Earth batteries

Comments

  • DfgDfg Admin
    edited July 2010
    Wow, I never heard of that before. Thanks for sharing it. I wonder if someone did a documentary on it. If this works I might be able to try it here.
  • KatzenklavierKatzenklavier Regular
    edited July 2010
    Yeah, i've been thinking of doing it too, but i'd need a zinc pipe. Copper pipe is easy to find, but idk about zinc. Glavanized would work, but not for long.
  • DaktologistDaktologist Global Moderator
    edited July 2010
    if you could find a pure magnesium rod it would work really well but finding one would be near impossible unfortunately
  • OnesanOnesan Acolyte
    edited July 2010
    if you could find a pure magnesium rod it would work really well but finding one would be near impossible unfortunately

    depending on your skills and willingness to commit crime, it should be reasonable to steal a large quantity of sacrificial anodes used in boats or propane tanks, although most are zinc so you would need to know what your looking for, and when i was young my pyromaniac of a uncle used to grind chainsaw chassis with a grinding wheel fitted with a catch bag to get magnesium powder, which eventually went into a cut in half divers tank and a match thrown in it.


    googled casting magnesium, seems quite doable, and potentially quite entertaining

    EDIT, apparently some types of thermal lance use magnesium rods to increase heat output, that might be a off the shelf part for you without all the explosion hazards of making your own rods


    From: [email protected] (Doug White)
    Newsgroups: rec.crafts.metalworking
    Subject: Re: Casting magnesium
    Date: Wed, 11 Mar 1998 13:23:24 GMT

    In article <[email protected]>, [email protected] (Jeff DelPapa) wrote:
    >In article <[email protected]>,
    >Gary <[email protected]> wrote:
    >>Possible to cast magnesium in a home foundry?
    >>
    >>If not, how is it done commercially?
    >>
    >
    >Got a fireworks license? I have tried a lot of dumb things in my day,
    >but I draw the line at liquid magnesium. If I had some overwhelming
    >reason to try it, I would try to melt and pour in a vacuum, or at
    >least a box full of argon.
    >
    >From what I hear, casting magnesium is an inexact science, and every
    >now and then something explodes, so you have to have a foundry built
    >to take it. And even when it doesn't explode, uniformity is hard to
    >come by.
    >
    >The only use I have found to date for magneisum is as a fuse for
    >thermite. I pretty much intend to keep it that way.

    First of all, magnesium doesn't 'explode', it just burns like hell. It
    is, in a manner of speaking, possible to do this in a small foundry, but
    only if you like excitement. I've seen it done by accident in my junior
    high school. We would get our aluminum for castings from the local
    surplus yard, and one day a sizeable amount of magnesium got into the mix
    by mistake. I have no idea how much of the pot was magnesium, but once
    it melted, it caught on fire in the crucible. They managed to get the
    crucible out & pour the stuff into ingots, which cooled it down to the
    point where it would no longer burn. The intense white flames faded the
    color from the walls in that corner of the room. They used to be pale
    yellow, and until they repainted, were very white. I also seem to recall
    that the crucible was spitting little bits of flaming material during the
    process, and there were little zorch marks all over the place.
    Fortunately, no one was hurt. I don't know how much worse it might have
    been if there had only been pure magnesium in the pot. I'm assuming that
    there was at least some aluminum in there with it. The resulting ingots
    were quite light, but porous & brittle.

    Doug White
  • KatzenklavierKatzenklavier Regular
    edited July 2010
    I oddly enough have a magnesium rod.
  • FrYFrY Regular
    edited July 2010
    Reading about stuff like this makes me think cultures like egypt had battery potential.
  • KatzenklavierKatzenklavier Regular
    edited July 2010
    FrY wrote: »
    Reading about stuff like this makes me think cultures like egypt had battery potential.

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

    Also http://foggycaco.blogspot.com/2009/11/egyptian-lightbulb.html
  • KatzenklavierKatzenklavier Regular
    edited July 2010
  • Wooden PintsWooden Pints Acolyte
    edited July 2010
  • KatzenklavierKatzenklavier Regular
    edited July 2010
    It would but a plate would be better. More surface area.

    Copper and zinc plate is what you want
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