Butane Rocket 
2003 Reader Submission
Pending Acceptance
I am a bit of a pyromaniac, I'll be the first to admit. And as such, I have several lighters. One Christmas, a friend of mine who I now believe was trying to remove me from the gene pool, purchased me a Zippo. Delighted, I immediately tried it out, repeatedly, and was soon out of lighter fluid. Well, being not so much on the bright side of things, I purchased a bottle of butane, and not lighter fluid, as I should have done. When trying to figure out how to make the butane fill the zippo, a quite impossible task, I accidentally pried the tip off the bottle of compressed gas. This made the butane gas eject rapdily from the bottom of the can (I was holding it upside down, trying to 'pour' the gas out.) This caused the rapidly decompressing can to flash freeze in my hand, so I released the butane bottle, which acted exactly like a rocket, zooming to the ceiling of the room I was in, smashing the lightbulb. Suddenly deprived of light in a room chalk full of butane gas, I naturally flipped my bic. Fortunately, the explosion was small enough that it did not burn the house down, or really cause much more than some scorching, but it did light my hand on fire. I lived to tell the tale, but have since been involved in two more smaller explosions, so I feel it my duty to inform you of my impending expiry, so that my grieving relatives are not forced to report the circumstances of my death while coming to grips with my early demise.Submitted on 08/11/2002
Submitted by:
Matt Van Egmond
Reference:
Personal Account
Copyright © 2002 DarwinAwards.com
|
