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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,773 |
In my last house, built in 1929 with standard wood-burning masonry fireplaces, a heat-exchanging insert had been installed in the living room fireplace. The insert covered the entire opening of the fireplace, and unbeknownst to me, the cavity inside the fireplace had been filled with granular insulation, surrounding the smaller insert. A squirrel fell down the chimney, and sunk into the insulation like a dinosaur in a tar pit. He tried to dig himself out, and my first clue that something was up was a small pile of the insulation spilling out of a corner of the fireplace. I had to pull out the insert and dig out the squirrel. Happy ending for squirrel, who was released in the adjacent park. Not so happy ending for me, who spent hours dispensing with the insulation, which flowed into the living room like sand from an hourglass.
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Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 1,289
veteran
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veteran
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 1,289 |
burning lint
There have been reports from time to time of serious house fires from the lint which collects in the exhaust hoses of clothes dryers. Safety experts recommend replacing these every year or so, or at the least detaching them from time to time to check for lint buildup. Verb sap.
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Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,439
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,439 |
Recently I had the plastic tube that leads from the dryer to the outside replaced by a metal pipe. I learned the lint is caught by the bumpy bits that make the plastic extendable whereas the metal pipe does not collect lint as fast. Not cheap but worth the peace of mind. Another plus is that a commercial AC company can use the high pressure air blower to clean out the metal pipe but it cannot be used with the plastic because the high volume air shreds the plastic! Also the plastic deteriorates over time making it more unreliable, I'm told
wow
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Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 1,094
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 1,094 |
serious house fires from the lint
This doesn't surprise me too much. When I go on camping trips with my Boy Scout troop we often bring along lint for use as fire starters. It works quite well.
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
Dear Jazz: My brother used to a Scout champion at starting fires with short push bow, with rawhide cord around octagonal yucca rod which had one end in palm held soapstone, the business end in notched cedar board. The tinder was mostly old cedar bark and other natural materials
shredded to lint, with shavings underneath and on top. I don't remember his best times, but they were surprisingly short. Do the kids still compete at this?
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Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 1,094
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 1,094 |
Do the kids still compete at this?I don't think I've ever seen anyone start a fire with just sticks, that's impossible.  If was a requirement in the past, it's not anymore. There is a requirement of starting a fire with just one match, though.
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Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 819
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 819 |
If was a requirement in the past, it's not
anymore. There is a requirement of starting a fire with just one match, though.Tenderfoot! Why, you young whippursnapper, in my day boy scouts started fires by rubbing their trouser legs together fast enough to set the fabric on fire, then jumped outern 'em before they got burned!  Another fun trick, common in the "old days," when carbide miner's lamps were common, was to take some calcium carbide along. You'd surruptitiously toss the carbide beneath some wet tender, strike a flint over it, and POOF! Calcium carbide, when wet, liberates acytelene gas.
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 140
member
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member
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 140 |
Calcium carbide, when wet, liberates acytelene gas... And come on now, be honest! How many of us have actually ridden a bicycle fitted with a headlamp utilising this phenomenon, as I have in my not all that distant youth? lusy 
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Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 819
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 819 |
And come on now, be honest! How many of us have actually ridden a bicycle fitted with a headlamp utilising this
phenomenon, as I have in my not all that distant youth? Not too distant? C'mon, admit it - you're the same LUCY that L.S.B. Leakey dug up in Olduvai Gorge!  At the very least, you were around when Rovers and Peugeots all had pedals!
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Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400 |
In reply to:
I don't think I've ever seen anyone start a fire with just sticks, that's impossible.
Really, Jazz? It not as hard as it sounds-- you need not two, but three sticks, Once very dry piece of wood, with a notch is it and some lint or fine tinder near, one firm stick, slightly pointed, to spin, and a third stick, flexible made into a bow with a shoe lace. the shoe lace goes around the firm stick and you slide the bow back and forth swiftly to spin the firm stick, create friction and start your fire. a good trick is to use a knive to make a point on the firm stick, and then gently roll it it the creases of your nose (where your nose meets your cheeks.) that is naturally one of the oiliest places on a human body--it give the stick just enough lubricant to spin, but not so much that it doesn't heat up from friction.
My daughter took a wilderness surviveal course last year, and one "test" was starting a fire with out a match! (she passed, of course.)
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