Fun with Fog Generators 223
BoomZilla writes "Only
10 or so shopping days to Halloween. If you're at a loss for a project
this weekend check out gotfog.com for
a full set of detailed instructions on the construction of a Fog
chiller. "What's a fog chiller?" you may ask. And rightly so.
Let me explain. A fog machine dumps fog juice on a heating plate to
produce oodles of the white, floaty stuff. Problem is that it doesn't
hug the ground like you see in the movies. An alternative that is employed
to create the ground-hugging variety of fog is a dry ice machine (which
heats up dry ice and disperses the resultant cloud of fog). The problem is
that dry ice is (a) expensive and (b) not always that easy to get. Enter
the fog chiller. The chiller can be built very inexpensively (major cost
is the sacrifice of a largish cooler) and works with a regular fog machine
that consumes low-cost fog juice. Go on, give it a try. You know you want
to. And just imagine the look on the faces of your little ghouls and
ghosts come the 31st when your house looks like boot hill on steroids."
Dry Ice (Score:5, Funny)
(c) could get you put on a list of suspected pot growers faster than a subscription to High Times.
Re:Dry Ice (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Dry Ice (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Dry Ice (Score:5, Informative)
Use a container (I use a Tupperware box) that is twice as big as the volume of grass you wish to dry. Make a few small holes in the lid, to allow the gas to escape. Put equal volumes of bud and dry ice inside, loosely packed, with the dry ice underneath the bud. Put the lid on and make sure it is properly sealed so that the only way for gas to escape is through the holes in the lid. Put the box into a freezer, lid upwards. This is to keep the material as cold as possible, prolonging the sublimation process for as long as possible. The dry ice will begin to sublime pushing all air out of the box and surrounding your buds with bone dry co2. The totally dry atmosphere will begin drawing water molecules out of the plant material. Check the tub after 24 hours and then every 24 hours until the dry ice has all gone. When the ice is all gone -the buds should be completely dry and smokeable. If you find that they are not quite dry then put some more dry ice into the box, place the lot back in the freezer and wait until they are done.
Re:Dry Ice (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Dry Ice (Score:2, Informative)
It's not, but since nobody uses the meta-moderation feature, incompetent moderators are never busted.
Re:Dry Ice (Score:2)
Re:Dry Ice (Score:2)
Re:Dry Ice (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Flamebait? Not. (Score:2, Informative)
Ack! The only thing that will stink up your kitchen worse is doing knife hits off the burners.
Re:Dry Ice (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Dry Ice (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Dry Ice (Score:2, Funny)
Dude, that is sooo pre-9/11! Now it would get you on a list of suspected terrorists. Why? Because, uh... only terrorists would buy something off-the-wall like dry ice!
Fog chiller already in the works! (Score:5, Interesting)
Glow sticks and some tin foil reflectors make for good glowing green fog, by the way.
Chainsaws, Fog Machines and Stage Lighting (Score:5, Funny)
In only a few hours, I will be helping in the construction of one of these! We already have all of the materials.
A fog chiller like this will work almost as well as a professional one. The professional fog coolers essentially blow the fog through an refrigerator evaporator.
Halloween of 1994, I had the police at my house 6 times, each time with them begging me to stop doing what I was doing... he so badly wanted a reason to arrest me, but could think of none.
Picture it: The doorbell was connected through an optocoupler to my computer's keyboard. Everytime the doorbell rang, there was a pause (as the stereo audio file loaded) then a loud scream played from a speaker (left) hidden in the trunk of one of the cars in the driveway. The right channel had a nasty kind of chewing sound, and it was played through a speaker hidden in the engine compartment of another car which was parked close to the door.
My roommate and I were car nuts, and we had a junked Toyota that we were waiting for the scrapyard to haul off. With the chain hoist, we put it on its side in the front yard, with a mannequin's arm sticking out from underneath. We hooked its electrical system up to a car battery charger and left some of the parking lights on, with a turnblinker flashing and the AM radio playing quietly inside.
I was working in the professional sound and lighting business then, so I borrowed a fog machine, fog chiller and 6,000 watts of Leko stagelighting.
The fog machine and the chiller from work went outside to provide a ground mist, but not too much. I needed for the kids to see, by the light of the flashing signal, the arm sticking out from under the Toyota.
The Lekos and my own fog machine were set up inside. The Leko dimmer pack was powered off the 40 amp 240V service to the stove outlet, and all 6 lights, at 1000W apiece, were pointed and focused to a point 1 foot outside of my front door.
And then there was the chainsaw. Beg, borrow, steal or rent a chainsaw. Take off the chain and protect the kids from the potentially sharp edge of the chain guide with a rubber edging like people use around the outlines of their car doors.
The Spectacle:
Mom or Dad would stand at the end of the driveway as Little Tommy would walk past the Toyota with the flashing lights and the arm poking out of the ground mist.
Little Tommy, dressed in his finest Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles costume would press the doorbell. He'd hear the ring of the bell, then a couple of seconds later, the scream from the trunk of one of the cars he'd just passed. Gradually, he'd become aware of a wet chewing sound right behind him.
If Little Tommy was still standing at the door by the time I got downstairs, he'd be greeted to the sound of the door opening, and a wall of fog in front of him; invisible foggy blackness.
