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Ha Ha! Great advice Mike!

When I began reading your email, I was thinking to myself, "This poor guy
must have set the room on fire, or at least scorched the ceiling".

This demo does come with a health warning because when it works it really
works. The tornado spins itself up much faster than the rotating mesh
cylinder. In this great picture I just found, they used a ring of slightly
angled fans to start the rotation:
http://maze.icomix.com/picturepage/021306/fire_tornado.jpg You wouldn't want
to try THAT in a room with a low ceiling.

The 'grand finale' powder explosion of my own Exploding Custard show is
sometimes unpredictable - too small or too big can be equally embarrassing.
If you scroll down to the bottom picture on this page
http://www.interactives.co.uk/hearts_custard_photos.htm you can see a
photograph taken by a startled teacher just as I released one of my biggest
ever fireballs in her classroom. The flash can only possibly last a fraction
of a second and leaves no trace on a ceiling, but you can see that I don't
look too relaxed about this one. Look at the face of the little boy nearby.
He just decided to be a scientist when he grows up.

Promoting public engagement with science
through a contagious delight in phenomena
*
[log in to unmask] * http://www.interactives.co.uk
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Give people facts and you feed their minds for an hour.
Awaken curiosity and they feed their own minds for a lifetime.
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Ian Russell 


-----Original Message-----
From: Informal Science Education Network
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Mike Levad
Sent: 04 February 2009 15:28
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Tornado of Fire

ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology Centers
Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related
institutions.
****************************************************************************
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Hi, 

I just wanted to share a little story about my experience with fabulous fire
tornados.Make sure you test this demo in the room where the show will take
place.  This demo was the second most SPECTACULAR failure of my science demo
career. I can't talk about the MOST SPECTACILAR failure as because the
statue of limitations is not up yet. (Just kidding! Nobody call the cops.)

I built the mechanism and had it working great in the prototyping room. Then
I took it downstairs for the first show.  After 2 other tricks in the show
didn't go quite as well as I had planned, (My volunteer selection could have
been better.)  I thought the good ole fire tornado grand finale is going to
save the day!  (When it works it is AWESOME!) Well the air conditioning unit
in the atrium created enough of a breeze to disrupt the rising air in the
mesh cylinder and the GRAND FINALE of a weak show was a bust. OUCH! The
breeze from the air conditioning was barely strong enough to be felt on a
wet finger, but was strong enough to provide me with a wonderful learning
experience.  ( I always look on the bright side.) Lesson learned always test
your equipment in the performance venue before the show.

One great addition to this demo is to add a small amount of metal salts to
your solvent solution and change the color of the flame.

Mike

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