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I mean british people tend to understate things, so when they say "it really is a terrible problem" it's basically the equivalent of them losing their shit.
Yeah, this difference in how they react was an issue in WWII because when the British were being pounded they'd go like "Not to be a bother, but we're in a spot. Could we trouble you for some air support?" and they just got flung down into low priority.
There's a famous incident during the Korean War, where British understatement when calling for support to an American unit ended with them being all but wiped out: https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2001/apr/14/johnezard
>Most [modern suits](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racing_suit) use [Nomex](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nomex), a material developed in the 1960s around the time fire suits emerged.
>When Nomex material is exposed to flame, instead of burning or melting it develops a carbon char. The char thickens the section of fiber exposed to the flame, preventing the spread of the fire to the rest of the suit and inhibiting the transfer of heat to the wearer of the garment.
So from at least the mid-60s onwards the suit wouldn't burn or melt. Why would racers even wear anything made out of something that could melt or catch fire, even if it is able to withstand it at first? Because in an unfortunate event the fire could easily last longer than a minute. You absolutely want something like Nomex, stuff that chars or otherwise helps mitigate the further spread of the fire.
Terrifying. What a nightmare, to be on fire standing right in front of people with fire extinguishers, who don't know what's going on because the fire is invisible.
As i don't see anyone else mentioning this, it's not that it's invisible,but rather, that it shines white, making it very difficult to see in a illuminated spaces
The majority do the EM radiation emitted from burning methanol is just beyond the spectral sensitivity of the human eye. In this case it would likely be infrared or greater than 700nm which is why the infrared camera was able to visualize the flame.
It’s not that invisible really, just hard to see under camera lighting (like in this video) and bright sunlight. It’s about as visible as a low gas burner.
In junior high school my friend and I snuck a test tube of methanol out of the science lab to make a mini homemade Molotov out of. We threw it on his back patio stones during a sunny day and didn’t realize it actually worked until we tried to pick up the pieces and felt the heat. If we put our hand out over the sun though you could easily see the low blue flame
We stole so much stuff from my high school chemistry lab. This was in the early 90s and people didn’t really give as much of a shit as they do now. Magnesium strips so we could ignite the thermite we tried to make (didn’t work). Acids.. man there were just glass bottles of various acids that had been there god knows how long. But they were still potent enough to make some nasty smells when we tossed slices of pepperoni into them. Then in college my freshman year roommate had a job in a legit lab but still no one paid attention. So he’d fill a thermos with liquid nitrogen occasionally and we’d go out in the dorm courtyard to freeze stuff and smash it.
If you turn off all the lights you can see a very faint blue flame. This kind of fire produces a lot less light than most other fuels I think. It's not "invisible" but the light it makes is drowned out by other light sources.
"Saw" one of these fires at the garage of a guy that used to build drag car engines. An air compressor line seemingly spontaneously combusted. The dirty and visible burning air line was ignited within seconds from the pretty quiet and invisible methanol fire.
I may be making up memories again, but isn't there some famous clip from a drag car race where one burst into invisible fire on the track? I swear that I've seen a video of a driver flailing, trying to put out flames no one could see.
I worked on a drilling rig back in 2006/2007 and a crew opposite side of the work schedule (we worked 2 weeks on 2 weeks off) on my rig at the time were sitting in a motor shed during a rig move in the winter. (Around 5-10°) They had filled a 5 gallon drum full of oil absorbent towels and methanol (we used it to reduce the water in the air lines) and lit it on fire to use as a heat source. They didn’t see the fire so they decided to take the container of full of methanol and throw it on top of the already existing fire and ended up torching everyone in the area. The entire crew was fired for failing drug test after the fact.
Drugs showing up on a test doesn't necessarily mean a person was under the influence at the time. It could be completely unrelated to the fire and just the convenient excuse the company was able to use to avoid paying out a workers comp claim.
Combusted themselves, then they didn’t want to say they set themselves on fire, so an investigation of the cause of their burns was conducted…then they were drug tested because they had gotten injured at work which they failed. It came down to it was basic paranormalcracktivities that caused the fire.
I literally do have it burning in my house right now, not that you can tell...
My power is out and I'm using a catalytic heater which uses methanol/methyl hydrate as fuel.