Of course, wearing black and a black ski mask, I'd be standing there watching the look of fear on the kid's face as it flashed on and off in time with the doomed Toyota's right turn. And then, just when we thought Tommy was getting ready to leave, Mike would kick the foot-pedal that turned on all 6kW of stagelights, focused right at the kid's face.
Blinded and disoriented, Little Tommy would start to retreat as I started up the chainsaw. And his first sight of me would be the silhouette, through the fog, of a black shadow with a running gas chainsaw.
Frozen, the kid would stand there, a deer caught in the headlights, as the chainsaw-wielding black shadow pressed the blade of the saw to his neck and revved the motor.
Of course at this point, the parent, standing at the end of the driveway, would feel that Little Tommy was in mortal danger, scream, drop the bag of candy, and attempt to rescue him from the chainsaw which would have already taken off the kid's head if it still had a chain.
The next morning, I had 4 broken windows, hate messages spray-painted onto the side of my roommate's car, the smell of two-cycle oil in my living room, and a hell of a lot of toilet paper and broken eggs to clean up. But I only had to give out 1/2 bag of candies, so I think I did okay.
Linux isn't ready for the desktop yet. [glowingplate.com]
Re:Chainsaws, Fog Machines and Stage Lighting (Score:5, Funny)
Paint job to cover hate messages spray-painted onto the side of your roommate's car, $1800
Carpet cleaning to remove the smell of two-cycle oil from the living room, $85.00
Being known to your neighbors as "that Damned Nutcase at the end of the street" and forming a first-name relationship with the police... Priceless!
Re:Chainsaws, Fog Machines and Stage Lighting (Score:2)
Being known to your neighbors as "that Damned Nutcase at the end of the street" and forming a first-name relationship with the police... Priceless!
Lest you forget, I'm the Bobo guy [glowingplate.com]. And Mike's car was a 1975 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme in primer. But we did find out that Tremclad (based on the empty spray can in the middle of the street) is very hard to sand off a quarter panel.
Heh. Those were fun days.
Re:Chainsaws, Fog Machines and Stage Lighting (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Chainsaws, Fog Machines and Stage Lighting (Score:2)
You should have taken photos. That sounds like something on par with what I want to do once I get a house off campus.
One of my neighbors was a photographer with the community newspaper and she came by to take a photo of the Toyota on its side in my front yard the next morning. But I never saw the article.
Yeah, I should've. Hindsight is 20/20.
I might do something similar again this year - I've been feeling bored lately.
Re:Chainsaws, Fog Machines and Stage Lighting (Score:2)
if you do, make a site respond to this comment with the link to the pictures you take.
I'm a lamer. Anyone in the Ottawa area have a digital camera they won't be using on the 31st?
Re:Chainsaws, Fog Machines and Stage Lighting (Score:5, Funny)
OK, I HAVE to ask. How many kids braved the whole thing and actually claimed that half bag of candy that was given out?
Well, the 1/2 bag of candy that I gave out was mostly to bribe the three who were still screaming after I shut off the chainsaw. And the father who wet himself.
Most of the others were gone by the time they heard the chewing noise from under the hood of the car. Lots didn't even come down the driveway, because seeing a car on its side with an arm poking out from underneath is a little too intense for most 4 to 10-year-olds.
The kids who stayed for the chainsaw were all older (12-15 range) and were psyching each other up, afraid of their friends seein their fear. But there's something about the sound of a gasoline engine running inside a house that makes people decide that they're not going to stick around to see what's coming.
Re:Chainsaws, Fog Machines and Stage Lighting (Score:2)
The lights are just mean, but the chainsaw would trigger Dad tearing down the sidewalk, if he wasn't already standing near the kids to reassure them about the scary house. Expect a similar reaction if you stabbed them with a fake knife, or shot them with blanks. The last few years, I've assisted my brother running a haunt; while it's very scary, he enforces a strict no-touching rule. We also ease up on the little ones, the scariest folks keep out of sight as they go through.
Chalk it up to the indiscretions of youth. Nowadays, I'd be a little bit more tame.
Laws and lawsuits kill all the fun. They killed Napster, they killed drinking and driving (why shouldn't I be able to have a beer while I drive home from work, as long as I stay below the legal limit?), they killed the musclecar.
Next thing you're gonna tell me that all coffee cups are gonna have to come with a warning about the contents being hot... oh, wait.
I did like the overturned car, wired for sound.The car was a 1984 Toyota Tercel 4WD station wagon with a blown rear differential and rusted through *everywhere*. I was going to attach a furnace blower motor to spin the axle so that one of the wheels was spinning, but I couldn't figure out a way of doing it where kids wouldn't potentially touch the tire spinning in the air (and get caught and lose a finger), so I decided to veto that idea. It was too bad, too - the sound of the worn-out diff spinning was A Very Bad Sound.
Thanks! :)
Re:Theory: Suck air over ice to chill air for fogg (Score:3, Informative)
A summary of the site is that you can suck cool air into your fog machine and make the fog hug the ground.
Use an ice chest with vents cut in both ends, filled with ice (or dry ice) and place the fog machine inlet close to the outlet of the ice chest.
I don't know if you've just accidentally reversed the steps or not, but let me clarify some aspects of fog machines...
