walkman timebomb

[FelixAntonius]

On the subject of oxygen, I can remember attending the post-mortem of a tramp who had tried to smoke while he was on oxygen. Charred all the way down the lining of the oesophagus & into the lungs.:cross eye

THEN, the next week had another bloke who got his misses to bring in a cigarette holder, so he could stick it through one of the holes in a Venti mask!!!!

When we noticed him, the cigarette was burning down like a Roman Candle & he was bitching that the tobaco was too dry & they must have sold his misses old fags!!!! Not that he was in an oxygen rich environment.

 

[escargot]

"Stop that - it's not clever and it's not funny!"

and so on....
I was careful not to use ANY of my parents' catchphrases on my kids as I despised the way I was brought up. I decided early on that instead of saying 'NO!' I would ask, 'Why?' and I really think it worked. My kids would politely explain their obnoxious behaviour to me and I would listen solemnly, while inside I'd be cracking up with laughter.
Thus-
'Well, I wanted to play with the fire engine, so I pushed Kid B off it.'
'Was that kind?'
'No, it was unkind and Kid B cried.'
'What do you think we could do now?'
'I could hug Kid B and we could share the fire engine.'

I know it sounds like cr*p but it was the exact opposite of my own (violent) upbringing and my 4 kids are great.

 

[Melf]

the reason why people do strage thins like mixing battrys is cos its called the "lets see wot happens wen i mix item a with item b" thery or the other one is "this sign says wet piant. lets touch it" thoery for more info read "discworld novels"

carol re:- things not to say to kids

dont come running to me if you break your legs

 

[Anonymous]

I just shove in any batteries that are kicking about.
No explosions!

Its never happened to me......so it cant be true......hehe!

 

[Anonymous]

The fireman who told me about the exploding gas bottles had been there (Rhyl, N. Wales among other venues) and it's a common danger. Not seen it on TV yet!

There was a spectacular (and much-trailered) London's Burning episode with just this scenario in it. I think it was a fire at a warehouse or factory and I remember the characters dodging out of the way of flying propane bottles.

 

[Yithian]

mmm

 

[Onix_Martinez]

Completely OT, anyone ever used the batteries they sell in the poundshops that are a mere one English pound for 16 (yes! sixteen!). Needless to say my walkman ran for approximately twenty minutes before they died.

They sell Chinese batteries here that usually last for a couple of hours and then leak acid all over the place. They are really cheap, like fifty cents of a dollar for a package of four. I guess you get what you pay for.

 

[taras]

The batteries that came with my GameBoy were of the cheap Made in China variety, but they lasted for more than a month before the low power indicator came on. On that basis the nice Duracells I put in a few days ago will last 6 months

 

[Mighty_Emperor]

PRETORIA

Computer explodes burning teenager

Posted Fri, 17 Jan 2003

The teenage daughter of a top foreign affairs department official was being treated in a Pretoria hospital for second degree burns suffered when her laptop computer's battery pack exploded.

Fifteen-year-old Nikita Sooklal is the youngest child of the department's deputy director-general responsible for the Middle East and Asia, Dr Anil Sooklal.

Sooklal told Sapa that his wife and daughter were at their Pretoria East home on Tuesday around 3.20pm while he was at the office.

"My daughter had switched on the laptop and was looking for a website about Macbeth, her school set-work, and my wife was upstairs.

"Suddenly there was a very loud bang and my daughter began screaming. My wife rushed downstairs and found Nikita's shirt was on fire.

"She immediately took her upstairs and stood her under a cold shower as her skin was already blistering. When my wife went back downstairs she found the sofa was alight and the flames were spreading and leaping as high as the ceiling," Sooklal said.

"It would appear the battery pack had exploded and disintegrated and set fire to the room."

The computer, a Dell 'Inspiron' issued to Dr Sooklal by the foreign affairs department some 18 months ago has been removed for forensic testing by a specially appointed police task team and the results are expected before the weekend.

http://iafrica.com/news/sa/3030.htm

 

[Anonymous]

Notes on Battery Chemistry

Actually, recently i've noticed that the vast majority of battery-powered items I have purchased recently, have come with extensive 'battery safety' literature, sometimes as much as a whole side of A5.

They can be dangerous things, depending on the chemistry.
The advent of equipment for use in the home with large current demands (eg GSM transmission in mobile phones) has meant that the more dangerous battery technologies (Lithium, Manganese Dioxide) have started to find there way into our homes.

Batteries that can deliver high currents have very low internal impedances. This means that, should a short-circuit occur, the current flow will be very high, and can cause a dramatic catasthrophic failure of the cell (e.g. rupture/explosion).

The other thing to bear in mind is that different battery chemistries have different discharge characteristics.
Alkaline cells ('normal' household batteries) begin to drop in voltage in a linear manner as soon as discharge begins, whereas Litihium and Nickel-Cadmium chemistries drop very little in voltage until the end of their life.
This means that if you happen to have a device which contains alkaline batteries in parallel, and you introduce a different chemistry battery, you may end up forcing the alkaline cell to charge.

Primary cells (non-rechargeable) do not like being recharged, as they have no means to re-combine gasous by-products created by charging. Secondary (rechargable) batteries contain clever chemicals to recombine gas into useful ionic compounds.
This is why alkalines can explode if forced to charge.

In some of our products at work, we use Manganese Dioxide batteries. These are deadly !, the briefest of short-circuits between terminals causes a thermal-runaway inside the battery, and they explode violently in a shower of toxic molten metal.

You can see from all this why the people who make battery powered devices are so worried about the H & S implications.
You can also see how stories of exploding mobile phones and lap-tops come about, manufacturing defects and faults within charging/regulation circuitry can have some very interesting results depending on what battey chemistry is being used.

You may be comforted to know that battery manufacturers are constantly working on new chemistries to make their products smaller and more powerfull.
I think this, combined with the continiung massive increase in the use of portable products, will lead to more and more 'my phone exploded' stories.

Cheers

 

[intaglio]

Thanks for that, joester

 

[ElishevaBarsabe]

Re: Notes on Battery Chemistry

They can be dangerous things, depending on the chemistry.

I'd best remove my hearing aids, then. Nasty to think of them right up along side one's head like that.

 

[GeorgiePin]

"You'll have someone's eye out with that!"


That's not funny Carole because I almost had someone's eye out once. I think it was with a stick.

 

[taras]

That's not funny Carole because I almost had someone's eye out once. I think it was with a stick.

And here's me thinking it was just an urban legend...

 

[Anonymous]

And here's me thinking it was just an urban legend...

Many years ago, I had the company's safety director sitting in my lab shooting rubber bands at me (I deserved it). I had just started to wave my goggles about and complain facetiously that he was going to 'put an eye out' when lo and behold, he shot one directly into my eye. It didn't do any permanent damage, but I had much fun at his expense all the same.

 

[liveinabin]

I knew someone who took his own eye out. He was pulling out a nail or something with a sett of pliers and the nail gave all of a sudden. The pliers came towards his eye at a rate of knots and stuck right in! Eye gone!

 

[GeorgiePin]

And here's me thinking it was just an urban legend...

It definately isn't eg Battle of Hastings. They were Harold's last words.