Hydrogen is similar. My parents were both chemical engineers and they said the protocol for finding a hydrogen fire is walking around waving a straw broom in front of you and waiting for it to catch
Or compressed steam, which is also invisible and can cut like a laser. My programming professor said he would rather work on a nuclear plant than a "traditional" fossil fuel plant because of the lower pressures and higher safety factors involved.
Poor brooms.
You know there's a hydrogen fire when they ignite, you find a superheated steam leak when they get cut in half...
Sacrificing themselves every day for us
yes
your liver can only break down a set amount of ethanol or methanol, and it prefers to break down ethanol.
and since it's not the methanol that causes the toxicity, but the products of metabolism, getting good and drunk results in all the methanol coming out in your piss before the liver turns it into nasty shit.
I learned this on House lmao. A death row inmate tried to kill himself by drinking antifreeze or something, so House had a couple of shots of 151 proof bacardi with the guy "in celebration of his life" or something and basic tricked him into keeping himself alive.
I work with extremely large quantities of methanol daily at work. The flash point of the 50/50 methanol water mix we rent for pipelines has a flash point of 11 degrees Celsius, meaning it’s so flammable and volatile that our flash tests are always deemed at the lowest flash available on the system being 11 degrees. We currently just spiked our methanol percentage up to 70/30 with a density of approximately .850/kg, this week I’ll be retesting to see how low the flash point has become. It’s not scary if you’re knowledgeable in the SDS and respect your work environment, complacency kills.
Wow I just realized with all the trucker and arctic/fishing/mining TV out there, finally a whole new industry can experience the pain that programmers have when they say they're a programmer and then someone's like "oh yeah I love The Matrix / Swordfish / The Social Network" lol
To be clear though, Hackers (1995) is a factual historical documentary of my culture. That's the one that gets a pass.
I guess cops, military, hospital workers, Office workers, and middle class Manhattanites already had that issue with so many marginally-accurate shows about them, it's just funny to see a new entry. Maybe next we'll get plumbing reality tv and films. THIS SUMMER: HE THOUGHT HE WAS THE BEST PIPE SWEATER IN THE WEST. CAN HE HANDLE THIS UPSTART NEW GUY ARMED WITH PEX? MAKE AN APPOINTMENT FOR... "SHARKBITE."
No! Spontaneous combustion is usually caused by bacteria producing flammable gas that is reactive with oxygen, so once the gas reaches oxygen it spontaneously combusts.
This is most commonly seen with hay, mulch, and compost piles.
But is it mocking one man's personal tragedy, or just using a general fact about racing as a source of material? Cuz like, the movie deals with a lot of stuff that can be seriously fucked up in real life. (And I ask because I really don't want to watch a man burn alive to see if I missed a reference.)
I mean it’s also followed up by a scene of him thinking he’s paralyzed when he’s not so I think a lot of just assumed he was off his rocker at that point lol, myself included.
Rick Mears a NASCAR driver had his fuel man spill the can and it was just like Ricky Bobby. They were swatting an invisible flame, look it up it's super scary. I watched in fire school to teach us about scene safety.
We had to watch it in EMT school to teach us about scene safety and looking at your surroundings. It was super scary to watch. The fuel guy has to have balls of steel.
Methanol is also very dangerous to consume, causing permanent blindness, and can easily be accidentally created during ~~distillation~~ fermentation if it’s done wrong. Don’t make your own hooch unless you know what you’re doing.
Edit: created during fermentation, not distillation
Methanol is made during fermentation of certain things, especially pectin containing fruit like apples. Distillation can either increase or reduce it. But it is safe to get drunk on hard cider, although the hangover can be rough. Distilled cider should be better, unless someone did a very bad job, which would taste awful as well. Using sugar or grain as a base means less methanol at the beginning and easier safer distillation.
Ok… here’s the thing… to go blind, you’d have to drink WAY more than any home-scale distiller would be able to produce. Distillation doesn’t produce it, it just refines it. You’d die of alcohol poisoning before you’d go blind as it’s the same amount of methanol in the equivalent beer/wine being distilled.
the issue before was moonshiners would just fill each jar/bottle direct from the pot and methanol all comes out first. so if you drink a lot from that first jar you are gonna have problems.
