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Brainwave - feel free to expand on it.

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Bushwhacker

Bushwhacker

Banned
Jun 26, 2008
3,882
8
Dorset
:confused:I'm not sure if this is a dumb idea or not, but I just had a brainwave and thought I'd just get it down without expanding further.

I remember in science class that we did an experiment on photosynthesis with pond weed whereby we had some submerged in water, exposed it to light and collected the oxygen bubbles in an upturned beaker. This was then used to ignite a smouldering splint of wood.

Could this be elaborated on to aid the lighting of a fire in the field?

Like I said, just a brainwave. :dunno:
 
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Bushwhacker said:
wattsy: or you could just blow on it?
Reply: Blowing on the wood splint would not have re-ignited it.

bushwacker bob: You don't remember how many days the beaker was there before you had sufficient oxygen then?
Reply: Good point. Come to think of it, it was an upturned funnel with a test tube over it. 'Twas a long time ago!
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They're only jealous because they didn't think of it first. So am I. Keep working on it, there has to be something useful in there somewhere for us.

Now we just need to figure out a way of answering the critics. I'm thinking along the lines of floating a polythene sheet on the surface of a stream round the back here, there's a lot of weed and you can see the bubbles any time, but when it's sunny it's amazing how many bubbles there are.
 
Sometimes you have to let an idea go.

To quote Dr Johnson: it's like putting wheels on a tomato - time-consuming and completely pointless.
 
Using a natural resource as a means of ignition isn't so crazy.
By that standard, producing amadou or making a bow drill is just as pointless and time consuming.
 
Bushwhacker said:
Using a natural resource as a means of ignition isn't so crazy.
By that standard, producing amadou or making a bow drill is just as pointless and time consuming.
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I think you would have more luck/success if you try to collect naturally occurring methane ("swamp gas") out of marshy waters as an aid in spark-based firelighting with flint and steel (not a ferrocerium rod, for these can set virtually anything alight). Tinder for flint and steel is much more critical and normally needs pre-made or earlier collected material (charcloth/amadou/chaga). In theory you could ignite sub-ideal tinder with a flint & steel in the presence of methane.

Cheers,

Tom
 
Bushwhacker said:
Blowing on the wood splint would not have re-ignited it.



Good point. Come to think of it, it was an upturned funnel with a test tube over it. 'Twas a long time ago!
Click to expand...

wasn't on about the splint chum was on about the fire. i can't see how lugging around a container of o2 to help light fire's is worth it when you can just blow on it with the same effect
 
Bushwhacker said:
Using a natural resource as a means of ignition isn't so crazy.
By that standard, producing amadou or making a bow drill is just as pointless and time consuming.
Click to expand...

Pay no attention to the naysayers. Crazy it might be, but crazy ideas sometimes work! Let me cite an example:

Suppose you have a waterfall. Suppose further that you make bubbles in the water before it goes over the fall. Suppose yet further that at the top of the fall the water (or perhaps just some of it) runs into some sort of a pipe which is more-or-less vertical, then at the bottom of the fall it turns 90 degrees to horizontal, and from there it passes under a closed chamber, and on along the pipe some distance to eventually squirt out of the end of the pipe -- under considerable pressure, the height of the waterfall providing the pressure.

As the water flows through the horizontal pipe, the bubbles in the water rise to the surface. When they reach the chamber, they rise into that, and (much to the surprise of everyone reading this crazy scheme) it fills up with compressed air which is easily tapped just by drilling a hole in the chamber and fixing a spigot to it. This method of supplying free compressed air was used from about the early seventeenth century, well before the invention of electrically powered prime movers and pumps, for example in forges. It even powered the first electricity generation plant in Paris:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trompe

Free compressed oxygen anyone?

I'm still with you on this one.
 
wattsy said:
wasn't on about the splint chum was on about the fire. i can't see how lugging around a container of o2 to help light fire's is worth it when you can just blow on it with the same effect
Click to expand...

I wasn't intending for it to be carried around or stored, just used in situ with simple items.
 
So, further to ged's waterfall compressor, it would seen logical that all you'd need to do to collect compressed o2 is to trickle your pondweed generated gas through some water before running the water through a gravity powered compressor. It actually all seems like fairly low level science, some medium level civil engineering, and probably some pretty advanced bushcraft skills. Good stuff
 
John Fenna said:
Confused? - what is wrong with simple tried abd tested ideas...
Click to expand...

What's wrong with trying new ones? I like to play around with stuff.

durulz said:
Very true.

But that doesn't change the simple fact that the vast majority of crazy ideas are just that - crazy.
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I design and fit critical components for the hydropower sector, all of them bespoke, so the 'It'll never work' comments are water off a ducks back to me.

I've heard it all before and I'm still in a job!



As stated in the first post, the idea was just as a building block that someone else might have wanted to add to.
 
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