I've never seen a fog machine with an air inlet. I've seen lots of professional fog machines with fluid inputs, though, so that you could run hose through your lighting grids or props and not have to disrupt them if the machine ran out of fog juice (especially in the middle of a show!).
A fog machine works by pumping fog juice into a small heated cavity with a very small exit hole. Usually, the heating cavity is built into a cylindrical rod or pipe. As it's pumped into the confined cavity, the fog juice expands very suddenly, which increases the pressure inside the cavity and causes it to blast out the front of the machine, under great pressure. (150PSI or so, I would think; I've seen fog machines explode their heater assemblies.) Surrounding the heater assembly is generally an insulated box (which *always* gets really gross with leaked fog juice). The insulation is to prevent people from getting burned should they touch it - and to reduce the running time of the heater element inside the heater assembly.
The heater assembly is usually set back sufficiently far inside the nozzle that it's difficult to touch the heater assembly accidentally.
While the concentric shape of the fog machine's nozzle might lead you to believe that there's a system to draw air through the fog machine, I assure you that there isn't.
If you were to create a hole inside an existing fog machine and attempt to pump chilled air through it, I think it's very unlikely that you would manage to make fog which sinks to the ground. More likely, the fog machine's thermostat would detect that the heater assembly was cold, and would keep the heater on longer. The fog would remain at normal operating temperature as it left the nozzle - if not, there will be no fog. Most fog machines will not pump fog juice into their heater assemblies until the thermostat reports that the heater assembly is up to the correct running temperature.
The system works as follows:
[FOG JUICE BOTTLE] --> fog juice --> [FOG MACHINE] --> hot fog --> [CHILLER] --> cool fog --> [STAGE]
Do they work on servers too? (Score:4, Funny)
Fog in dorms.... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Fog in dorms.... (Score:2, Funny)
He got a misdimeanor from the fire dept. When they knocked on the door, he tried to play it off like he was in the bathroom and didn't know what had happened.
Oh, one thing: these things leave oily residue all over *everything*....
Re:Fog in dorms.... (Score:2)
That's actually something I've wondered about: Obviously they're also leaving oily residue all over the inside of your lungs. How safe are those things? At least the dry ice ones are just carbon dioxide, but the oil based ones just seem a little risky.
Re:Fog in dorms.... (Score:5, Funny)
I was doing some work for a laser light show company last year in Las Vegas. We were going to try some air effects in the huge conference room in the Paris Hotel. I was told to fill the room with fog, but no one told me how much it would take. (Apparently it takes so little that you can't even see it...)
So I ended up filling a football field sized room with fog so thick you couldn't see the walls and setting off the fire alarm in the Paris Hotel at about 2 AM.
Luckily I was just a pitiful underling, and we did have permission to use fog...
Re:Fog in dorms.... (Score:2)
dry ice (Score:4, Informative)
He obviously hasn't heard of the wonder which I like to call a "grocery store." It's sold at most supermarkets for $0.99/lb. around here...
Re:dry ice (Score:1)
Re:dry ice (Score:1)
Re:dry ice (Score:2)
Re:dry ice (Score:2)
Re:dry ice (Score:2)
It does seem sort of odd that Seattle has more dry ice suppliers than the entire state of California. Probably due to the large fishing industry here.
If you are looking for dry ice in quantity in the US or Canada look under "Dry Ice" in your yellow pages. Check several places for quantities available (wholesale dealers may have a minimum) and pricing.
www.dryiceinfo.com [dryiceinfo.com] has some information on dry ice applications and a directory of dealers.
Re:dry ice (Score:2)
Re:dry ice (Score:2)
oh? (Score:5, Funny)
Or you could just use mustard gas instead of some silly fog, that'll teach the little buggers right enough and betcha they wont come around bothering you the next year anymore.
Another technique (Score:5, Funny)
My father used to (jokingly) complain about neighborhood kids on our lawn. (There never were, which was part of the joke.) Then he would confide that he knew the perfect way to keep them off the lawn.
Land mines.
"Tough on that first kid, but they learn quickly," he'd add.
Re:Another technique (Score:2, Funny)
Another problem with dry ice... (Score:5, Funny)
RMN
~~~
Re:Another problem with dry ice... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Another problem with dry ice... (Score:3, Funny)
There are organized networks that specialize in stealing left socks out of the dryer (while drying). They tend to favor laundromats. Who knows what they'd do when they were to encounter ice.
Google Cache (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Google Cache (Score:4, Informative)
you forgot the first page.
Here are the Google cache links for fog chiller pages:
Next in the scene? (Score:5, Funny)
And gosh, come to think of it, who'd ever have thought that smoke coming out of your case was an indication of a successful mod?
Re:Next in the scene? (Score:2)
Or you could go the fog juice route; yeah grease all over your mobo, just what you need.
Re:Next in the scene? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Next in the scene? (Score:2)
Re:Next in the scene? (Score:2)
The machine shut off about 30 seconds after the ordeal when it overheated but, for that 30 seconds she was running wet...
I dried everything off, replaced the parts that blew, and she runs like a trooper!
Re:Next in the scene? (Score:2)
Took it apart- could see the burn mark. Luckily we had the parts and managed to repair it.
Dry ice? (Score:1, Redundant)
I think you're on crack. Grocery stores sell dry ice for about a dollar per pound.