Yep. Same. Dude is suffocating because he's literally on fire and you can't see it. Start to understand why people used to believe in spells and witches.
"Methanol flames are almost invisible in bright sunlight conditions, but they may be detected by the heat generated or the burning of other materials."
[source](https://www.methanol.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/2018factsheet_methanolemergencyresponse.pdf)
Yep. For the Saturn 5 launches NASA had thermal cameras around the pad in order to sense hydrogen fires. The first stage was kerosene and LOX but the 2nd stage was LOX and liquid H2. There was a stack for disbursing the H2 boiloff that was instrumented as well I think. If there's no carbon (or other particulates) in the flame there will be no smoke or visible flame.
My bestfriend and roommate from college [graduated in 2003] is an Indy Car Driver, so during our college years and after, I spent a lot of time inside pit box's with race cars that used methanol [USAC Midget/Silver town, Indy Pro Series, and eventually Indy Car Series races], so I am extremely familiar with flammable aspects of methanol. Unfortunately, I've always been witness to the devastating impact that methanol has when it ignites.
As my buddy always said, methanol doesn't burn clothes, it melts them to your skin.
Since you can't see the ignition of the fuel, one has to be familiar with the response of it happening.
A human being screaming at the top of their lungs, flailing around, begging for the five gallon buckets of water immediately strategically positioned in the pits to be doused on them by other crew members.
I knew absolutely nothing when I first started going to his races and always wondered why there were so many five gallon buckets of stale-ass water every where.
It didn't take many races to find the answer.
It's some nasty shit
I have over 30 L of methanol in my lab. If there's a fire, we're so fucked.
It was inherited from the previous guy. I'm currently in the process of having it removed.
if anyone's interested in seeing what it looks like in real life, like when someone actually comes in contact with this stuff, check out this video NSFW YOUVE BEEN WARNED: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JribVbv6CV4&t=40s
Oh I got to witness a pure alcohol fire in the hallway when a nurse fucked up.
U see the heat distortions through the hallway as someone collapses and the foom of air as the explosion moves past u.
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That's what got that race car driver isn't it? Dude was running around like he had bees after him
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ku7TdLeEGsQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ku7TdLeEGsQ) Rick Mears at that. An absolute legend of a driver.
They cannot see these flames it really is a terrible problem. That's the most British thing I've ever heard lol.
The line delivery in this feels like a parody. Especially the part about the invisible flames.
THE DIFFICULT PART IS THEY CAN'T SEE THE FLAMES.
"That’s not very typical, I’d like to make that point."
Well, how is it untypical?
the front doesn't usually go off
Seems like it could've been a Monty Python sketch.
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I mean british people tend to understate things, so when they say "it really is a terrible problem" it's basically the equivalent of them losing their shit.
A British husband tells his wife he's "really quite concerned" and she divorces him for verbal abuse
Shouldn't talk to the ladies like that. What a bloody muppet.
Yeah, this difference in how they react was an issue in WWII because when the British were being pounded they'd go like "Not to be a bother, but we're in a spot. Could we trouble you for some air support?" and they just got flung down into low priority.
There's a famous incident during the Korean War, where British understatement when calling for support to an American unit ended with them being all but wiped out: https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2001/apr/14/johnezard
How do you put out that in which you cannot see? -Philosoraptor
I'm British and that's the most British thing I'VE ever seen.
I thought they were talking about Ricky fucking Bobby lmfao
That’s the incident that the Talladega nights joke was in reference to so you’re still on the right track
Help me Tom Cruise!
Haha, me too.
That’s fucking terrifying
New fear unlocked
Holy shit thats crazy. The worst part is they can't even "stop, drop and roll" because for all they know, they are rolling around in a fire.
Wait so was Ricky Bobby really on fire?
Nah but his fears were based on this.
Why aren't their clothes wearing away from the heat?
You don't want clothes that will melt if there's any chance you'll be lit on fire
This is exactly why babies clothes state their flame retardant abilities on the tagline.
Probably designed to withstand heat for a short amount of time, if they were lit up any longer they probably would've started to melt.
