Where can I get some liquid nitrogen?
17 June 2003, 09:32 AM
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17 June 2003, 10:05 AM
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Hello
Are you sure? I think you are interested in either:
a) Some bizarre home cryogenic experiment. If animals start going missing in Berkshire, I'll know where to look ...
b) Freezing the "little jlanngs" so that you can be a super father of the future.
Steve.
Are you sure? I think you are interested in either:
a) Some bizarre home cryogenic experiment. If animals start going missing in Berkshire, I'll know where to look ...
b) Freezing the "little jlanngs" so that you can be a super father of the future.
Steve.
17 June 2003, 11:49 AM
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I work for a compant that makes it, but I'm in design not sales so there are no free samples! :-(
Just be careful if you get some, if you take a gulp or two of pure Nitrogen you will die. Simple.
Just be careful if you get some, if you take a gulp or two of pure Nitrogen you will die. Simple.
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17 June 2003, 12:37 PM
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You can actually sip a little bit at it'll boil on your tongue... remember to blow out though or you'll suffocate. You can also dip your finger in it for a second or two with no ill effects
17 June 2003, 01:20 PM
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A really fun game is to get a medical/ rubber glove and pour some liquid N in, then tie the top quickly - it blows up and explodes, scattering the cold liquid in a very entertaining way 
I did it a few years ago in a lab I was working in - they nearly evacuated the place thinking a bomb had gone off (I had to act as surprised and shocked as everyone else, wondering what had caused the noise!!!)
Endless hours of fun freezing things to see what happens ......
G
I did it a few years ago in a lab I was working in - they nearly evacuated the place thinking a bomb had gone off (I had to act as surprised and shocked as everyone else, wondering what had caused the noise!!!)
Endless hours of fun freezing things to see what happens ......
G
17 June 2003, 01:47 PM
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Hello
So ....... most of the things you want to do are here:
http://www.physik.uni-augsburg.de/~ubws/nitrogen.html
"1001 things to do with liquid nitrogen"
(most are geeky, some are funny)
Steve
So ....... most of the things you want to do are here:
http://www.physik.uni-augsburg.de/~ubws/nitrogen.html
"1001 things to do with liquid nitrogen"
(most are geeky, some are funny)
Steve
17 June 2003, 01:56 PM
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It's not whether it's poisonous or not, it's the temperature and the fact it may well expand inside your lungs causing massive pain and convulsions, and nasty operations afterwards removing chunks of your insides that have been destroyed. I think 
17 June 2003, 02:21 PM
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But Stevecotton if its a gas then its not too cold and since when has inhaling very cold air, such as in the Arctic ever killed anyone (with two lungfulls?). I suppose that if you inhaled the vapour just above the liquid it would still be at about –150°C. This is the temperature and condition i.e. the vapour not the liquid, that clinical samples of bone marrow and sperm are stored in.
And Chelspeed, every inhaled helium to make your voice squeaky? I have don't remember dieing. I'm reasonably sure that you could take two lungfulls of Nitrogen.
And if we are being totally pedantic, how does Ravster know? Has he seen someone do it? Is there a web site that tells you not to or something?
Oh by the way if it matters, I'm a Consultant Physician a North London teaching Hospital but other points of view are also valid however
Rob.
17 June 2003, 02:49 PM
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Which takes us neatly back to my original question!
Here's a good suggestion:
Freeze a can of shaving cream and then peel the can away from the
cream. Put the canless cream into someone's car. Let the oven-like
heat from the car's sitting in the sun defrost the shaving cream.
2 cans will fill an entire car. (Coulter C. Henry, Jr.)
Here's a good suggestion:
Freeze a can of shaving cream and then peel the can away from the
cream. Put the canless cream into someone's car. Let the oven-like
heat from the car's sitting in the sun defrost the shaving cream.
2 cans will fill an entire car. (Coulter C. Henry, Jr.)
17 June 2003, 03:00 PM
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You're wrong to suggest it wont cause damage. Drinking liquid nitrogen will cause you massive problems.
I read a report in New Scientist a few months ago, this is the jokey follow-up by the guy that actually did it but feel free to give it a go if you think it's safe
I read a report in New Scientist a few months ago, this is the jokey follow-up by the guy that actually did it but feel free to give it a go if you think it's safe
17 June 2003, 03:18 PM
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Hi,
I work in the chemical industry as a research/production chemist for the pharacutical section and it is well known in the trade that nitrogen is the biggest killer in the industry, without doubt.