Re:Dry ice? (Score:1)
alternative plans (Score:4, Informative)
but here are plans to build your own fog/smoke machine http://www.juggling.org/help/misc/fog.html [juggling.org]
Back in the day... (Score:5, Funny)
Movement Stirs up the fog (Score:4, Informative)
Packing the chiller with ice, then shoving some dry ice inside the cooling tube works a little better. The dry ice cools the fog, and the regular ice keeps the dry ice from evaporating too fast.
Re:Movement Stirs up the fog (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Movement Stirs up the fog (Score:2)
I was thinking about setting one up this weekend using dry ice and a Target fog machine...
I figure the dry ice should cool it down enough so it clings the to floor longer...
Dry Ice Fog (Score:5, Informative)
I would just like to refute the posters assertations about dry ice foggers. Firstly, dry ice is certainly NOT expensive. Prices usually fall in the $0.50 to $1.00 / lb range, depending on the form (block, pellets, etc.) and supplier. Which brings me to the second point, availability - Go to your local grocery store. If they don't have it (most in southern and western states usually will), they'll be able to tell you who will.
Once you have the dry ice (I'd suggest about 25-35 lbs. for a good, long show), it's very easy to turn it into fog. Step 1 - pour hot water over it. Step 2 - there is no step 2! There are many many pre-made machines for this purpose, such as the City Theatrical Aquafogger, which are available for rental, but it's such a simple device, anyone here should easily be able to make one on their own.
The basic things you need are as follows - a barrel - big enough to hold the dry ice, plus all the hot water that will be poured through it. A basket, to hold the dry ice in, above the level of the water. A fan and a tube, to take the resultant fog, and put it where you want it (dryer hose works very well for this). And finally, a method for pouring large amounts of very hot water over the dry ice - the faster the rate of pour, the faster the sublimation of the dry ice, and hence, the larger the volume of fog generated. For the water-pouring, something as simple as a 5-gallon pail is quite sufficient.
One down side to a dry-ice fogger, however - that 25lb load will only last about 10 minutes, and the fog only a few minutes longer than that. If the effect that you're looking for is a long-lasting, room-filling, hanging haze, then you'll be better off with an oil-based fogger. (Just avoid prolonged breathing of concentrated amounts of the fog - it's been shown to produce many respiratory ailments - and that was the professional stuff)
Re:Dry Ice Fog (Score:4, Informative)
More like "don't hold it" (Score:2)
It is more than possible to touch dry ice without "burning" yourself. In fact, you can pick it up and toss it without any problems.
My senior year in college, the Society of Physics Students put on a school-sponsored party. (Basically, they got paid to host a non-alcoholic event...)
Among the attractions were - Liquid Nitrogen ice cream (Make IC in 5 minutes or less...)
Misc. optics crap
Model of the Mars Rover
LOTS of dry ice for various demos. People were playing air hockey with a small chunk. (The sublimation gave you air hockey w/o the air table). It also makes this neat whining sound when you cut it with warm metal.
A bunch of us also played "Hot Potato" (or more appropriately, Cold Potato) with it. No burns.
Re:Dry Ice Fog (Score:2, Insightful)
That sounds pretty expensive to me. At $0.50 to $1.00 per pound, the hourly cost to fog an area is $75 to $150. Using your figures, a basic 4-hour halloween evening of fog effects could run upwards of $600!
It might be that a pound of dry ice is inexpensive, but if its used up in only 25 seconds, it adds up quick.
A dream of mine.... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:A dream of mine.... (Score:2)
I've got two words for you that will change your Haloweens forever:
LSD vapor.
dry ice (Score:5, Informative)
Re:dry ice (Score:3, Informative)
CO2 (Score:2)
If it were above the safe concentration, you'd experience grogginess, unconsciousness, and eventual death from asphyxiation.
Well
mirror (Score:5, Informative)
Hum (Score:4, Informative)
Fog + Lasers = Fun! (Score:4, Interesting)
Disclaimer: I have no affiliation with the abovementioned web site.
Warning: Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
Re:Fog + Lasers = Fun! (Score:2)
Dry ice isn't that expensive... (Score:5, Interesting)
Last halloween I bought several pounds of dry ice from a local industrial chemical supply store for about $15 total. I placed the dry ice in a cheap black 5 gallon "witches cauldron", which I got from the local Haloween store.
To create the fog, I simply placed the ice in the cauldron, and periodically added warm water when I saw trick-or-treaters. The warm water melts the ice, and you get fog.
The dry-ice provided enough fog rolling down my front steps to freak out the neighborhood kids. This fog lasted approximately 4 hours.
For added effect, I placed a couple of those green and red glow sticks inside the cauldron (Since glow sticks glow less when cold, I placed the sticks on a pedestal above the cold ice and water), replaced my porch light with a black light, and added a bunch of those green-spiderwebs from the halloween store.
This gave the whole porch a nice eerie glow, especially with the green-glow eminating from the cauldron.
Whole cost of this operation, including dry ice $15 for several pounds), cauldron ($5 at halloween store), black light ($2 at hardware store), glow sticks ($2 each) and spiderwebs ($3 a pack) was probably $25. I'm going to do the same thing this year.
