Last week I bought, for the second time in my life, a bottle of Everclear and subsequently ended up doing a little bit of experimentation. I'm referring, of course, to testing a home-built alcohol camping stove.
Camp cooking is something new that I tried on Laura's and my recent trip to the Grand Canyon, and it went very well. Hot food breaks up the monotony of a diet otherwise consisting of trail mix and sandwiches, and besides, playing with fire is fun. However, one needn't buy a special stove at a store to do this: a homemade one can function well. Here are some instructions for making an alcohol-powered stove out of an empty 3oz can of cat food.
Prudently enough, I tested the stove before our trip by repeatedly boiling water near the safety of the swimming pool in our apartment complex.
The stove works simply: first it's primed, which means pouring the alcohol into the stove and then waiting fifteen seconds or so for enough of the alcohol to vaporize. Then one uses a lighter to set the whole stove on fire (as shown above).
Once the stove is aflame, one then places the pot directly on the stove (as shown above, in the second photo). This causes the flame to jet out from the holes drilled in the sides of the can. There's no flame control; the stove burns on high
until it runs out of fuel, which can take up to eight minutes.
I bought two types of alcohol: methyl alcohol, from the hardware store, and ethanol, in the form of 190-proof Everclear, from the grocery store. I discovered both fuels work well, but the ethanol appeared to burn cooler than the methyl alcohol, as evident by an ethanol flame that was less blue and more orange than the methyl flame. (The ethanol flame is shown in the third photo; the first two photos are of the methyl flame.) However, the wind had picked up during the ethanol burn, so it wasn't an apples-to-apples comparison. More testing would be necessary to know for sure. I stopped my testing with the satisfaction of knowing that in both cases, despite some wind and no screen for protection, I was able to bring 1.5L of water to a boil in under five minutes.
As for the adage that a watched pot never boils: that's false.
5 comments:
Well done.
Truly appreciate Post. You never ceise to amaze.
Speaking of amazing, I am very seriously considering making some blog posts in relation to President #10-22 during this zillion hour flight I'm about to board, but I guess we'll see.
Anonymous— Not rare?
Bobby et al.— Thanks! I look forward to the long-awaited Presidential blog posts.
Wow, fascinating! Why didn't the table catch on fire? Also, you can by Everclear at the grocery store in AZ?!
Lindsey— The table is made of concrete. As for liquor, not only can you buy it at the grocery store in AZ, you can do so after nine o'clock at night!
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