OT- Smoking cigs and gasoline...Safe?

GregSY · Dec 4, 2016

I know this will be an .... inflammatory ....topic, but could anyone here who smokes cigs and owns an infrared gun tell me how hot a lit cig burns?

I'd like to know how hot is while sitting in your ashtray, and while you are dragging on it.

Why...? According to the internet, gasoline has an ignition temp of under 300 Deg C. A lit cig burns at 400 Deg C, and a dragging cig reaches 900 Deg C.

I find those cig numbers hard to believe. Why? Well, 400 Deg C is pretty hot and a cig smoldering in an ashtray doesn't seem like it could get that hot. If those numbers held true, the combination of gas and a cig would mean a very high likelihood of an explosion (much like Hollywood would have us believe.)

This is all part of an discussion on idiots who pump gas with a lit cig in their mouth. While I know it's a stupid thing to do....I also know it's not a guarantee of death. Why? Well....my old friend Ron (still alive) used to wash his greasy car parts in an open pan of gasoline, while smoking, and never blew up. Further, when he was at the end of the cig he would douse it directly in the gas and it would...go out like a wet noodle. I've personally watched him do this at least 50 times over the years.

Trboatworks · Dec 4, 2016

Vapor pressure/density/temperature- proximity of ignition source to correct ignition environment.

This is not really a mystery- combine the various factors in the correct environment and a nice camp fire will occur.
Combine them in a really great environment and a explosion will occur.
Skipping around that environment- close but not close enough- is no proof of anything but that the ignition source has not been placed proximal to ignitable fumes.

Cinders on cigarette covering ember well enough so that one can douse a cig in a tray of gasoline with no ignition- so what- just keep trying till it ignites.

Keep a fine extinguisher handy.

One of the idiot things I did when a kid was put a couple of inches of gasoline in a tin can and set it on fire- damn thing was hardly burning so I decided it needed a little help so took a deep breath and blew into the can.
It took a while for the hair to grow back...

Don't kill yourself or burn down your shop learning simple science.

JST · Dec 4, 2016

Leaving aside the basically crazy nature of the question........

Gas lights easier than tobacco does. You can prove this easily with a cig lighter. Pass the cigarette through the flame quickly, and odds are it does not light. Soak it in gas and try again.

Burning tobacco keeps burning because it lights adjacent tobacco which then burns in turn.

If tobacco burns hot enough to light more tobacco, and tobacco is harder to light than gas....... looks like you have enough answer right there.

It's gas fumes that light. but you need oxygen also. pure gas fumes do not light. So, if you throw the cig into a pail of gas fast enough, it may not light the gas.

Anyone who smokes while cleaning parts in gasoline is a damn fool.

alskdjfhg · Dec 4, 2016

A dirty well used gasoline solution will have a lower vapor pressure than pure gasoline. If I'm remembering Raoult's law right.

Dousing cigar/cigarette in diesel is a common enough trick. Videos of it on YouTube. I'm sure if you move fast enough gas would also do it, but I'd question the sanity of one who would try it.

John Welden · Dec 4, 2016

JST said:
Anyone who smokes while cleaning parts in gasoline is a damn fool.

Anyone who smokes is a damn fool.

GregSY · Dec 4, 2016

I'll reiterate that I'm not advocating this act.

But I'll also assert that the many, many times he did it - under all sorts of ambient conditions and with no particular 'method' or pattern - kinda tells me it's harder to blow up while smoking than common lore would have it.

We've all seen the millions of Hollywood movies where the bad guy, sage in many ways, casually and cruelly flicks his lit cig into a pool of gas thereby incinerating whoever it was he wished to do away with. I think that sort of scene flavors our perception of the danger.

As for other flammables....if you read the side of a can of just about any petroleum based product you'll come away convinced that it's a ticking time bomb.
But this weekend I soaked some wood in some brand-new paint thinner then tried like hell to get it to light with an open flame....I really think the wood woulda lit easier just left dry.

John Welden · Dec 4, 2016

GregSY said:
kinda tells me it's harder to blow up while smoking than common lore would have it.

