[rescue] Oh my gosh, an on-topic question! ;^)

[James Lockwood]

On Wed, 19 Feb 2003, Kris Kirby wrote:

> On Tue, 18 Feb 2003, James Lockwood wrote:
> > 1,1,2-trichloroethylene (trichloroethene).  Commonly found as whiteboard
> > cleaner.  It will take the surface finish off of plastic if it soaks, so
> > just wipe and then rewipe with ethanol.
>
> I didn't think this stuff was out where the public could get to it...
> Certainly sounds nasty. IIRC there is a John Travolta movie about some
> company that dumps TCE into the ground for disposal -- moment of truth was
> when the river caught fire.

As chlorinated hydrocarbons go, it's pretty tame.  It's not flammable
under any ordinary circumstances.  It used to be used to decaffeinate
coffee until people realized that supercritical CO2 was even cheaper and
posed no waste disposal problem.

> Another fun nasty is Xylene or laquer thinner. Both are extremely
> flammable, dangerous, and only to be used in _very_ well ventilated
> spaces. But damn, what won't they take off... [some paints, as well.]

Xylene is nice.  Unlike most similar solvents, it has a reasonably low
vapor pressure and a high boiling point, so it poses fewer hazards than
most of the alkanes.

ObHack: Lying gas gauge + dead cellphone battery + 10 miles from anywhere.
Thoroughly stranded, then I saw the tin of xylene I'd picked up from the
hardware store earlier in the week and remembered racing gas history.  It
makes a decent emergency gasoline substitute (117 octane) as long as the
engine is hot.  I wouldn't run it for an extended period of time, but my
truck swallowed a gallon with no problems other than a really weird
smelling exhaust.

-James