From Peter@embl-hamburg.de Mon Sep 13 14:51:21 1999 Path: newshost.nmt.edu!rutgers!nntp.upenn.edu!logbridge.uoregon.edu!dispose.news.demon.net!demon!newsfeed.tli.de!newsfeed.gamma.ru!Gamma.RU!Radio-MSU.net!claire.desy.de!not-for-mail From: Peter Bendall Newsgroups: rec.juggling,alt.circus.arts Subject: fire eating fuel, USA Date: Mon, 13 Sep 1999 13:44:55 +0100 Organization: Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY) Message-ID: NNTP-Posting-Host: hardy.embl-hamburg.de Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; CHARSET=ISO-8859-1 X-news-To: "alt.circus.arts" <@news:alt.circus.arts@claire.desy.de>, "rec.juggling" <@news:rec.juggling@claire.desy.de> X-Internet-To: circus-arts@lists.best.com X-Priority: 3 (Normal) X-Newsreader: Forum Client v. 6.2, NetManage Inc. Lines: 24 Xref: newshost.nmt.edu rec.juggling:3124 alt.circus.arts:317 hi! Our usual fire eating / breathing fuel in Europe is a "100% pure" paraffin hydrocarbon, similar to USA kerosene and available in Germany from Pappnase (juggling suppies) and in UK from Albert Alchemy (links on our circus arts website) I have been told that the american equivalent is "UltraPure (c)" This is not a recommendation, but a request for further details and possible connection via somebody who can get us the name of the manufacturer and / or supplier. A Safety Data Sheet for the product would be really fantastic if somebody has access to it! Until then! Peter -------------------------------------------------------- E-mail: Bendall@altavista.net - ask for ICQ Number Circus at: http://members.aol.com/CircusGrp Teddy Bears at: http://members.aol.com/Bendall -------------------------------------------------------- Wed, 26 Jan 2000 11:08:41 rec.juggling Thread 99 of 191 Lines 55 Re: Fire breathing Colours (again) RespNo 10 of 13 Jon Solberg Newsgroups: rec.juggling Green - boric acid Red - Lithium Chloride Blue - Potassium acetate / Copper salts (hard to get good results) White - magnesia / aluminium Check pyrotechnics newsgroups for other colours. > Alkali metal / rare earth metal salts won't dissolve in paraffin, will they? Nope they won't. You need a polar fuel, such as alcohol -> you can't firebreath the stuff. Alcohol and firebreathing / manipulation is a really _bad_ idea (firebreathing itself is a bad idea to start with). The flame is pretty wimpy to. The temperature also has to be lower than that of burning paraffin for the colours to show. Fri, 28 Jan 2000 00:40:23 rec.juggling Thread 99 of 191 Lines 30 Re: Fire breathing Colours (again) RespNo 12 of 13 Ken Zetie at Research Machines Newsgroups: rec.juggling "SYBRELL" wrote in message news:20000127200248.08683.00000397@ng-fq1.aol.com... > since your looking for ways to get different colours......has anyone tried > using the chems on the torch instead of in your mouth?.....just a thought..... sigh...indeed this has been thought of, and explained in great detail somewhere on the JIS. Green, red and blue flames to your liking? > and just to let you know.....not all of us use parafin......some of us use > lighter fluid.....kingsford is the best.........and i have seen some of the > even less inteligent use white gas.......hasta......Duckie. If playing with coloured flames you cannot use paraffin - it's brigth yellow flame masks the colours created by the chemicals. Interesting piece of history...the chemical flame colours were of course the beginnings of the modern technique of spectroscopy. The two men who first investigated them in detail were Kirchoff and one Robert Bunsen, of the burner flame. Why? The burner can be adjusted to give a fairly clear clourless flame to allow the flame colours to be seen clearly. For coloured torches I use alcohol as it is good for dissolving the chemical salts too. Industrial meths is fine. Ken Fri, 28 Jan 2000 15:22:52 rec.juggling Thread 99 of 191 Lines 22 Re: Fire breathing Colours (again) RespNo 13 of 13 Foreworks at Teleport Inc. Newsgroups: rec.juggling On 28 Jan 2000, SYBRELL wrote: > since your looking for ways to get different colours......has anyone > tried using the chems on the torch instead of in your > mouth?.....just a thought..... and just to let you know.....not all > of us use parafin......some of us use lighter fluid.....kingsford is > the best.........and i have seen some of the even less inteligent > use white gas.......hasta......Duckie. Juggler Zen: Don't look for > the pattern......let the pattern find you. I think the pattern is about to find you. If you are talking about breathing/spitting fire with lighter fluid, then you _are_ using white gas. Both are 95-99% naptha, with small amounts of rust inhibitors, deodorants, and colorants, all of which are poisonous or carcinogenic or both. It's also essentially the same stuff that Coleman camping fuel is made of. For more information, see .