Russell,

On Sat, 02 Apr 2005 21:10:11 +1200, Russell McMahon 
wrote:

> >> ("Loudest noise I ever heard")
> 
> > I'm not surprised - just mixing liquid oxygen and
> > flourine could ruin your whole day!  :-#
> 
> Fluorine.
> Flourine is probably a kitchen ingredient :-)

Oops!  Well there's nothing like self-raising the tone 
of the place...

I once saw an excellent discourse at the Royal 
Institution on Fluorine with various demonstrations, 
including just filling a baloon with it, then bursting 
same (from behind a screen :-).  An impressive 
explosion/fireball just from reacting with the air!

> That's actually a quote by Scott Crossfield (6000+ 
Google hits)(first man to fly Mach 2) when the X15 he 
was sitting in in a static test had it's engine bay 
enveloped in a most impressive fireball. No damage to 
pilot. X15 not so happy.

Ah - I wonder if he also considered: "Pilot to wear 
brown trousers for future tests"?  ;-)

Cheers,


Howard Winter
St.Albans, England


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