3 ms·

Probably not the best idea to open a battery without gloves and a mask (though lithium batteries are worse in terms of gases). Still very interesting to see th

Probably not the best idea to open a battery without gloves and a mask (though lithium batteries are worse in terms of gases). Still very interesting to see the electrolyte though.

jacquesm 12y ago
The quantity and variety of things that I've opened up during my lifetime without 'gloves and a mask' would probably scare you very much. The worst mistake I made to date is grinding off the top of a BLY90 as a kid before I knew what a MSDS is. So far so good, I think these folks will be fine as long as they wash their hands afterwards before eating, cleaning up after you've dropped a fluorescent tube is probably a lot more dangerous than this. Don't go and turn anything into a fine powder! Probably the most risky thing they did here was cutting up the batteries with a hacksaw which will create a bit of sawdust composed of metal and some electrolyte. But that's pretty easy to get rid of and won't become airborne. Using a grinder for the same job would be much more dangerous.
- akavel 12y ago
  As to what people would play with without "gloves and a mask": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demon_core http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demon_core "After Slotin's accident, hands-on criticality experiments were stopped, and remote-control machines were designed by Schreiber, one of the survivors, to perform such experiments with all personnel at a quarter mile distance." Note: "After"... so what was the situation before?...
  - cjslep 12y ago
    They would raise and lower the top half of the core with their bare hands, a screwdriver, and lots of shims. Literally hands-on criticality experiments.
- dredmorbius 12y ago
  BLY90: an RF power transistor. MSDS: material safety data sheet. Just what is it that's inside the BLY90 that's so bad?
  - jacquesm 12y ago
    Beryllium oxide. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beryllium_oxide http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beryllium_oxide

Probably not the best idea to open a battery without gloves and a mask (though lithium batteries are worse in terms of gases). Still very interesting to see the electrolyte though.

jacquesm 12y ago

The quantity and variety of things that I've opened up during my lifetime without 'gloves and a mask' would probably scare you very much. The worst mistake I made to date is grinding off the top of a BLY90 as a kid before I knew what a MSDS is. So far so good, I think these folks will be fine as long as they wash their hands afterwards before eating, cleaning up after you've dropped a fluorescent tube is probably a lot more dangerous than this. Don't go and turn anything into a fine powder! Probably the most risky thing they did here was cutting up the batteries with a hacksaw which will create a bit of sawdust composed of metal and some electrolyte. But that's pretty easy to get rid of and won't become airborne. Using a grinder for the same job would be much more dangerous.

akavel 12y ago
As to what people would play with without "gloves and a mask": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demon_core http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demon_core "After Slotin's accident, hands-on criticality experiments were stopped, and remote-control machines were designed by Schreiber, one of the survivors, to perform such experiments with all personnel at a quarter mile distance." Note: "After"... so what was the situation before?...
- cjslep 12y ago
  They would raise and lower the top half of the core with their bare hands, a screwdriver, and lots of shims. Literally hands-on criticality experiments.
dredmorbius 12y ago
BLY90: an RF power transistor. MSDS: material safety data sheet. Just what is it that's inside the BLY90 that's so bad?
- jacquesm 12y ago
  Beryllium oxide. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beryllium_oxide http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beryllium_oxide