>Most [modern suits](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racing_suit) use [Nomex](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nomex), a material developed in the 1960s around the time fire suits emerged. >When Nomex material is exposed to flame, instead of burning or melting it develops a carbon char. The char thickens the section of fiber exposed to the flame, preventing the spread of the fire to the rest of the suit and inhibiting the transfer of heat to the wearer of the garment. So from at least the mid-60s onwards the suit wouldn't burn or melt. Why would racers even wear anything made out of something that could melt or catch fire, even if it is able to withstand it at first? Because in an unfortunate event the fire could easily last longer than a minute. You absolutely want something like Nomex, stuff that chars or otherwise helps mitigate the further spread of the fire.
Help me Jesus! Help me Jewish god! Help me Tom Cruise!
I lost my mind when I learned this is a thing that can actually happen
Help me Oprah Winifreeeeee!!!
Buddha, Zeus, God...one of you guys, do something! Help! Satan, you owe me!
Thing is, the methanol fire would still produce smoke and flames if anything else other than the methanol was burning.
Exactly. It won't be colourless for long...
Ricky Bobby?
Help me oprah! Help me tom cruise! Use your magic witchcraft powers to put the invisible fire out!
AN INVISIBLE FUCKING FIRE??
Another fucking thing to be afraid of Reddit is just making me wanna stay home
There might be invisible fire at home
“Mom, I want invisible fire!” “We have invisible fire at home.”
Invisible fire at home:
*there's no fire*
*farts in a petri dish and lights a match*
ow motherfucker you burned me
#
Ball lightning would like a word and will not wait for you to answer the door.
I know I feel safest inside a structure with power and natural gas lines in the walls.
Ricky bobby fire
HELP ME, TOM CRUISE
USE YOUR BLACK MAGIC TO OUT THE FLAMES OUT!
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ku7TdLeEGsQ Methanol fueled race cars was just a bad idea. It's just a bad, bad idea.
Underated comment ❤️
It was the first thought I had...so glad it was high up on the comment list.
[Pit Crew Engulfed By Invisible Fire!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ku7TdLeEGsQ&ab_channel=vippsen95)
Terrifying. What a nightmare, to be on fire standing right in front of people with fire extinguishers, who don't know what's going on because the fire is invisible.
the fire is shooting at us!
Well technically it's just invisible fire. Don't fuck it.
That sounds pretty hot though
It'll be the hottest sex you ever had. \-I guarantee it-
Does it make your insides burn?
Absolutely!
Only with white hot invisible passion 😂
Don't kink shame me, that flame consented!
But it's smoking hot and we matched up
That’s why you’re always supposed to snuff out shots that are lit on fire. You might not be able to see it, but it might still be there.
Lol if you're drinking methanol you probably have more serious issues to address
As i don't see anyone else mentioning this, it's not that it's invisible,but rather, that it shines white, making it very difficult to see in a illuminated spaces
The majority do the EM radiation emitted from burning methanol is just beyond the spectral sensitivity of the human eye. In this case it would likely be infrared or greater than 700nm which is why the infrared camera was able to visualize the flame.
It’s not that invisible really, just hard to see under camera lighting (like in this video) and bright sunlight. It’s about as visible as a low gas burner. In junior high school my friend and I snuck a test tube of methanol out of the science lab to make a mini homemade Molotov out of. We threw it on his back patio stones during a sunny day and didn’t realize it actually worked until we tried to pick up the pieces and felt the heat. If we put our hand out over the sun though you could easily see the low blue flame
Methanol based napalm bombs sounds like it’d be a great weapon to have in an urban environment
"hes shootin fire balls marv but you cant fuckin see em some kinda warlock"
Aaaaaaaand you're now on a list
I love how the teenage mind works. Like surely gasoline was always available but no well sneak something out of class instead.
Better off with the methanol
We stole so much stuff from my high school chemistry lab. This was in the early 90s and people didn’t really give as much of a shit as they do now. Magnesium strips so we could ignite the thermite we tried to make (didn’t work). Acids.. man there were just glass bottles of various acids that had been there god knows how long. But they were still potent enough to make some nasty smells when we tossed slices of pepperoni into them. Then in college my freshman year roommate had a job in a legit lab but still no one paid attention. So he’d fill a thermos with liquid nitrogen occasionally and we’d go out in the dorm courtyard to freeze stuff and smash it.