Shopping! (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Shopping! (Score:2)
Re:Shopping! (Score:2)
Likewise... it's just kinda neat that lots of people are out and coming to your door. Makes the night seem very much alive, like no other holiday.
Liquid Nitrogen? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Liquid Nitrogen? (Score:3, Informative)
But yeah, don't try this at home.
Re:Liquid Nitrogen? (Score:3, Informative)
You're talking about the fogging equiment, right? Liquid nitrogen itself is, as the saying goes, cheaper than beer. It's around US$0.50 a liter... plus dewar rental fees for a container to transport the stuff around.
How the Pros do it ... (Score:2, Informative)
Bah! (Score:2)
Re:Bah! (Score:2)
Mirror (with images) (Score:3, Informative)
Dry ICE Expensive? (Score:2, Informative)
Coolest Effect (Score:2)
The blocks of dry ice we had were quite large, large enough to take the full blades of the replica swords we had (and convenient to run through, at least compared to the consequences of trying on customers...). If we left the blades in the ice for a couple of minutes they'd be completely coated with a layer. When you took the blade out you get a small scale fog effect coming off the sword - very impressive if you've always dreamed of having an enchanted sword (reality has always let me down on this).
A little experimentation showed this to work on just about anything (coolest was the swords though). A black leather glove was also effective (up to the point fragments started falling inside
Already built one, and dry ice issues... (Score:3, Informative)
On the subject of dry ice, there are several posts talking about dry ice being "cheap" at $1 a pound. Sure, $1 isn't very expensive, until you realize that in order to have party/stage effects, and fog for the duration of an evening of trick-or-treaters or a party, you're going to need at least 100lbs of the stuff. At that, it's not even a thick/can't see through it amount, it's just the "creepy fog" effect. As ShinmaWa noted [slashdot.org], you'd need upwards of hundreds of pounds for a true movie like effect. Sufficently chilled fog through a cooler (while not as think as dry ice fog) will run you less than $20 in fog juice.
I don't know about you, but spending hundreds on one night of fog is expensive for me, and is probably expensive for most people.
Better Idea For Low-Lying Fog (Score:4, Informative)
The "classic" fog chiller, using coolers, fans and regular ice is a good start, but misses the key points for cold environments.
In order to make a thick, low-lying fog using a cheap fog machine, you need to do two things (particularly here in Canada, where we often get Halloween close to freezing):
1) Humidify the fog (often forgotten)
2) Cool the fog below the ambient temperature
The classic technique accomplishes both of these by passing the fog through a cooler of "wet" ice. As my friends in New England and Minnesota know, this don't do squat when the ambient temperature is around freezing
So
But, remember:
1) Don't cuddle with the dry ice
2) Don't use any of this to cool a processor
Dry Ice V. Chillers (Score:3, Insightful)
It's awkward to store, and will sublime even in a freezer. The room you store it in needs to be ventilated or dangerous levels of C02 can build up.
It's hard to control. Most people just pour hot water onto it. There are some better commercial devices that heat water or whatever, but it is hard to turn the fog on and off.
It stays for a long time. Quite often people want the low lying fog to go before the next scene. Dry ice based fog remains for a long time.
Fog chillers however don't have these problems. Yes, the fluid for them costs a fair bit (up to £60 for 5 litres), but you can control the flow, density, and type of fog. Some machines will do chilled fog, smoke, and haze (very low level smoke, used to show beams of light). You can sit at the other end of the room and control it remotely using DMX. It disperses very quickly as well, so when you kill the machine, the fog is gone very very quickly.
Saying this, there are now machines that use C02 cylinders which solve a lot of the problems of solid dry ice.
Dry ice is also better for on stage effects (witches cauldron) and practical jokes. We tipped a lot of C02 pellets down a toilet once, and found it quite funny when all the other toilets in the block started bubbling and smoking.
Re:Dry Ice V. Chillers (Score:2)
dry ice is easy to get! (Score:3, Informative)
The only difficulty in getting the dry ice is that you need to be 18. They check IDs, generally speaking.
See, dry ice can also be used to make very very loud explosive devices. Take your average two-liter bottle, fill it about 20% of the way with warm water, add a few chunks of dry ice, screw the cap on. When the dry ice hits the warm water, it begins to turn into a gas. Eventually this gas buildup will cause the bottle to explode.
I wonder if dry ice is ever mentioned in the patriot act...
Re:dry ice is easy to get! (Score:2)
A few years back, he thought it may even be a 'cool' idea to toss a few chunks of dry ice into a super soaker. Long range and continuous stream... for the first 20 seconds or so. Then, it slowed (freezing the internal valves) and only took another second or two to explode.
He's still got the scars from having the emergency room pull the plastic from his arm... but even he can't tell the story without laughing.
Fog Juice (Score:2)
Easier option (Score:2, Informative)
Cheaper Cooler (Score:2, Informative)
The chiller can be built very inexpensively (major cost is the sacrifice of a largish cooler)
I built one of these for my high school theater. I used a cheaper ($3 - $5) plain Styrofoam cooler. It won't hold up as long as the nice plastic/Styrofoam cooler in the article, but works just as well for the yearly Halloween party.
