MacGyverism: Portable lamp question

[Tog_]

Hypothetical question from something I'm writing. I have a group of people in a house that has just had all electricity cut off. The owner of the house has nothing that runs on batteries. I would like to make a portable lamp/flashlight device out of an orange juice carafe and a 60 watt bulb. Would it be possible?

The kitchen can have any common kitchen items, including a full set of copper pots and pans. It is also possible for at least one person to have a magnesium watchband, or bracelet. Assuming vinegar, orange juice, or lemon, juice, what is the brightest bulb I could run, and for how long using a 1 liter carafe?

Also, semi-related, but as long as I have you here...
The house had a number of power control devices in every room. Each of these was controlled by a central computer to make everything voice activated. This was taken out with a set of small EMP generators which fried all the microchips controlling everything. Would a copper pot on the stove, with the lid on it act enough like a Faraday cage to protect an item like a cell phone from the pulse?

[Captain Kidd]

How many potatoes are in the kitchen?

[mugaliens]

Why? Doesn't everyone carry a $5 LED flashlight on their keychain these days?


Would a copper pot on the stove, with the lid on it act enough like a Faraday cage to protect an item like a cell phone from the pulse?

Depends on the strength of the pulse, the shape of the copper pot and the conductivity of the copper.

Generally speaking, yes, and most cell-phone networks are EMP hardened, as well, not so much to protect against a nuke blast, but against lightening striking the cell phone tower. Even if the current avoids the insulated cell phone package, it still produces a sizeable and very sharp local EMP which would fry unhardened electronics. Thus, the antennas are electrically de-coupled from the actually electronics, and are electromagetically coupled only in the Rx/Tx freqs used. Even so, there are chokes and shunts to prevent overload, even in these frequencies. The power supply is similarly surge-protected, as it's a lot cheaper to implement this than it is to pay for a single reinstall.

Back to the kitchen...

You need a conducting liquid (the acidic lemon juice) and electronegative metal (copper) and an electropositive metal (aluminum would work if it didn't oxidize almost instantaneously).

But you did include a magnesium watchband... Sadly, magnesium bubbles hydrogen (barely) when placed into water, but that process is accelerated slightly when the water is acidic. In a strong acide, such as hydrochloric acid, it will produce both heat and hydrogen.

If you had a way to remanufacture the magnesium watchband into very thin, wide strips, same for the copper, combined with paper towels I could produce enough current to dimly light a 60 W bulb.

Probably last a couple of hours.

The problem is, magnesium isn't malleable, and in thin layers it'll soon dissolve into the water.

Your best best is to use shave the magnesium watchband into bits and pieces, add the lemon juice, cork the carafe, use a flame device (?) to slowly burn the hydrogen produced.

[01101001]

Hand Battery: Your skin and two different metals create a battery (http://www.exploratorium.edu/snacks/hand_battery.html)

You can drink the carafe of orange juice. Maybe make some nice screwdrivers for the crowd. Just put a bunch -- a big bunch -- of inebriated people in series.

Now, how much light do you need to get, to consider that you got light?

I don't think that 60W bulb is going to be blinding anyone with its output.

[Laguna]

You should get out to a car and get a smaller 5W bulb...
I would suggest the interior light or one of the parking lights.

Your 60W bulb might glow a little, but I doubt it would spend a significant amount of light.

[01101001]

Why? Doesn't everyone carry a $5 LED flashlight on their keychain these days?

I sure do. $40 LED, actually. Upscale. For reading menus in dim, upscale restaurants. Worked this weekend, once again. Crispy, tender buta bara... Mmm... Pork bellies... But, I digress.

And, a cell phone puts out enough light to get around.

Belt and suspenders.

I know how to spice up the plot. Make a cell phone out of a carafe of orange juice! Can you hear me now? No, I've got an orange seed in my ear!

[Dennis Dorgan]

Tog,
The first thing I would do, is knock you out, and then I would go and save the damsel in distress in some manly way.

since you obviously are insane, and want to fiddle in the kitchen while the bad guy is killin the girl.

You should feel ashamed.

unless that light bulb will save her, its a waste of time.

just burn the house down and go to brawlin.

[Dennis Dorgan]

on a techical side..

i would throw the carafe away as being stupid.
i would find 100 or so small cups, plastic or glass.
i would line them up. in rows.
i would tear up the copper and other metal pots, into strips.

i would place one copper and one other metal into each cup, and add, alittle orange juice, or salt water.. whatever i had..

assuming one volt or so per cup, i could probubly get the 60W house light bulb to light up for a very short time.

but... wow.. what a waste of time, since i have piles of trash to burn.

