A substance that burns but does not burn. How to make a cold fire

Some spectacular tricks with fire can be demonstrated using available household tools and using quite simple methods. However, it should always be remembered that extreme caution and adult supervision is always required when working with flammable liquids. You can impress your friends with tricks worthy of a real circus show, or even fool them into thinking you are the real fire lord. For more detailed information, proceed to reading the first step of the article.

WARNING: Use extreme caution. Working with flammable liquids without proper protective equipment is not recommended.

Steps

Using a gas lighter

Take precautions.

If you are going to perform this trick, you should take proper precautions to avoid setting your house on fire and causing burns. To perform this trick, go outside, find a piece of free space without dense vegetation around or other flammable objects. If you need to quickly put out a fire, you should have a bucket of water on hand, and you should also have an adult supervise you while you perform the trick.

• If you use gloves for protection, you should use old leather gloves or coated gardening gloves that will fit snugly on your hands and have a fairly durable surface on the palms. While bulky gloves made from heat-resistant fabric provide excellent protection against burns, the cloth glove trick usually doesn't work and can actually be more dangerous. Bulky, heat-resistant gloves often extinguish flames, but regular fabric gloves can absorb liquefied gas, increasing the likelihood of the gloves catching fire and causing burns.

• Make a fist with your hand, leaving a gap between your little finger and your palm.

  Make a fist, leaving enough space inside it so that you can easily insert the end of the lighter there. Your fingers should be clenched relatively tightly so that the gas does not leak between them when you begin to fill your fist with it. The top hole of the fist, where the index finger touches the palm, should be clamped with the thumb.

• Try to imagine that you are holding water in your fist and trying to prevent it from spilling. The trick is essentially filling your fist with gas and igniting it as you open your hand.

Cold Fire

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See what “Cold Fire” is in other dictionaries:

cold Fire

— Cold fire (also cold flame, cold ignition and non-burning flame) is one of the low-temperature types of flame in chemistry. It is also used in fireworks and to create various special effects. Many esters of organic and...

Cold fire Coldfire Genre fucking Starring Wings Hauser Country USA Year 1992 IMDb ... Wikipedia

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fire

- ice fire snow fire cold fire ... Dictionary of oxymorons of the Russian language

fire

- scarlet (Gorodetsky); colorless (Anikin); brilliant (Balmont); pale (Sologub); fugitive (Balmont); cheerful (Gorky); insinuating (Balmont); trembling (Lermontov); burning (Balmont); alive (Fet); evil (Balmont); golden (Bashkin); sparkling... ... Dictionary of epithets

cold

— A/C and A/D pr; 111 lawsuit see Appendix II

- ... Wikipedia

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PASS FIRE WATER

PASS FIRE, WATER AND COPPER PIPES

- who [with whom] Experience many difficulties in life. It is understood that the trials that befall a person, all kinds of hardships can have different effects on his future life: on the one hand, they can strengthen his spirit, will, educate him... ... Phraseological Dictionary of the Russian Language

WALK THROUGH HIMSELF

- who [with whom] Experience many difficulties in life. It is understood that the trials that befall a person, all kinds of hardships can have different effects on his future life: on the one hand, they can strengthen his spirit, will, educate him... ... Phraseological Dictionary of the Russian Language

Books

• Cold Fire, Dean Koontz. Cold Fire is one of Dean Koontz's most famous novels. Its plot is based on the mysterious, unusual behavior of former school teacher Jim Irenhart, who became a hostage of a certain...

Surely every person has seen how in the movies or the circus people hold flames on their hands, or even juggle or throw them. And if they can be created using computer graphics, then in the circus it looks like a real miracle. In fact, this phenomenon has a completely scientific explanation and is called “cold fire” by chemists. If you wish, you can surprise guests at the holiday with a spectacle by making it yourself.

Types of materials

There are various versions of such items available for sale. You can use processed natural logs or buy dummy firewood. They are made from plastic, ceramics and other materials.