Re:Possible applications (Score:2)
Re:THE TRUTH ABOUT HALLOWEEN (Score:3, Interesting)
If you're going the fundamentalist route, then you might want to boycott Christmas, too - Jesus wasn't born on December 25th - this date was used as a convenience, because it coincided with many non-Christian solstice festivals. (It made it easier to convert the heathens if you could show them how similar your religion was to theirs - not too much change is needed).
I'm just suggesting that for holidays, 'sometimes a cigar is just a cigar'. Relax, and have fun. I can guarantee you that any children out there who turn to Satanism aren't influenced by Halloween.
Re:THE TRUTH ABOUT HALLOWEEN (Score:2, Informative)
Yes, it is kind of funny how the replies go up in their default moderation points.
Celtic origins of Halloween (w/Bibliography) (Score:4, Informative)
copyright © 1989, Rowan Moonstone
In recent years, there have been a number of pamphlets and books put out be various Christian organizations dealing with the origins of modern-day Halloween customs.
Being a Witch myself, and a student of the ancient Celts from whom we get this holiday, I have found these pamphlets woefully inaccurate and poorly researched. A typical example of this information is contained in the following quote from the pamphlet entitled "What's Wrong with Halloween?" by Russell K. Tardo. "The Druids believed that on October 31st, the last day of the year by the ancient Celtic calendar, the lord of death gathered together the souls of the dead who had been made to enter bodies of animals, and decided what forms they should take the following year. Cats were held sacred because it was believed that they were once human beings
In an effort to correct some of this erroneous information, I have researched the religious life of the ancient Celtic peoples and the survivals of that religious life in modern times. Listed below are some of the most commonly asked questions concerning the origins and customs of Halloween. Following the questions is a lengthy bibliography where the curious reader can go to learn more about this holiday than space in this small pamphlet permits.
1.
Where does Halloween come from?
Our modern celebration of Halloween is a descendent of the ancient Celtic festival called "Samhain". The word is pronounced "sow-in", with "sow" rhyming with "cow".
2.
What does "Samhain" mean?
The "Irish-English Dictionary" published by the Irish Texts Society defines the word as follows: "Samhain, All Hallowtide, the feast of the dead in Pagan and Christian times, signalling the close of harvest and the initiation of the winter season, lasting till May, during which troop swere quartered. Fairies were imagined as particularly active at this season. From it, the half-year is reckoned. Also called Feile Moingfinne (Snow Goddess)."2 The "Scottish Gaelic Dictionary" defines it as "Hallowtide. The Feast of All Souls. Sam + Fuin = end of summer."3 Contrary to the information published by many organizations, there is no archaeological or literary evidence to indicate that Samhain was a deity. Eliade's "Encyclopedia of Religion" states as follows: "The Eve and day of Samhain were characterized as a time when the barriers between the human and supernatural worlds were broken... Not a festival honoring any particular Celtic deity, Samhain acknowledged the entire spectrum of nonhuman forces that roamed the earth during that period."4 The Celtic Gods of the dead were Gwynn ap Nudd for the British and Arawn for the Welsh. The Irish did not have a "Lord of Death" as such.
3.
Why was the end of summer of significance to the Celts?
The Celts were a pastoral people as opposed to an agricultural people. The end of summer was significant to them because it meant the time of year when the structure of their lives changed radically. The cattle were brought down from the summer pastures in the hills and the people were gathered into the houses for the long winter nights of story-telling and handicrafts.
4.
What does it have to do with a festival of the dead?
The Celts believed that when people died, they went to a land of eternal youth and happiness called Tír na nOg. They did not have the concept of Heaven and Hell that the Christian Church later brought into the land. The dead were sometimes believed to be dwelling with the Fairy Folk, who lived in the numerous mounds, or sidhe, (pronounced "shee" or "sh-thee") that dotted the Irish and Scottish countryside. Samhain was the new year to the Celts. In the Celtic belief system, turning points such as the time between one day and the next, the meeting of sea and shore or the turning of one year into the next, were seen as magickal times. The turning of the year was the most potent of these times. This was the time when the "veil between the worlds" was at its thinnest and the living could communicate with their beloved dead in Tír na nOg.
5.
What about the aspects of "evil" that we associate with the night today?
The Celts did not have demons and devils in their belief system. The fairies, however, were often considered hostile and dangerous to humans because they were seen as being resentful of man taking over their land. On this night, they would sometimes trick humans into becoming lost in the fairy mounds where they would be trapped forever. After the coming of the Christians to the Celtic lands, certain of the folk saw the fairies as those angels who had sided neither with God or with Lucifer in their dispute and thus were condemned to walk the Earth until Judgment Day.5 In addition to the fairies, many humans were abroad on this night causing mischief. Since this night belonged neither to one year or the other, Celtic folk believed that chaos reigned and the people would engage in "horseplay and practical jokes".6 This also served as a final outlet for high spirits before the gloom of winter set in.
6.
What about "trick or treat"?
During the course of these hijinks, many of the people would imitate the fairies and go from house to house begging for treats. Failure to supply the treats would usually result in practical jokes being visited on the owner of the house. Since the fairies were abroad on this night, an offering of food or milk was frequently left for them on the steps of the house so the homeowner could gain the blessing of the "good folk" for the coming year. Many of the households would also leave out a "dumb supper" for the spirits of the departed.7 The folks who were abroad in the night imitating the fairies would sometimes carry turnips carved to represent faces. This is the origin of our modern Jack-o-lantern.
