Tuesday, June 11, 2013

THINGS THAT GO BOOM ON PAPER
















Rich Texts  stopped reading text that contained words such as “KA-ROOONNNK” when her daughter turned one Recently, Viking gave her the opportunity to revisit that dubious pleasure. Alas, unlike kiddie books where the inclusion of onomatopoeic words is meant to provoke laughter in pre-verbal infants, like  Cooper's FULL RATCHET is boring, boring, boring, boring. That the author a former he author is a former financial executive probably explains why it is so. Money, unless one has enough of it to buy a Porsche Cayennne Turbo, as one of the characters in this soporific novel does, is not an appealing subject. Write about it in Wall-Street-speak and you have a good chance of inducing coma on the reader, Constant or not. Rich Texts knows better than to flirt with disaster, which is why she put away FULL RATCHET to avoid irreversible frontal lobe damage.
How about you, dear reader?  Wanna put almost thirty bucks in the pseudonymous author's pocket in order to find out the meaning of KA-ROOONNNK? Spoiler alert—it is the sound of toluene exploding. Yes, good old toluene, an everyday substance with which all of us are acquainted. Those who missed this important cultural acquisition out there in Ultima Thule can read about in the chart below. It is, the Rich Texts kids you not, less boring than FULL RATCHET though it fails to mention a Russian mafiosa who tapes razor blades to her lady parts. Enough said. 
“The lower and upper explosion concentration limits for some common gases are indicated in the table below. Some of the gases are commonly used as fuel in combustion processes.
Fuel Gas "Lower Explosive or Flammable Limit"
(LEL/LFL)
(%) "Upper Explosive or Flammable Limit"
(UEL/UFL)
(%)
Acetaldehyde 4 60
Acetic acid 4 19.9
Acetone 2.6 12.8
Acetyl chloride 7.3 19
Acetylene 2.5 81
Acrolein 2.8 31
Acrylonitrile 3.0 17
Allyl chloride 2.9 11.1
Ammonia 15 28
Arsine 5.1 78
Benzene 1.35 6.65
1,3-Butadiene 2.0 12
n-Butane 1.86 8.41
iso-Butane 1.80 8.44
iso-Butene 1.8 9.0
Butyl alcohol, Butanol 1 11
Butylene 1.98 9.65
Carbon Disulfide 1.3 50
Carbon Monoxide 12 75
Cyanogen 6.0 42.6
Cyclobutane 1.8 11.1
Cyclohexane 1.3 8
Cyclohexanol 1 9
Cyclopropane 2.4 10.4
Dekane 0.8 5.4
Diborane 0.8 88
1,1-Dichloroethane 6 11
Diethyl Ether 1.9 36
Diesel fuel 0.6 7.5
Diethylamine 2 13
Diethyl ether 1.9 48
Disobutyl ketone 1 6
Ethane 3 12.4
Ethylene 2.75 28.6
Ethyl Alcohol, Ethanol 3.3 19
Ethyl acetate 2 12
Ethylamine 3.5 14
Ethylbenzene 1.0 7.1
Ethyl Chloride 3.8 15.4
Etylene glycol 3 22
Ethylene oxide 3 100
Fuel Oil No.1 0.7 5
Furan 2 14
Gasoline 1.4 7.6
Glycerol 3 19
Heptane 1.0 6.7
Hexane 1.1 7.5
Hydrogen 4 75
Hydrogen sulfide 4.3 46
Isobutane 1.8 9.6
Isobutyl alcohol 2 11
Isophorone 1 4
Isopropyl Alcohol, Isopropanol 2 12
Kerosene Jet A-1 0.7 5
Methane 5 15
Methyl Acetate 3 16
Methyl Alcohol, Methanol 6.7 36
Methyl Chloride 10.7 17.4
Methyl Ethyl Ketone 1.8 10
Mineral spirits 0.7 6.5
Naphthalene 0.9 5.9
n-Heptane 1.0 6.0
n-Hexane 1.25 7.0
n-Pentene 1.65 7.7
Naphtalene 0.9 5.9
Neopentane 1.38 7.22
Neohexane 1.19 7.58
Nitrobenzene 2 9
Nitromethane 7.3 22.2
n-Octane 1.0 7
iso-Octane 0.79 5.94
n-Pentane 1.4 7.8
iso-Pentane 1.32 9.16
Propane 2.1 10.1
Propyl acetate 2 8
Propylene 2.0 11.1
Propylene oxide 2.3 36
Pyridine 2 12
Silane 1.5 98
Styrene 1.1 6.1
Toluene 1.27 6.75
Triptane 1.08 6.69
Turpentine 0.8
Vinyl acetate 2.6 13.4
Vinyl chloride 3.6 33
p-Xylene 1.0 6.0

Note! The limits indicated are for gas and air at 20oC and atmospheric pressure."

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