Natural firewood

The most pleasant in terms of visual perception is natural firewood. Split logs and solid logs can transform a room and add a touch of naturalness, which in modern conditions is a definite advantage when most materials are artificial.

Natural firewood in a modern interior will look quite organic and will bring its share of comfort

Of course, if you need to light the stove, such decorative firewood will have to be removed. If we are talking about a false fireplace, the only condition will be compliance with fire safety rules when creating an imitation of fire using dangerous methods, for example, candles. You also need to make sure that along with the wood you will not bring pests, mold, mildew, etc. into the house.

The variety of wood species and their external characteristics allows you to select the most suitable materials. For a light, light interior, small birch logs are suitable, but for a rich, classic room - coarse logs with textured bark.

Ceramics and stone

For modern biofuel fireplaces, fire-resistant materials that can be exposed to fire are more suitable. The best option is ceramics. It is used to create artificial firewood that copies natural material in the smallest detail. You can purchase completely different parts:

• whole logs and logs;
• burnt wood;
• coals;
• cones and branches.

This decor is practically no different from real wood. At the same time, there are completely no risks associated with its fire, smoke and sparking.

Ceramic firewood perfectly imitates natural wood, but only visually

One set can last quite a long time without changing its quality and decorative characteristics. Of course, if you frequently expose ceramics to high temperatures and open fire, it can become damaged. This mainly applies to low-quality raw materials. Since such decor costs a lot, about several tens of euros per set, it is worth taking a closer look at the quality and origin of the product before purchasing it.

Another option is decorating with stone. For this, natural stone or its artificial substitute, including the same ceramics, can be used. Ultra-modern fireplaces powered by alcohol fuel are often designed this way. The fire passing through the pebbles looks mesmerizing.

This bio-fireplace decor looks neat and has no unnecessary details.

Modern eco-fireplaces run on liquid fuel, which does not smoke or smoke. The decor in the brazier also does not emit any harmful compounds. That is why they can be installed without a chimney and used without harming your health.

Let's define it in terms

By non-burning flame, chemistry means a chain reaction of oxidation in which a glow is observed. So if you strictly follow the terminology, cold is not. It is used to create very spectacular special effects and some types of fireworks. A number of esters and acids, both organic and inorganic, are capable of producing a cold flame. The most commonly used is the ethyl derivative of boric acid.

Often, cold fire also means a visual “trick” in which the combustion process as such is absent. It is usually used not for tricks, but for design purposes.

Firewood imitation options and materials

In stores you can find many options for such products. They can be made of plastic or ceramic. Any imitation, purchased or made with your own hands, is designed to give realism to an artificial hearth to help you feel all the charm of home comfort and warmth.

Imitation of firewood or coals, made of plastic, has a very simple operating principle. Typically, such objects are illuminated with red light bulbs.

It is also possible that the light bulb is located inside each element. Of course, this is not entirely realistic, but still.

More expensive fireplace models are characterized by a flickering pattern or imitation of artificial flames, which occurs due to a special mechanism in which elements rotate around the lamp, alternating transparent and shaded sectors. This type of lighting can be located either behind a dummy of firewood or inside it.

The exact same lighting system can be used to achieve a burning effect, using real coal, which is placed in the fireplace niche.

In this case, the dummy and coals are illuminated from the bottom. Imitation of plastic firewood and coals, of course, is not ideal, and it has its own errors.

To hide all the shortcomings as much as possible, artificial firewood with lighting is placed as deep as possible in the fireplace niche, and the hearth is decorated with a fireplace grate, which serves as a mask for the shortcomings.

In expensive models of electric fireplaces you can find several techniques for simulating fire. To make the picture realistic, they use not only dummies of firewood, but also mirrors with strips of foil or ribbons in which the backlight lights are illuminated, creating the illusion of flames. In addition to everything, the models are equipped with various functions, steam supply, which imitates smoke from a fire, and a sound device that reproduces sounds similar to the crackling of firewood.

If your financial capabilities are not enough for such items, then as an option, you can try making dummies of firewood with your own hands.