I think there is some truth to that, but I don't know enough about chemistry to understand how risky it really is.

Why take the risk even if it's actually not all that unsafe? It doesn't help you to be more efficient or anything like that. It's a stupid risk with zero upside.

jscpm · Dec 4, 2016

I always put out my cigarettes in a cup of gasoline.

I also charge all my fire extinguishers with gasoline.

One of my long-term projects is to modify the overhead sprinklers so that they spray gasoline from a roof-top tank instead of just being hooked up to the water main they way they are now.

:nutter:

snowman · Dec 4, 2016

Douse some sawdust in gasoline then pass a cigarette that you are taking a drag off near it.

Too rich of an environment and it won't ignite...too lean and it won't ignite...but hit that magic stoichometric balance and it will explode in a ball of flames. The fumes of gasoline are so dense that they displace oxygen, and the fumes, absent of oxygen, are not flammable.

I can attest that the common scenario of gasoline explosions is very possible...or at least it was about 20 years ago when I was learning all about the chemistry of combustion (aka, the early teenage pyromaniac stage)

karl · Dec 4, 2016

Take out a life insurance policy on him!
Karl

Spencer in NH · Dec 4, 2016

John Welden said:
I think there is some truth to that, but I don't know enough about chemistry to understand how risky it really is.

Why take the risk even if it's actually not all that unsafe? It doesn't help you to be more efficient or anything like that. It's a stupid risk with zero upside.

That's the problem with "safety margin". It's impossible for an observer to discern the difference between 200% margin and 0.002% margin.

jhruska · Dec 4, 2016

Whaaa.....has anyone here seen Hitchcock's "The Birds" ?

APD · Dec 4, 2016

Adults who smoke are knowingly willing to ignore facts and risk factors that will shorten their lives and cause them suffering later in life.
Why would they treat gasoline any differently than they do tobacco?
As we have all recently been reminded, facts don't matter to about 50% of the population.

sealark37 · Dec 4, 2016

What did Forrest say about Stupid? "Stupid is as Stupid Does."

John Welden · Dec 4, 2016

jscpm said:
One of my long-term projects is to modify the overhead sprinklers so that they spray gasoline from a roof-top tank instead of just being hooked up to the water main they way they are now.

I have two sprinkler systems in my shop. One is charged with hydrogen and the other oxygen.

Hydrogen and oxygen combine to make water. Chemistry 101. I'm smart like that.

adama · Dec 4, 2016

FYI any liquid other than a oxidizer will put a sig out, they need oxygen to burn and there aint none in gas!

A sucked cig glows red, that colour is just like a bit of steel glowing, the colour correlates to the temp, weather its a forged steel billet or a lit cig, if there both glowing orange, they will ignite things!

As to smokeing around gas fumes, your probaly safe most the time, gas vapour is heavy hugs the ground, 6' is up and its not a issue. Now whilst pumping gas, drop the keys, bend down with a light one and its a diffrent story! Bellow you tube demonstrates this lovely!

Starting a Bonfire with a whole can of Gas turned out to be a bad idea - YouTube

adama · Dec 4, 2016

Oh when you get the ratio a bit better, sunny warm day probaly helps, appologies about the camera man, they just don't have the nerve they use too

Don't pour 5 gallons of gas on a bonfire! FAIL!! - YouTube

jim rozen · Dec 4, 2016

"But I'll also assert that the many, many times he did it..."

No one here doubts this. Likewise if you want to replicate the
habit, by all means do so. What could go wrong?

rons · Dec 4, 2016

GregSY said:
This is all part of an discussion on idiots who pump gas with a lit cig in their mouth.

They are also listening to their radio with the engine running.

Gas stations could deter that type of behavior better by posting the equivalent number of sticks of dynamite to 1 gallon of gas. On the other hand, it might encourage more terrorism.

HOMESTEAD · Dec 4, 2016

I've seen gas thrown onto hot coals to try and get a fire restarted faster. Didn't do anything but hiss. That being said.....I wouldn't bet that that would be the result every time!

OT- Smoking cigs and gasoline...Safe?

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