June 01, 2003

At Girl Scout Camp

"Oh. You managed to get the Coleman propane lantern lit. How did you do that? What was I doing wrong?"

"You were neglecting to:

  1. Turn the gas valve on hard and far
  2. Push your fingers holding the lighted match as close to the jet of propane as you can
  3. All the while completely ignoring everything you know about the explosive flammability of hydrocarbon compounds."

"So what you are saying is that Coleman propane lanterns are designed so that only a man can be stupid enough to successfully light one?"

"Something like that. I love this 'safety' message: 'in case of fire, leave area quickly'."

Posted by DeLong at June 1, 2003 04:02 PM | TrackBack

Comments

Wow ... "in case of fire, leave area quickly."

There is a certain universal wisdom about that. It reminds me of a sign I saw at Toronto's Pearson Airport during my adventuring days. It said:

"All baggage looks the same. Make sure you only leave with yours."

I've tried to live my life that way ever since.

Posted by: patrick on June 2, 2003 12:42 PM

Not much difference between lighting a Coleman and lighting your gas stove. You need a pretty rich mixture to get ignition. Outdoors, with a breeze, you're going to get pretty rapid dilution away from the source, so a big fireball is pretty unlikely. (but no guarantees, of course)

Posted by: FDL on June 2, 2003 03:27 PM

"A big fireball is pretty unlikely"...


Thanks!

:-)

Posted by: Brad DeLong on June 2, 2003 10:25 PM

Lucky you to have propane! We camped with Coleman white gas stoves and lanterns. A liquid accumulation ignited in the stove or lantern was as real experience.

Posted by: Dilbert Dogbert on June 3, 2003 09:31 AM

on the issue of fireballs. i knew a man who opened beer with his lighter. one time something went wrong and... fireball. No injuries, just some singed hair.

Posted by: markmeyer on June 4, 2003 08:45 PM

I dunno, I'd rather deal with the white gas -- I still remember one backpacking trip where a leaking propane canister had to be hurled away from the campfire because it couldn't be made to seat on the stove correctly and there was no way to close it off after that.

Of course, I tend to produce tall columns of flame when lighting my little campstove on a regular basis, so what do I know?

:)

Posted by: Rana on June 5, 2003 05:55 PM
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