Date: Mon Mar 16 14:15:10 2009
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Author: Richard Heckathorn
Subject: Re: Ruben's tube and safety
For an explosion to take place the correct
percentage of air-propane ration must be present.
Us old times who had cars with carburetors had to
make sure the air-gas ratio was correct. And when
we went to say Denver from lower altitudes, an
adjustment must be made for the car to run well.
Many of you may have taken a Charlie Chip can,
drilled a 1/4 inch hole on the side of the can and
one at the center of the lid. Then put the nozzle
of the natural gas get into the bottom hole and
fill the can with gas. Then light the gas coming
out of the top of the can. About 8 to 10 minutes
the lid would blow off when the air-gas mixture
was the right ratio.
In operating the Ruben tube I light the gas when
it begins coming out. I then shut it down by
turning off the gas. At no time is there a
condition inside the tube when there is the
correct ratio of air-gas mixture to cause an
explosion when a flame is present.
In the Charlie Chip can demo, one can see the
flame go down and actually go down into the can
just before the explosion. The small openings in
the tube, in my opinion will not allow this to
Now what say you to my thoughts? Any errors?
Thus I operate the tube with no thought of a
condition to be present to cause an explosion.
Helping teachers who facilitate, motivating
students who learn.
Dick Heckathorn 14665 Pawnee Trail Middleburg
Hts, OH 44130 440-826-0834
Adjunct Physics Teacher - Baldwin Wallace College
Physics is learning how to communicate with ones
environment so that it will talk back.
From firstname.lastname@example.org Mon Mar 16 14:15:10 2009