[Tog_]

Thanks to most of you for the replies. What I get from this is, "No, it would not be possible".


To answer a few of te questions:
How many potatoes are in the kitchen? As many as I need there to be. But the plan was to have two or three portable lamps. Potato batteries would work, but how many would I need?


Why? Doesn't everyone carry a $5 LED flashlight on their keychain these days? I don't think mine was anywhere near $5. I do have a pen with a laser and a blue LED that I got for $5 though. Only one, maybe two, of the characters would have one of these though, and they would both be in the room where the EMP originates. My understanding was that the LED would not survive.



Now, how much light do you need to get, to consider that you got light? I'd settle for a bright candle if it would go for a few hours.

The cell phone can't be used as a light because it is supposed to be dead. If it worked, it would mean that the phone's owner would have known about the EMP and stashed it before hand, giving themselves away as being involved. For the plot, the group needs to be as cut off as possible in October of 2004 in New England.

You should get out to a car and get a smaller 5W bulb...
I would suggest the interior light or one of the parking lights.
The setting is an island on a lake. There are no cars, and the boat will not be back for about 36 hours. The light from the refrigerator might be a good substitute though.


Tog,
The first thing I would do, is knock you out, and then I would go and save the damsel in distress in some manly way.

since you obviously are insane, and want to fiddle in the kitchen while the bad guy is killin the girl.

You should feel ashamed.

unless that light bulb will save her, its a waste of time.

just burn the house down and go to brawlin.

on a techical side..

i would throw the carafe away as being stupid.
i would find 100 or so small cups, plastic or glass.
i would line them up. in rows.
i would tear up the copper and other metal pots, into strips.

i would place one copper and one other metal into each cup, and add, alittle orange juice, or salt water.. whatever i had..

assuming one volt or so per cup, i could probubly get the 60W house light bulb to light up for a very short time.

but... wow.. what a waste of time, since i have piles of trash to burn.

Your comments and suggestions have been noted and given all the consideration they deserve. To clarify a few points, however.
The one person to die is already dead. He was not a damsel. The killer was. No one present is strong enough, nor are there tools up to the task of tearing a copper cooking pot into strips.

I fail to see what my sanity or lack thereof has to do with the principals involved in making a portable lamp from things found in a common kitchen.



Again, thanks to most of you for your replies. It was an idea I had that would add a bit of color to one of the minor characters. As it stands, I guess they will need to find some candles.

[Dennis Dorgan]

well..

the only problem is the bulb..

if you could get the bulb down to operatable on a low voltage and higher current then you could use the large bulk metal pieces to generate a low voltage, which macgyver could quickly set up with plastic cups.

3-6 volts would be easier. with wire ripped from the walls, and iron from fencing outside.. or even forks and spoons.


a 60W bulb, is meant to run on 120 volts...

and simply wont light up with anything short of 80-100 or so...

you could use car lamps and lights, as they are 12 volt.

and the car battery should still be good after an emp.

[01101001]

The cell phone can't be used as a light because it is supposed to be dead.

I'd think the cell phone battery would still work, removed from phone, post-EMP. Depends on the design I suppose. Won't it give you more juice than... juice would?

I'd probably go after a car battery and lamps, not so vulnerable to EMP.

By the way, I think the life-limiting factor in an orange juice battery isn't the amount of juice, but the amount of electron-donating metal you have, which is probably a substantial amount. The juice, the electrolyte, isn't consumed in the process -- unless the users get thirsty.

[mugaliens]

The setting is an island on a lake. There are no cars, and the boat will not be back for about 36 hours. The light from the refrigerator might be a good substitute though.

36 hours, huh? Why not just go to sleep and wait until the sun comes up? And I thought the electricity was supposed to be out - what's supposed to power the fridge light? It's 120 V, too (albeit about 15 W).

Again, thanks to most of you for your replies. It was an idea I had that would add a bit of color to one of the minor characters. As it stands, I guess they will need to find some candles.

And if they can't, shoelaces wiped with the oily sweat of an old man's brow works nearly as well, although for a much shorter period of time...

[mike alexander]

You could also stick a piece of string in a can of Crisco to make a candle, or in some olive oil (extra virgin, I assume a gourmet kitchen?) for the same.

The MacGuyver stuff is fun, but if light is the goal the basics were worked out ca. 5-10,000 yrs ago.

[TrAI]

Hmmm...

seems to me that it would be easier to make oil-lamps... in an emergency i expect something like this would work: put some sort of food oil in a cup(about half full), find some string for use as a wick(even tightly wond tissue/toilet paper could work in a pinch), find some stiff wire or metal foil wrapped into a wirelike shape and tie it a few rounds around the wick and bend the edges so you can hook it over the edge of the cup, soak the wick in the oil, and hook it over the edge with the other end hanging down into the oil, light the end with a lighter, match or something...

