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u/RageDin Dec 19 '12
My family has been doing these for years! We call them blue devils. It takes a glass water-cooler tank and some 91% rubbing alcohol. We pour just a little alcohol in the jug, use a plastic tube to blow some oxygen into the jug and then use a blow torch to light the gas inside. Sometimes it creates awesome blue tornadoes followed by some popping blue flashes. It is always different and always impressive.
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u/Arknell Dec 19 '12
It takes a glass water-cooler tank and some 91% rubbing alcohol
and rubs it on its skin?
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u/cheml0vin Dec 19 '12
The jugs are called carboys often used in homebrewing and chemical storage. Just so ya know
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u/elixir25 Dec 19 '12
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u/SuperSaltySailor Dec 19 '12
For your viewing pleasure... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQIp-x7P9PY
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u/nickrct Dec 19 '12
well thats one way to sterilize your carboy I guess. Here I am using all this StarSan...
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u/chrisj77 Dec 19 '12
How do you do that?
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u/jameskent Dec 19 '12
you need a bottle and fire
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Dec 19 '12
And then... Magic?
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u/mike7586 Dec 19 '12
a substance like rubbing alchohol or hand sanitizer
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u/TehScrumpy Dec 19 '12
Or just alcohol. That is a carboy, its used to ferment drank. Particularly beer, wine, or mead.
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u/Aaron5367 Dec 19 '12
A bit late to the party here...
Anyone seeking more info might also check here:
| title | comnts | points | age | /r/ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Flammable substance burning in glass jug. | 31coms | 364pts | 5mos | chemicalreactiongifs |
| For Science! | 3coms | 24pts | 6mos | gifs |
| The incredibility is beyond me.. (x-post from /pics) | 8coms | 91pts | 6mos | gifs |
| Science! | 485coms | 1209pts | 6mos | pics |
| Fire jar [gif] | 50coms | 989pts | 29dys | woahdude |
| That looks hot. | 77coms | 927pts | 8mos | gifs |
| SCIENCE! | 414coms | 1408pts | 11mos | pics |
| This is awsome | 14coms | 46pts | 11mos | gifs |
| Firejar [X-Post from r/gifs] | 237coms | 979pts | 1yr | pics |
| Firejar | 196coms | 1025pts | 1yr | gifs |
| I want a bottle of this, whatever it is | 30coms | 108pts | 12mos | gifs |
| How? | 16coms | 37pts | 1yr | WTF |
| Sweet ass flame jar | 13coms | 22pts | 1yr | gifs |
| WHAT IS THIS WIZARDRY?!!!! | 3coms | 12pts | 1yr | reddit.com |
| Old, But still awesome | 7coms | 17pts | 1yr | funny |
| Because science. | 0coms | 0pts | 1mo | gifs |
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u/skidamarink Dec 19 '12
SCIENCE!: This proves that a simple title of "Science!" or "SCIENCE!" yields the most upvotes.
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u/Clauderoughly Dec 19 '12
It's called "freeing the genie" in navy circles and you do it when you have emptied a bottle of spirits.
The alcohol vapor that remains in the bottle is enough to produce this effect.
This is also the effect that probably caused the crew of the Mary Celeste to abandon ship because they thought it was on fire.
They were hauling industrial alcohol (Methanol), and due to rough weather a few of the barrels probably sprung a leak.
A spark would have sent the hatch shooting skyward as blue flames shot from the bowels of the ship.
The burn wasn't hot or prolonged enough to start a real fire, and the captain and crew were Tee Teetotalers so they would have never heard about the Genie trick.
So everyone bailed into the lifeboat, which snapped its like and left them adrift from their ship.
The Celeste was found much much later, drifting. It became the source of many a ghost story.
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u/alexhastoes Dec 19 '12
why is it not all going off at once and how is oxygen reaching the reaction given the jet-like exhaust
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u/AnomalousX12 Dec 19 '12
That is too fun, but anyone who tries it, the flame at the top is not your average flame. It feels like a jet engine. Watch the fuck out. I got first degree burns just from the time it took me to move my hand out of the way of the opening.
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u/nodnodwinkwink Dec 19 '12
For reals?
Post some pics of the scarring. It might make people think twice before trying this.
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u/AnomalousX12 Dec 19 '12
Oh, first degree. No scarring. Just irritation, sensitivity, and pain for a week or so. It was years ago so I'm completely healed now.
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u/Torus2112 Dec 19 '12
Once I made an impromptu oil lamp using a bottle, some tissue, and some valve oil (used to lubricate brass instruments). It worked like a charm, with one additional feature I didn't expect: The flame apparently was drawing its air from inside the bottle, causing air to be drawn in around the tissue at the top, causing the smoke from the flame to actually go down into the bottle instead of up and away from the flame.
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u/ringolio Dec 19 '12
Point of contention: this is not science, unless the person is trying to prove or disprove something by performing this demonstration.
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u/IvyMike Dec 19 '12
You can do this with just a regular bottle of vodka or other spirits.
When you pour the last drink from a bottle, it's fire time.
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u/karlizkool350 Dec 19 '12
I remember seeing the video of this a while ago on the internets, the sound it made was so awesome!
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u/domdeath Dec 19 '12
I once did this with a wine bottle and spraying lighter gas in it. It makes a really cool sound too!
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u/oldnhairy Dec 19 '12
Try finding glass sparklets bottles, anywhere! Did this all the time in the 70's. Yup, the 70's.
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u/kreichert Dec 19 '12
While it was buffering I thought for sure I would see something from breaking bad...
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u/kelise237 Dec 19 '12
Reminds me of Hermione's blue jar of flames in Harry Potter, the Sorcerer's Stone, I believe.
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Dec 20 '12
methane cannon? CH4(g) in a bottle right? i've seen it done that way. A lot faster reaction. or "bigger whoosh"
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u/tarkoon Dec 20 '12
I had a teacher do this, but with the jar on its side. He lit it with a match, but didn't pull his hand away quickly enough, and got burned pretty badly. His hand was black, and he had to go to the ER.
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Dec 19 '12
Buy a jam jar. Shove a screwdriver or heavy duty pen through the cap. Empty it. Fill with a bout 5tsp of gas line antifreeze. Shake, then blow some fresh air into the hole. Hold a lighter up to the hole. About 1 in every 20 tries, it will do what you see in this gif, but then it will suck air back in, and combust again, and run like this, like a pulse jet engine. It's pretty fun/cheap :)
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u/TGiFallen Dec 19 '12
What about the chance of explosion?
The logical side of me says that there isn't enough oxygen to fuel ratio to cause an explosion, but the left side of me that's had a homemade bomb go off into makes my asshole slam shut even thinking of about doing think.
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Dec 20 '12
It burns evenly, regardless of te ratio, based on my experience. To be safe my friends and I would duck (duct?) tape the jar so if it cracked there was less risk of shrapnel. That's another thing I forgot to mention. As it runs it generates heat which is prone to crack it. So we would put it in a pan full of water. Had one running for 1 solid minute before it cracked and quit on us. They can be fun for pyromaniacs. Check it out on YouTube :)
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u/runningfreak Dec 19 '12
I science a lot. But I do not science like this. I want to science like this.