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Fucking brilliant. It's meant to put out a fire. You grab it by the handle and toss it at the fire. But it contains too little liquid. Anyway, they switched to

Fucking brilliant. It's meant to put out a fire. You grab it by the handle and toss it at the fire. But it contains too little liquid. Anyway, they switched to using Carbon Tetrachloride which is good at smothering flames, except if it is heated to 200 C at which point it turns into phosgene which is a chemical weapon. Brilliant. This was great.

jtha 3y ago
Ah yes, the good old days.
userbinator 3y ago
Carbon tet was just the beginning; advances in halocarbon chemistry eventually lead to the Halon family of extinguishing agents.
eternityforest 3y ago
As a bonus feature, any unreacted carbon tetrachloride is still horrendous even without phosgene conversion. Truly an excellent product, modern stuff just isn't made anywhere near as well.
petesergeant 3y ago
There's a Thai company that's been making a modern version (something you throw at a fire) for a while: https://www.elidefire.com/ https://www.elidefire.com/
- jws 3y ago
  "Funny" regulatory story on those. They are not legal in the US since the regulators decided they were fire extinguishers and then compared them to the rules for fire extinguishers. They noted the lack of a nozzle, gauge, and locking device and proclaimed them out of compliance. They also noted that there are fires the balls do not put out, which to be fair, is kind of true for everything except the heat death of the universe. It's a shame. It would probably be a good thing to keep over a domestic laser cutter or 3d printer.
  - a_gnostic 3y ago
    Keep it there as a novelty ornament. –Certainly not as a fire extinguisher… that would be illegal!
    - OJFord 3y ago
      I'm neither a lawyer nor familiar with US law/regulatory stuff or US consumer - but I assume the point is that it's not legal to sell it as a fire extinguisher, nor to use it to satisfy fire extinguishing equipment requirements for your office building or whatever. Not that you're breaking the law if you have in your home, whatever you want to use it for (unless you're required to have a fire extinguisher, in which case you'd just have it in addition, if I'm correct).
  - ssl-3 3y ago
    "Legal" or not, they're still readily available from the usual sources and I do keep one near the more-experimental of the 3D printers. For those who aren't familiar, they're more-or-less a firework: Cardboard shell with redundant fuses wrapped around it to activate a charge inside, and with fire-putter-outer powder (IIRC sodium bicarb, but maybe something else) instead of stars. This whole thing is then wrapped in thin plastic. Operation is simple: Fuse lights, because fire. It burns fast, by design. It explodes. The area is covered in powder. It might even work. (Might make things worse, too, but things are already awful by this point.)
    - petesergeant 3y ago
      > For those who aren't familiar, they're more-or-less a firework There's something beautifully, wonderfully Thai about creating fireworks to throw at fires. Also, this video: https://www.elidefire.com/performance-testing https://www.elidefire.com/performance-testing
    - kragen 3y ago
      that's brilliant! i'd assumed it was monoammonium phosphate. i'd much rather cover my electronics in sodium carbonate than in phosphoric acid
- alister 3y ago
  That's a pretty cool product IMO. Even more interesting than throwing it into a fire is how it can be mounted above stoves, junction boxes, or inside a car's engine compartment to put out fires where they start.
- OJFord 3y ago
  I like how they made it spherical, then ship it with a stand/container thing you can put it in so it doesn't roll away... https://image.makewebeasy.net/makeweb/0/TqWSxlyoO/ProjectRefs/29_min__1_1_1_.png?v=202311151122 https://image.makewebeasy.net/makeweb/0/TqWSxlyoO/ProjectRef... ... it could just be a cube?! But maybe there was already a cube shaped fire extinguishing device, and it wouldn't be: > The Leading, Original, and Most Trusted Fire Extinguishing [Cube] brand
hinkley 3y ago
Well, on the plus side, at least you're not being slowly cooked to death anymore.
- otteromkram 3y ago
  Well, phosgene might take 24 hours before the negative effects kick in.

jtha 3y ago

Ah yes, the good old days.

userbinator 3y ago

Carbon tet was just the beginning; advances in halocarbon chemistry eventually lead to the Halon family of extinguishing agents.

eternityforest 3y ago

As a bonus feature, any unreacted carbon tetrachloride is still horrendous even without phosgene conversion. Truly an excellent product, modern stuff just isn't made anywhere near as well.

petesergeant 3y ago

There's a Thai company that's been making a modern version (something you throw at a fire) for a while: https://www.elidefire.com/ https://www.elidefire.com/

jws 3y ago
"Funny" regulatory story on those. They are not legal in the US since the regulators decided they were fire extinguishers and then compared them to the rules for fire extinguishers. They noted the lack of a nozzle, gauge, and locking device and proclaimed them out of compliance. They also noted that there are fires the balls do not put out, which to be fair, is kind of true for everything except the heat death of the universe. It's a shame. It would probably be a good thing to keep over a domestic laser cutter or 3d printer.
- a_gnostic 3y ago
  Keep it there as a novelty ornament. –Certainly not as a fire extinguisher… that would be illegal!
  - OJFord 3y ago
    I'm neither a lawyer nor familiar with US law/regulatory stuff or US consumer - but I assume the point is that it's not legal to sell it as a fire extinguisher, nor to use it to satisfy fire extinguishing equipment requirements for your office building or whatever. Not that you're breaking the law if you have in your home, whatever you want to use it for (unless you're required to have a fire extinguisher, in which case you'd just have it in addition, if I'm correct).
- ssl-3 3y ago
  "Legal" or not, they're still readily available from the usual sources and I do keep one near the more-experimental of the 3D printers. For those who aren't familiar, they're more-or-less a firework: Cardboard shell with redundant fuses wrapped around it to activate a charge inside, and with fire-putter-outer powder (IIRC sodium bicarb, but maybe something else) instead of stars. This whole thing is then wrapped in thin plastic. Operation is simple: Fuse lights, because fire. It burns fast, by design. It explodes. The area is covered in powder. It might even work. (Might make things worse, too, but things are already awful by this point.)
  - petesergeant 3y ago
    > For those who aren't familiar, they're more-or-less a firework There's something beautifully, wonderfully Thai about creating fireworks to throw at fires. Also, this video: https://www.elidefire.com/performance-testing https://www.elidefire.com/performance-testing
  - kragen 3y ago
    that's brilliant! i'd assumed it was monoammonium phosphate. i'd much rather cover my electronics in sodium carbonate than in phosphoric acid
alister 3y ago
That's a pretty cool product IMO. Even more interesting than throwing it into a fire is how it can be mounted above stoves, junction boxes, or inside a car's engine compartment to put out fires where they start.
OJFord 3y ago
I like how they made it spherical, then ship it with a stand/container thing you can put it in so it doesn't roll away... https://image.makewebeasy.net/makeweb/0/TqWSxlyoO/ProjectRefs/29_min__1_1_1_.png?v=202311151122 https://image.makewebeasy.net/makeweb/0/TqWSxlyoO/ProjectRef... ... it could just be a cube?! But maybe there was already a cube shaped fire extinguishing device, and it wouldn't be: > The Leading, Original, and Most Trusted Fire Extinguishing [Cube] brand

hinkley 3y ago

Well, on the plus side, at least you're not being slowly cooked to death anymore.

otteromkram 3y ago
Well, phosgene might take 24 hours before the negative effects kick in.