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That was a good one.

bdgyeah wrote:Took a college course once where a professor extinguished a lit cigarette in cup full of gas. A cigarette burning by itself (not inhaling) does not burn hot enough to ignite gasoline. Just useless knowledge.

but it's the fumes that can ignite easily.

Javier730 wrote:

bdgyeah wrote:Took a college course once where a professor extinguished a lit cigarette in cup full of gas. A cigarette burning by itself (not inhaling) does not burn hot enough to ignite gasoline. Just useless knowledge.

but it's the fumes that can ignite easily.

I have observed a shop teacher quenching white hot steel in a can of gasoline. The can was brim full. The object was gasoline is not flammable, the vapor is. Then he did it in a quart can with about a quarter cup of gasoline in it that had been siting there from the start of the demonstration, it went whoosh. The object being, when you have a gasoline vapor that is the right amount of air it is very flammable.

The cigarette(or match) in the cup of gas trick works because the mix is too rich to burn, once the fumes mix with air then woosh up it goes!
I worked a house fire once where the guy was fixing a hole in his gas tank, he did everything right at first, drained the gas tank, filled gas tank with soapy water! Proceeded to spot weld gas tank hole closed, Here's his mistake, he drained the gas into a 5 gal bucket and set it to the side in the garage, he set it within 2ft of the gas hot water heater, fumes built up in the bucket overflowed to the pilot light in the water heater and away it went!

Too funny and I remember back in the 1970's nearly everyone smoked at the gas pump.

Deltaboy wrote:Too funny and I remember back in the 1970's nearly everyone smoked at the gas pump.

I didn't.
I wasn't stupid.
I knew about fumes.

OldCurlyWolf wrote:

Deltaboy wrote:Too funny and I remember back in the 1970's nearly everyone smoked at the gas pump.

I didn't.
I wasn't stupid.
I knew about fumes.

I did
I was stupid
I knew I was immortal

I gotta write that one down. That's funny, I don't care who you are..

Liberty wrote: I knew I was immortal

I am Duncan MacLeod....

crazy2medic wrote:The cigarette(or match) in the cup of gas trick works because the mix is too rich to burn, once the fumes mix with air then woosh up it goes!
I worked a house fire once where the guy was fixing a hole in his gas tank, he did everything right at first, drained the gas tank, filled gas tank with soapy water! Proceeded to spot weld gas tank hole closed, Here's his mistake, he drained the gas into a 5 gal bucket and set it to the side in the garage, he set it within 2ft of the gas hot water heater, fumes built up in the bucket overflowed to the pilot light in the water heater and away it went!

you beat me too it. I was going to say that it is above the upper flammable limit.

jmorris wrote:

bdgyeah wrote:Took a college course once where a professor extinguished a lit cigarette in cup full of gas. A cigarette burning by itself (not inhaling) does not burn hot enough to ignite gasoline. Just useless knowledge.

I've seen people do that and it works well as long as there aren't a lot of fumes. I've also seen what happens when there are a lot of fumes, such as at a gas station.

Gasoline as a liquid and the gasoline fumes are two different things. As a liquid it requires an open flame, on the other hand fumes can be ignited with a spark.

FYI: Flammability Limit.

Ya got me to! Good one.

And it's as dangerous to be yakking on a cell phone while pumping gas. Under some conditions, especially if you touch a grounded object while handling a cell, a small static discharge can happen. Gasoline vapors + small spark == boom.

Most gas pumps even have small stickers on them telling folks not to use their cell while pumping gas.

I see folks doing it all the time though. That's a ID==10T error waiting to happen.

jminn1 wrote:Ya got me to! Good one.

And it's as dangerous to be yakking on a cell phone while pumping gas. Under some conditions, especially if you touch a grounded object while handling a cell, a small static discharge can happen. Gasoline vapors + small spark == boom.

Most gas pumps even have small stickers on them telling folks not to use their cell while pumping gas.

I see folks doing it all the time though. That's a ID==10T error waiting to happen.

Actually, the cell phone thing is not really ever been proven. While a piezo ringer was in the old phones, most new ones use speakers for their ring tones. Even the vibration motors are sealed, so the chances of the right fuel/air mixture being near them is slim to none, and slim left town. Static electricity is still the biggest risk for ignition at the pump. Here is a good test video https://www.discovery.com/tv-shows/myth ... n-minimyth

I think the biggest danger at the pump is having one's nose buried in a cell phone, not paying attention to anything or anyone around you. Much more risky - and likely to occur - than a potential fire (excluding outright stupidity, of course).