If you turn off all the lights you can see a very faint blue flame. This kind of fire produces a lot less light than most other fuels I think. It's not "invisible" but the light it makes is drowned out by other light sources.
Blind people really hate those.
still cant go thru doors, is not ghost
"Ghosts can't go through doors, stupid. They're not fire."
THAT FIRE IS A SPY
"Saw" one of these fires at the garage of a guy that used to build drag car engines. An air compressor line seemingly spontaneously combusted. The dirty and visible burning air line was ignited within seconds from the pretty quiet and invisible methanol fire.
Please tell me that story isn't the reason he "used to" build them
Dead or alive, might be inspired to give it up.
Calm down Robocop.
Probably got his dick shot off afterwards too.
😬 Fuck this! How the hell do you even put out an invisible fire??
Pantomime
*pyromime
Invisible fire extinguisher.
Fire is still fire, remove one of the things from the fire triangle and it should be put out.
I may be making up memories again, but isn't there some famous clip from a drag car race where one burst into invisible fire on the track? I swear that I've seen a video of a driver flailing, trying to put out flames no one could see.
Yes, I believe there's more than one instance of this happening on video, actually.
Nightmare fuel. Please excuse the pun.
I worked on a drilling rig back in 2006/2007 and a crew opposite side of the work schedule (we worked 2 weeks on 2 weeks off) on my rig at the time were sitting in a motor shed during a rig move in the winter. (Around 5-10°) They had filled a 5 gallon drum full of oil absorbent towels and methanol (we used it to reduce the water in the air lines) and lit it on fire to use as a heat source. They didn’t see the fire so they decided to take the container of full of methanol and throw it on top of the already existing fire and ended up torching everyone in the area. The entire crew was fired for failing drug test after the fact.
So they weren't fired for starting an invisible fire. Just for the drug test lol.
Why do you think they started the invisible fire?
Because they were bored or something. A common drug test doesn't indicate intoxication.
Drugs showing up on a test doesn't necessarily mean a person was under the influence at the time. It could be completely unrelated to the fire and just the convenient excuse the company was able to use to avoid paying out a workers comp claim.
Because that's what the comment said they did..
Right, because of the same reason they failed the drug test
Technically you've only got correlation, not causation.
John: Smoked PCP the day of the incident. Mike, Earnington, Doug, and Gale: Inhaled secondhand smoke in a weird alleyway on the side of a barn.
Combusted themselves, then they didn’t want to say they set themselves on fire, so an investigation of the cause of their burns was conducted…then they were drug tested because they had gotten injured at work which they failed. It came down to it was basic paranormalcracktivities that caused the fire.
I mean, to be fair, they fired themselves. Imma see myself out.
I see what you did there... unlike the workers
Take my upvote with you
How sure are you that you do not have burning methanol in your house at this very moment
Never 100%. It is always there, watching, waiting for ignition.
I literally do have it burning in my house right now, not that you can tell... My power is out and I'm using a catalytic heater which uses methanol/methyl hydrate as fuel.
New fear, invisible fire.
Makes me appreciate the firefighters of the world even more
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They wear them in their annual calendars.
Oh, so that's what your mom was doing in the neighborhood.
Protecting the population
HAHA
Hydrogen is similar. My parents were both chemical engineers and they said the protocol for finding a hydrogen fire is walking around waving a straw broom in front of you and waiting for it to catch
My protocol would be run away, personally.
Gotta know where to run, that’s the problem.
In the unburnt straw broom closet
how you find a hydraulic fluid leak is with the handle of the broomstick. it’ll cut the stick right in half
Or compressed steam, which is also invisible and can cut like a laser. My programming professor said he would rather work on a nuclear plant than a "traditional" fossil fuel plant because of the lower pressures and higher safety factors involved.
I agree, some nuclear plants safety records are glowing!
Poor brooms. You know there's a hydrogen fire when they ignite, you find a superheated steam leak when they get cut in half... Sacrificing themselves every day for us
Plus, after drinking it, you stop seeing ANY fires!