The most effective way to make a cold fire at home

If we consider the most famous option for creating a flame that does not burn, then it will require quite accessible ingredients. Take a spoonful of alcohol (medical or chemically pure, used for analysis). It is mixed with an equal volume of boric acid powder. It, like alcohol, can be bought at any pharmacy. A drop of concentrated strong acid - hydrochloric or sulfuric - is dropped into the solution. For the uninformed: this one is filled into batteries, so getting it out is also not a problem. The vessel with the workpiece heats up. The fastest and safest way to do this is in a primitive water bath. When the mixture becomes noticeably warm, but not yet hot, you can begin to perform the trick.

If you have never made cold fire before, you should not set it on fire directly on your palm - if you do not have the skill, you will get injured. It is better to roll it up, soak it in the composition and only then set it on fire. The match (lighter) should not touch the ball of thread.

Another way to repeat this trick

It should be noted that the mixture of carbon tetrachloride and cyclohexane is toxic. For this reason, the focus is placed in a very large, well-ventilated room. For example, in the circus arena during pauses between performances, when there is forced ventilation using powerful mechanisms.

A trick using ethyl ester of boric acid is less dangerous. But its vapors burn not with a yellow, but with a greenish flame, which is not so impressive. To prepare ethyl ester of boric acid in a strictly defined proportion, dry boric acid itself, ethyl alcohol, concentrated hydrochloric or sulfuric acid are used. The mixture releases ether vapors that are not visible. The resulting aerosol burns. This fire does not burn the skin at all. But if after some time (a matter of seconds!) you do not block the access of air to the mixture, the ethyl alcohol itself will begin to burn, which will result in a guaranteed skin burn.

As you can see, tricks with cold fire are very effective in the dark, but require excellent reaction. When demonstrating them, there is always an assistant with a wet towel next to the magician - in case the magician does not have time to quickly put out the flame and gets burned.

Caution is paramount!

The fire remains cold only as long as the ether formed by the reagents burns. When it runs out, ethyl alcohol will take over directly - but its combustion temperature is quite high. In addition, do not forget that the acid involved in creating the flame is a dangerous substance. So you should take precautions:

1. Do not increase the dose of acid under any circumstances. Firstly, an explosive mixture may result. Secondly, you can get a chemical burn by placing the ball on your palm.
2. Make sure that there is no hair or edge of clothing near the ball being lit. An inexperienced magician may not catch the moment of ignition of alcohol, and the mentioned things are easily flammable.
3. Keep a small, non-flammable container nearby to cover and extinguish the cold fire when it gets hot. Or perform a magic trick over the kitchen sink to quickly throw it down.

After a certain amount of training, when you learn to control temperature changes to such an extent that you do not get burned, you can light a non-burning flame directly on the palm of your hand.

A safer option

You can make a cold fire in another way, although it will look less impressive, since the flame from it has a familiar color, not greenish. Take a small piece of cotton fabric, roll it into a ball and wrap it (or better yet, stitch it) with thread so that it does not unravel. Low-temperature fuel, for example, isopropanol, is poured into a shallow bowl. You can take the so-called one, but here you need to be careful: these liquids have different combustion temperatures, and you can run into quite noticeable ones. The fabric ball is dipped in fuel, wrung out and set on fire. The lump will warm your hand, but if you roll it over your palm and between your fingers, you will only feel a pleasant warmth. And if you lubricate the place where the ball is placed with cream, you can keep it in one place. The only safety measure is not to touch the top of the flame - this is a guaranteed burn.

The final stage is securing the structure

It should not only look as natural as possible, but also be additionally secured. To do this, we use several scraps of pre-prepared fabric. For strengthening, it is best to use white silk, since throughout its structure and color, it fits harmoniously into the overall picture of the dummy and conveys all light effects well.

The shreds need to be secured next to the fan, so when it operates, they will perform rhythmic vibrations.

This completes the imitation of fire in a false fireplace. In order to reproduce this effect, you simply need to connect the fan to the network. The advantages of this visualization are guaranteed safety, high realism and minimal production time.

