I was getting started making coke, I stoped cranking to
> > go get something and suddenly there was a wosh pop in my forge. I guess
>some
> > of the volital gasses backed up into the ash dump and then ignited. No
>harm
> > done.
> >
> > I was wondering if any of you have ever had or seen a serious explosion in
>a
> > coal forge. At one of the BAM workshops we had a much louder explosion but
> > it didn't blow the coal out of the fire pot or any thing like that.
> >
> > Bob Ehrenberger
> > Shelbyville, Mo
> >
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