7.
Was there any special significance of cats to the Celts?
According to Katherine Briggs in "Nine Lives: Cats in Folklore", the Celts associated cats with the Cailleach Bheur, or Blue Hag of Winter. "She was a nature goddess, who herded the deer as her cattle. The touch of her staff drove the leaves off the trees and brought snow and harsh weather."8 Dr. Anne Ross addresses the use of divine animals in her book "Pagan Celtic Britain" and has this to say about cats: "Cats do not play a large role in Celtic mythology
8.
Was this also a religious festival?
Yes. Celtic religion was very closely tied to the Earth. The great legends are concerned with momentous happenings which took place around the time of Samhain. Many of the great battles and legends of kings and heroes center on this night. Many of the legends concern the promotion of fertility of the Earth and the insurance of the continuance of the lives of the people through the dark winter season.
9.
How was the religious festival observed?
Unfortunately, we know very little about that. W.G. Wood-Martin, in his book "Traces of the Elder Faiths of Ireland", states: "There is comparatively little trace of the religion of the Druids now discoverable, save in the folklore of the peasantry and the references relative to it that occur in ancient and authentic Irish manuscripts are, as far as present appearances go, meager and insufficient to support anything like a sound theory for full development of the ancient religion."10 The Druids were the priests of the Celtic peoples. They passed on their teachings by oral tradition instead of committing them to writing, so when they perished, most of their religious teachings were lost. We do know that this festival was characterized as one of the four great "Fire Festivals" of the Celts. Legends tell us that on this night all the hearth fires in Ireland were extinguished and then re-lit from the central fire of the Druids at Tlachtga, 12 miles from the royal hill of Tara. This fire was kindled from "need fire" which had been generated by the friction of rubbing two sticks together, as opposed to more conventional methods (such as the flint-and-steel method) common in those days.11 The extinguishing of the fires symbolized the "dark half" of the year, and the re-kindling from the Druidic fires was symbolic of the returning life hoped for and brought about through the ministrations of the priesthood.
10.
What about sacrifices?
Animals were certainly killed at this time of year. This was the time to "cull" from the herds those animals which were not desired for breeding purposes for the next year. Most certainly, some of these would have been done in a ritual manner for the use of the priesthood.
11.
Were humans sacrificed?
Scholars are sharply divided on this account, with about half believing that it took place and half doubting its veracity. Caesar and Tacitus certainly tell tales of the human sacrifices of the Celts, but Nora Chadwick points out in her book "The Celts" that "it is not without interest that the Romans themselves had abolished human sacrifice not long before Caesar's time, and references to the practice among various barbarian peoples have certain overtones of self-righteousness. There is little direct archaeological evidence relevant to Celtic sacrifice."12 Indeed, there is little reference to this practice in Celtic literature. The only surviving story echoes the tale of the Minotaur in Greek legend: the Fomorians, a race of evil giants said to inhabit portions of Ireland before the coming of the Tuatha Dé Danann (or "people of the Goddess Danu"), demanded the sacrifice of 2/3 of the corn, milk and first-born children of the Fir Bolg, or human inhabitants of Ireland. The Tuatha Dé Danann ended this practice in the second battle of Moy Tura, which incidentally, took place on Samhain. It should be noted, however, that this story appears in only one (relatively modern) manuscript from Irish literature, and that manuscript, the "Dinnsenchus", is known to be a collection of fables. According to P.W. Joyce in Vol. 2 of his "Social History of Ancient Ireland", "Scattered everywhere through our ancient literature, both secular and ecclesiastical, we find abundant descriptions and details of the rites and superstitions of the pagan Irish; and in no place -- with this single exception -- do we find a word or hint pointing to human sacrifice to pagan gods or idols."13
12.
What other practices were associated with this season?
Folk tradition tells us of many divination practices associated with Samhain. Among the most common were divinations dealing with marriage, weather and the coming fortunes for the year. These were performed via such methods as ducking for apples and apple peeling. Ducking for apples was a marriage divination. The first person to bite an apple would be the first to marry in the coming year. Apple peeling was a divination to see how long your life would be. The longer the unbroken apple peel, the longer your life was destined to be.14 In Scotland, people would place stones in the ashes of the hearth before retiring for the night. Anyone whose stone had been disturbed during the night was said to be destined to die during the coming year.
13.
How did these ancient Celtic practices come to America?
When the potato crop in Ireland failed, many of the Irish people, modern descendants of the Celts, emigrated to America bringing with them their folk practices which were remnants of the Celtic festival observances.
14.
We in America view this as a harvest festival. Did the Celts also view it as such?
Yes. The Celts had 3 harvests. Aug 1, or Lammas, was the first harvest, when the first fruits were offered to the Gods in thanks. The Fall Equinox was the true harvest. This was when the bulk of the crops would be brought in. Samhain was the final harvest of the year. Anything left on the vines or in the fields after this date was considered blasted by the fairies ("pu'ka") and unfit for human consumption.
15.
Does anyone today celebrate Samhain as a religious observance?
