Polar Pure and Steel Wool
Dan OCanna (ocanna@ALPHA.CAER.UKY.EDU)
Tue, 8 Aug 1995 02:30:06 EDT
By mixing Iodine crystals and steel wool to start a fire .... No only kidding.
The Polar Pure product works on the principle of making a saturated aqueous
iodine solution. In theory as long as the smallest spec of iodine is left
undissoved once the solution reaches equilibrium it is saturated and therefore
at full strength. To reach saturation it is important to give the iodine
enough time to dissolve between uses, so to refill the bottle each time it is
used. That way you have a full bottle of saturated solution for use at the
next stop.
The bottle I have has a liquid crystal type thermomometer on the side to be
used in determining the correct dose. I'm assuming that refers to the
temperature of the solution inside. Since the amount of solute in a saturated
solution is temperature dependant that makes sense to me. The directions
on the bottle are a little ambiguous. Can anybody clarify? If that is
correct then carrying the bottle in an inside pocket in cool weather would
be a good idea.
I've seen the steel wool trick done with two 1.5 v cells in series. Hold the
two cells in one hand in the same orientation as a typical flashlight --
positive of one against the negative of the other. The trick is to make a
"rope" of the steel wool to connect the "outside" ends of the two cells.
Make a thin portion in the "rope" so there will be an area of high resistance
to get the steel hot enough to glow. Some steel wool has an oily coating
and works MUCH better than that with out.
Bad ASCII art of:
______________ _____________
_ | | | | _ <-- Batery
{ }(|+ -|(|+ -|{ } <-- Steel wool
{ } |______________| |_____________|{ }
{ } { }
{ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~\ /~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ }
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dan O'Canna [ocanna@alpha.caer.uky.edu] Lexington, KY USA
Terry Howerton Sakima Group, Inc. SCOUTER Magazine Kansas City | 