The lungs work not by noting the oxygen content of the 'air' in them but by the amount of carbon dioxide. Only when this reaches a set level do you breath out (hence you can hold your breath but you are eventually forced to breath out). With 100% nitrogen there is no carbon dioxide so your body doesn't tell you to breath out and you will stop breathing. It will only take one breath in theory.
We (as an industry) have lost a large number of people to nitrogen. Most of the vessels used for chemical processing are filled with nitrogen as some chemicals will react with the oxygen in air. It has been seen in the past that someone has leant over a vessel for a look and been found dead in the bottom as they have passed out breathing the nitrogen!! You cannot smell it, feel it, taste it or anything.
Be warned.
Also if you drink liquid nitrogen, when it turns back to a gas (at about minus 150 degrees) it will expand to at least 24 times it's size. So 100ml (about 1 mouth full) will expand to about 4 pints of gas - instantly.
Kev
I work in the chemical industry as a research/production chemist for the pharacutical section and it is well known in the trade that nitrogen is the biggest killer in the industry, without doubt.
The lungs work not by noting the oxygen content of the 'air' in them but by the amount of carbon dioxide. Only when this reaches a set level do you breath out (hence you can hold your breath but you are eventually forced to breath out). With 100% nitrogen there is no carbon dioxide so your body doesn't tell you to breath out and you will stop breathing. It will only take one breath in theory.
We (as an industry) have lost a large number of people to nitrogen. Most of the vessels used for chemical processing are filled with nitrogen as some chemicals will react with the oxygen in air. It has been seen in the past that someone has leant over a vessel for a look and been found dead in the bottom as they have passed out breathing the nitrogen!! You cannot smell it, feel it, taste it or anything.
Be warned.
Also if you drink liquid nitrogen, when it turns back to a gas (at about minus 150 degrees) it will expand to at least 24 times it's size. So 100ml (about 1 mouth full) will expand to about 4 pints of gas - instantly.
Kev
18 June 2003, 08:01 AM
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Oops, I hadn't logged on to SN for a while and I missed some replies.
Thanks Kev_Turbo. I work in the same (chemical) industry, and it is a killer. In a confined space, pure Nitrogen is lethal. It takes seconds before you fall unconscious.
Under ventilated conditions liquid Nitrogen can be fun though!
LOL, alright, so the company I work for don't *make* it, but distill it cryogenically from the air. Good business eh? Raw product for free, sell the pure constituents for some money.
[Edited by Ravster - 6/18/2003 8:16:59 AM]
Thanks Kev_Turbo. I work in the same (chemical) industry, and it is a killer. In a confined space, pure Nitrogen is lethal. It takes seconds before you fall unconscious.
Under ventilated conditions liquid Nitrogen can be fun though!
LOL, alright, so the company I work for don't *make* it, but distill it cryogenically from the air. Good business eh? Raw product for free, sell the pure constituents for some money.
[Edited by Ravster - 6/18/2003 8:16:59 AM]
20 June 2003, 09:07 AM
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Right, im confused here, - according to one reply, the body senses the amount of carbon dioxide before breathing out ( I find this hard to accept as being true) and if you have a lungfull of nitrogen you would not breath out?
But, as pointed out in an earlier message, a lungfull of that other inert gas Helium does not cause this, yes, Ive done this on a few occasions myself. I would not however attempt to drink liquid Helium, or any liquified gas for that matter.
But, as pointed out in an earlier message, a lungfull of that other inert gas Helium does not cause this, yes, Ive done this on a few occasions myself. I would not however attempt to drink liquid Helium, or any liquified gas for that matter.
20 June 2003, 09:35 AM
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Nitrogen
I too work in the oil/chemical industry and have seen 3 near fatalities since Feb this year due to Nitrogen. IT IS extremely dangerous in gaseous form, one lungful can cause unconciousness in seconds without hope of recussitation due to the fact it displaces the oxygen in the body very very quickly. It's also heavier than air which means a nitrogen leak can become dangerous as it settles in low lying areas such as open pits, sumps and trenches not only 'confined spaces'.
I too work in the oil/chemical industry and have seen 3 near fatalities since Feb this year due to Nitrogen. IT IS extremely dangerous in gaseous form, one lungful can cause unconciousness in seconds without hope of recussitation due to the fact it displaces the oxygen in the body very very quickly. It's also heavier than air which means a nitrogen leak can become dangerous as it settles in low lying areas such as open pits, sumps and trenches not only 'confined spaces'.
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