It will smoke a bit, and probably not be the most healthy type of light source, but it is easy to make and can use just about any oil as fuel...

[JustAFriend]

Better off (and much scarier lighting) to have them find a few packs of glow-sticks in a drawer...

Here in Florida we keep bunches of them for emergency hurricane lighting and Halloween fun.

[Tog_]

More thanks.

RE the 36 hours and the refrigerator light:
The power went out at about 8 PM and there is much skulking about to be done, in a strange house. There is also a chance that there are two people on the island that are not guests of the house and may have been the ones that killed the power in the first place. It's mid-October, so dark lasts a while.

When I said the 'fridge light, I meant the bulb. It was the only bulb I could think of that might be on the house that would be similar to a car bulb.

I hadn't considered that the batteries in the phone may have survived. In any case, the one person with a working cell phone has to hide it, as it will give away their role in the crime.

No one has access to any sort of vehicle in this story.

I also have to admit that I'd never have considered making an oil lamp. I'll have to give that some thought. I assume that a modern cotton braided shoelace would be a good enough wick? Where does the line between oil lamp and Molotov cocktail get crossed?

Mike, can I steal this and change it around a bit to include it?

The MacGuyver stuff is fun, but if light is the goal the basics were worked out ca. 5-10,000 yrs ago.

[TrAI]

...
I also have to admit that I'd never have considered making an oil lamp. I'll have to give that some thought. I assume that a modern cotton braided shoelace would be a good enough wick? Where does the line between oil lamp and Molotov cocktail get crossed?


I expect just about any fiber based cloth or paper will work, as long as it can absorb the oil, though you would probably want to avoid syntetic materials due to the unplessant fumes... Braided cotton is in fact one of the most used material for wicks, so unless the shoelace is treated with something that prevents it from absorbing the oil, it should work.

As for molotov coctails, well... I would advice you not to tip the cup over, but even if you did, I do not think it is likely that it will start a fire, more likely the oil will just cover the wick and quench it. There have been cases where lamps have started fires, of course, but most cooking oils will have to be rather hot before boiling and becoming a gas(it is the gasses that burn) so the risk is managable.

Since you can improvise an oil-lamp quite easily in minutes if needed and from simple materials, it seems a good choice if you have nothing better, or as temporary light sources until you can hack something better together. Of course, you will need fuel for them, but any oil will work, i expect. You could even use butter or some other solid fat, if you style the lamp along the lines of a tea-candle. Lamps based on oils and fats have been the primary light source for who knows how many thousands of years, it seems likely that the first lamps was simply some moss or something soked in fat from animals and placed in a suitable recepticle...

[mugaliens]

More thanks.

RE the 36 hours and the refrigerator light:
The power went out at about 8 PM and there is much skulking about to be done, in a strange house.

Oh, for Pete's sake - go to bed! Enough skulking about. It's dark! Skulk into the walls if it really thrills you, but I'm hitting the hay...

I also have to admit that I'd never have considered making an oil lamp. I'll have to give that some thought. I assume that a modern cotton braided shoelace would be a good enough wick? Where does the line between oil lamp and Molotov cocktail get crossed?

Generally speaking, in the octane of the fuel being used. Crisco works, but it's smoky as a four letter word. Olive oil is much better, and it matters little whether it's extra virgin or old whore. The oil itself won't burn outright - it requires a wick, but if you drop the container on a wooden floor with a burning wick, you've just turned your floor into a wick. The drapes might be a *bit* worse, as they're more poros, and they're verticle, as are most wicks.

If you'd like to minimize problems, simply punch a small hole in the top of the metal lid to the bottle of olive oil with a phillips-head screwdriver (or a kitchen knife) draw your shoelace through that about half an inch, replace the top, and light up. That'll minimize spillage while allowing wicking and keep the flame-front from the glass edges. Plus, the verticle design of the bottle allows for maximum airflow, which will improve the flame, minimize smokiness, and provide maximum light. And the cool thing about cotton wicks is that they tend to be self-adjusting. The part that's too far into the flame will burn down, until only the part which is wicking well will remain, providing for a good, bright, non-smoking flame.

You had my curiosity peaked, so I dug a tennis shoe with cotton shoestrings out of the garbage (I cleaned house over the weekend), am getting my rancid bottle of olive oil out of the cupboard (I didn't clean that well)...

...Yep! Works like a champ, and it's been lit for five minutes now.

Good luck!

[mike alexander]

Tog, steal whatever you want. Just file the serial number off and it's yours.