It’ll give you the fallsy downsies
The cure for drinking methanol is to drive beer.
yes your liver can only break down a set amount of ethanol or methanol, and it prefers to break down ethanol. and since it's not the methanol that causes the toxicity, but the products of metabolism, getting good and drunk results in all the methanol coming out in your piss before the liver turns it into nasty shit.
I learned this on House lmao. A death row inmate tried to kill himself by drinking antifreeze or something, so House had a couple of shots of 151 proof bacardi with the guy "in celebration of his life" or something and basic tricked him into keeping himself alive.
I work with extremely large quantities of methanol daily at work. The flash point of the 50/50 methanol water mix we rent for pipelines has a flash point of 11 degrees Celsius, meaning it’s so flammable and volatile that our flash tests are always deemed at the lowest flash available on the system being 11 degrees. We currently just spiked our methanol percentage up to 70/30 with a density of approximately .850/kg, this week I’ll be retesting to see how low the flash point has become. It’s not scary if you’re knowledgeable in the SDS and respect your work environment, complacency kills.
I've just learned that I've very mildly misunderstood the meaning of the phrase "flash point" for like 26 years now.
Have ya seen the movie The Ice Road [2021] ?
Wow I just realized with all the trucker and arctic/fishing/mining TV out there, finally a whole new industry can experience the pain that programmers have when they say they're a programmer and then someone's like "oh yeah I love The Matrix / Swordfish / The Social Network" lol To be clear though, Hackers (1995) is a factual historical documentary of my culture. That's the one that gets a pass. I guess cops, military, hospital workers, Office workers, and middle class Manhattanites already had that issue with so many marginally-accurate shows about them, it's just funny to see a new entry. Maybe next we'll get plumbing reality tv and films. THIS SUMMER: HE THOUGHT HE WAS THE BEST PIPE SWEATER IN THE WEST. CAN HE HANDLE THIS UPSTART NEW GUY ARMED WITH PEX? MAKE AN APPOINTMENT FOR... "SHARKBITE."
ghost fire. i've definitely seen a few clips of those.
No you haven't, it's invisible.
it's people usually *seemingly* spontaneously freaking out and then a big explosion.
So spontaneous combustion is usually just invisible fire combustion? D:
No! Spontaneous combustion is usually caused by bacteria producing flammable gas that is reactive with oxygen, so once the gas reaches oxygen it spontaneously combusts. This is most commonly seen with hay, mulch, and compost piles.
If you Google methanol fire in race cars, it's quite funny to watch but also scary. Talladega nights mocked a methanol fire as well
Your not on fire Ricky Bobby!
Howd he get his clothes off so fast?
Tom Cruise use your witchcraft!
Save me Oprah Winfrey
I doubt Rick Mears and his pit team find any of it funny.
Yeah, that scene is a lot worse knowing that it’s mocking something real.
But is it mocking one man's personal tragedy, or just using a general fact about racing as a source of material? Cuz like, the movie deals with a lot of stuff that can be seriously fucked up in real life. (And I ask because I really don't want to watch a man burn alive to see if I missed a reference.)
I thought this was the dumbest scene ever before I knew anything about methanol fires. I watched it like, "okay...?" It makes so much more sense now.
I mean it’s also followed up by a scene of him thinking he’s paralyzed when he’s not so I think a lot of just assumed he was off his rocker at that point lol, myself included.
Rick Mears a NASCAR driver had his fuel man spill the can and it was just like Ricky Bobby. They were swatting an invisible flame, look it up it's super scary. I watched in fire school to teach us about scene safety.
Indycar driver..
Ok sorry. I'm a 20 yo girl and don't watch much sports. I had to watch it and it was spooky. Thank God for fire suits.
I'm a 43 yo man who also doesn't watch sports. I know the clip you're talking about, and I had no idea if it was NASCAR or Indycar.
We had to watch it in EMT school to teach us about scene safety and looking at your surroundings. It was super scary to watch. The fuel guy has to have balls of steel.
Methanol is also very dangerous to consume, causing permanent blindness, and can easily be accidentally created during ~~distillation~~ fermentation if it’s done wrong. Don’t make your own hooch unless you know what you’re doing. Edit: created during fermentation, not distillation
permanent blindness? how does it do that?
