Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!att!cbnews!military
From: henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: Aluminum burning
Message-ID: <1990Jul19.030620.29130@cbnews.att.com>
Date: 19 Jul 90 03:06:20 GMT
Sender: military@cbnews.att.com (William B. Thacker)
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories
Lines: 22
Approved: military@att.att.com



From: henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer)
>From: wilson@b11.ingr.com (Jon Wilson)
>Thermite is an interesting substance. Half-and-half powdered aluminum and
>iron oxide (rust), ignited by a bit of magnesium ribbon, makes for a rather
>spectacular lab experiment...

If you're satisfied with only a transient ignition, there's a simpler way.
Take a metal bar.  Wrap aluminum foil around one end.  Pick it up by the
other end, and strike a hard glancing blow against a rusty surface.  You
get a small bang and flash as a thermite reaction ignites for an instant
at the point of impact.

Do not try this in an inflammable atmosphere!  For a while, there was a
belief that mines with flammable-gas problems should use light-alloy
tools to avoid striking sparks.  Accidental explosions were reduced
considerably when this little demonstration convinced them to switch
back to steel tools.

                                         Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
                                          henry@zoo.toronto.edu   utzoo!henry