Yes. Many followers of various pagan religions, such as Druidism and Wicca, observe this day as a religious festival. They view it as a memorial day for their dead friends and family, much as the mainstream US does the national Memorial Day holiday in May. It is still a night to practice various forms of divination concerning future events. It is also considered a time to wrap up old projects, take stock of one's life and initiate new projects for the coming year. As the winter season is approaching, it is a good time to do studying on research projects, and also a good time to begin handwork such as sewing, leatherworking, woodworking etc., for Yule gifts later in the year. And while "satanists" are using this holiday as their own, this is certainly not the only example of a holiday (or even religious symbols) being "borrowed" from an older religion by a newer one.
16.
Does this involve human or animal sacrifice?
Absolutely NOT! Hollywood to the contrary, blood sacrifice is not practiced by modern followers of Wicca or Druidism. There may be some people who think they are practicing Wicca by performing blood sacrificing but this is not condoned by reputable practitioners of today's neo-Pagan religions.
FOOTNOTES:
1. Tardo, Russell K., "What's Wrong with Halloween?", Faithful Word Publishers, (Arabi, LA, undated), p. 2
2. Rev. Patrick Dinneen, "An Irish-English Dictionary", (Dublin, 1927), p. 937
3. Malcolm MacLennan, "A Pronouncing and Etymological Dictionary of the Gaelic Language", (Aberdeen, 1979), p. 279
4. "The Encyclopedia of Religion", ed. Mircea Eliade, "Halloween" by Primiano, (New York, 1987) pp. 176-177
5. Alwyn & Brinley Rees, "Celtic Heritage", (New York, 1961), p. 90
6. W.G. Wood-Martin, "Traces of the Elder Faiths of Ireland", Vol. II, (Port Washington, NY, 1902), p. 5
7. Kevin Danaher, "The Year in Ireland", (Cork, 1972), p. 214
8. Katherine Briggs, "Nine Lives: Cats in Folklore", (London,1980), p.5
9. Dr. Anne Ross, "Pagan Celtic Britain", (London,1967), p. 301-302
10. Wood-Martin, op. cit., p. 249
11. Rees & Rees, op. cit., p. 90
12. Nora Chadwick, "The Celts", (Harmondsworth, 1982), p. 151
13. P.W. Joyce, "A Social History of Ancient Ireland", Vol.2, (New York, 1968), pp. 282-283
14. Madeleine Pelner Cosman, "Medieval Holidays and Festivals", (New York, 1981), p. 81
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
* Bord, Janet & Colin, "The Secret Country", (London: Paladin Books, 1978)
* Briggs, Katherine, "Nine Lives, Cats in Folklore", (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1980)
* Chadwick, Nora, "The Celts", (Harmondsworth, England: Penguin Books, 1982)
* Coglan, Ronan, "A Dictionary of Irish Myth and Legend", (Dublin: 1979)
* Cosman, Madeleine Pelner, "Medieval Holidays and Festivals", (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1981)
* Danaher, Kevin, "The Year in Ireland", (Cork, Ireland: The Mercier Press, 1972)
* Dinneen, Rev. Patrick S., M.A., "An Irish-English Dictionary", (Dublin: The Irish Texts Society, 1927)
* Joyce, P.W., "A Social History of Ancient Ireland", (New York: Benjamin Blom, 1968)
* MacCana, Proinsias, "Celtic Mythology", (London: The Hamlyn Publishing Group Limited, 1970)
* MacLennan, Malcolm, "A pronouncing and Etymological Dictionary of the Gaelic Language", (Aberdeen: Acair and Aberdeen University Press, 1979)
* MacNeill, Maire', "The Festival of Lughnasa", (Dublin: Comhairle Bhealoideas Eireann, 1982)
* Powell, T.G.E., "The Celts", (New York: Thames & Hudson, 1980)
* Primiano, Leonard Norman, "Halloween" from "The Encyclopedia of Religion", ed. Mircea Eliade, (New York, McMillan Publiching Co., 1987)
* Rees, Alwyn and Brinley, "Celtic Heritage, Ancient Tradition in Ireland and Wales", (New York: Thames & Hudson, 1961)
* Ross, Dr. Anne, "Pagan Celtic Britain", (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1967)
* Sharkey, John, "Celtic Mysteries", (New York: Thames & Hudson, 1975)
* Spence, Lewis, "British Fairy Origins", (Wellingborough: Aquarian Press, 1946)
* Squire, Charles, "Celtic Myth & Legend, Poetry & Romance", (New York: Newcastle Publishing Co., Inc., 1975)
* Toulson, Shirley, "The Winter Solstice", (London: Jill Norman & Hobhouse, Ltd., 1981)
* Wood-Martin, W.G., "Traces of the Elder Faiths of Ireland", Vols. I & II, (Port Washington, NY: Kennikat Press, 1902)
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Re:Call the Fire Dept. (Score:2)
If people call the fire department when they see smoke coming from a chimney, imagine what will happen if it's coming from windows or something.
Re:Call the Fire Dept. (Score:2)
Chimney fires are generally best indicated when the flames shoot out of the top of the chimney or when the homeowner hears that nice roaring sound of air being sucked at incredible rates through their stove. It's a very odd experience.
Re:Call the Fire Dept. (Score:2)
I kept expecting the vibration to shake the chimney (and part of the house) apart, but it was still intact by the time I graduated...