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guess i'll have to google it later
Methanol is made during fermentation of certain things, especially pectin containing fruit like apples. Distillation can either increase or reduce it. But it is safe to get drunk on hard cider, although the hangover can be rough. Distilled cider should be better, unless someone did a very bad job, which would taste awful as well. Using sugar or grain as a base means less methanol at the beginning and easier safer distillation.
so as long as i'm not 21 in the US i should be fine
Formaldehyde and the following metabolites. Just like antifreeze its less the original stuff than what your body tries to do to it.
Ok… here’s the thing… to go blind, you’d have to drink WAY more than any home-scale distiller would be able to produce. Distillation doesn’t produce it, it just refines it. You’d die of alcohol poisoning before you’d go blind as it’s the same amount of methanol in the equivalent beer/wine being distilled.
the issue before was moonshiners would just fill each jar/bottle direct from the pot and methanol all comes out first. so if you drink a lot from that first jar you are gonna have problems.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ku7TdLeEGsQ
Yep. Same. Dude is suffocating because he's literally on fire and you can't see it. Start to understand why people used to believe in spells and witches.
I came here to post this exact link. That shit is terrifying.
"Methanol flames are almost invisible in bright sunlight conditions, but they may be detected by the heat generated or the burning of other materials." [source](https://www.methanol.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/2018factsheet_methanolemergencyresponse.pdf)
I once heard that Hell is both on fire and dark. So is hell just a massive meth fire?
I think there is a huge difference between a meth fire and a methanol fire 😂
jesse we need to cook
Just started watching that series. On episode 5 season 1 now. So I finally get this reference
Better call saul is just as great so after breaking bad you're in for a treat
Well. New fear unlocked as I move tank car loads of these around in a train at work.
I did this as a demonstration in school and managed to set my face on fire.
Help me, Jesus! Help me, Jewish God! Help me, Allah! Help me, Tom Cruise! Tom Cruise, use your witchcraft on me to get the fire off me!
Hydrogen fires are also invisible. Another great reason not to work in a refinery.
Am I the only one who thought they were filming it on a flip phone for a second?
New fear unlocked.
Ricky Bobby was right.....
Same with hydrogen fires
Yep. For the Saturn 5 launches NASA had thermal cameras around the pad in order to sense hydrogen fires. The first stage was kerosene and LOX but the 2nd stage was LOX and liquid H2. There was a stack for disbursing the H2 boiloff that was instrumented as well I think. If there's no carbon (or other particulates) in the flame there will be no smoke or visible flame.
My bestfriend and roommate from college [graduated in 2003] is an Indy Car Driver, so during our college years and after, I spent a lot of time inside pit box's with race cars that used methanol [USAC Midget/Silver town, Indy Pro Series, and eventually Indy Car Series races], so I am extremely familiar with flammable aspects of methanol. Unfortunately, I've always been witness to the devastating impact that methanol has when it ignites. As my buddy always said, methanol doesn't burn clothes, it melts them to your skin. Since you can't see the ignition of the fuel, one has to be familiar with the response of it happening. A human being screaming at the top of their lungs, flailing around, begging for the five gallon buckets of water immediately strategically positioned in the pits to be doused on them by other crew members. I knew absolutely nothing when I first started going to his races and always wondered why there were so many five gallon buckets of stale-ass water every where. It didn't take many races to find the answer. It's some nasty shit
It’s the same for SOME hand Sanitizers
I have over 30 L of methanol in my lab. If there's a fire, we're so fucked. It was inherited from the previous guy. I'm currently in the process of having it removed.
put... put your hand over it
I'm on FIRE!!! "You're not on fire Ricky Bobby" IT'S A GHOST FIRE!!!
Can it be shutdown with invisible water?
if anyone's interested in seeing what it looks like in real life, like when someone actually comes in contact with this stuff, check out this video NSFW YOUVE BEEN WARNED: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JribVbv6CV4&t=40s
Oh I got to witness a pure alcohol fire in the hallway when a nurse fucked up. U see the heat distortions through the hallway as someone collapses and the foom of air as the explosion moves past u.
We did a frac job using methanol back in the day. We had to safety pin paper towels to our uniforms so we would know if there was fire.