Simulated flame

It remains to consider the cold fireplace fire. At home, not having the opportunity to lay out a real fireplace, many romantics do just that. A fan is placed in a box (you can even use cardboard) so that the air flow from it is directed upward. LEDs and optical filters of red, blue and yellow are placed in the corners. There are mirrors on the sides inside. Triangles are cut from fabric and glued to the box. The system is plugged into the sockets - and a cold flame creates comfort in the room.

During a hike, extreme tourism, or in difficult life situations, there is often a need for a fire. But how to make a fire without a lighter and matches - here you will need special skills, plus improvised means that you will definitely find.

To bring together various methods of making fire without resorting to matches and a lighter, so that they are suitable for any difficult situation, regardless of the time of year and weather - this is the goal of this article.

Real warmth from a cold fire

In conclusion of the article, I would like to doubt the reality of a fireplace without the enveloping flows of heat emanating from it. The simplest solution would be an air conditioner suspended above the fireplace, but the characteristic sound of its operation will most likely ruin the whole picture. Small, silent air heaters installed in the very firebox of a false fireplace will allow you not only to enjoy the realism of the illusion, but also to warm your chilled hands over the cold flames.

To learn how to make a decorative fireplace with your own hands, watch the video below.

3d image

A fire in a fireplace can be created very realistically using holography. For this, a flat image is used, which with the help of special technologies acquires three-dimensionality. If you add an optical system and LED lights, you can achieve a very realistic image of a flame in a small space. In this case, the depth of the picture will exceed the actual depth of the fireplace.

Magnifying glass plus cotton wool

This method of making fire without a lighter or matches will help out on a sunny day, even when everything was mercilessly wet in the rain the day before, regardless of the season. The main condition is shining sun without clouds at the moment.

• Cotton wool can be found in the first aid kit, but it can be replaced with a paper napkin, a wad of toilet paper, or a bunch of dry grass or a piece of birch bark, if you can find one - that is, anything that is useful as tinder.
• A convex type lens with a thickened middle is brought to a flammable medium and the sun ray is focused as closely as possible into one point beam.
• Soon - and this depends on the collecting properties of the convex glass - the substance placed under the lens will light up; in the case of grass and birch bark, it will begin to smoke, so you will have to fan the flame.

If you have a tablet candle or dry alcohol with you, it is better to light a flame under them so that they turn into a stable source of fire from which a fire will subsequently be built.

A little history

The first experiments in creating a safe fire and turning household heaters into decorative elements for residential premises were undertaken a long time ago. The origins of this trend include an electric fireplace with a heating element and a decorative panel. It was made in the form of smoldering coals with internal illumination by an ordinary incandescent lamp. Similar imitators could be found in the middle of the last century.

Somewhat later, the lighting was given more dynamism. Electrical appliances were equipped with strips of foil that rose in currents of warm air and reflected fancy reflections on the body of the device, creating the effect of a flickering flame.

The first successful illusion of live fire was a cut of light fabric swaying in artificial air jets pumped by a built-in fan. This principle of simulating open flames formed the basis for the further development of the design direction and still has the right to life.

Cold fire obtained in this way “in its pure form” has a sufficient level of entertainment, the light reflections bizarrely and uniquely change their position in space. But the realism of such an imitation is low, since the picture looks hand-drawn. To add volume and “visual vitality,” a built-in system of mirrors and light filters is used, as well as electronic control of the lighting elements.

In addition to electronic and mechanical methods of creating the effect of live fire, digital and LCD technologies, cold steam generators, 3D holograms with a stereo effect and other achievements of modern development of science and technology are widely used in our time.

There are several ways to light a safe fire in an apartment fireplace. Let's look at them in more detail.

Method one. simplest

If there is no desire or opportunity to manufacture a complex electronic-mechanical structure, then you can use the simplest solution to the problem: paste a photographic image of burning wood into the hearth of the fireplace. To give some semblance of realism, it is necessary to install spotlights with filters of various colors.

The lowest cost, but no less effective, would be to use an old Christmas tree garland. To achieve this, the inside of the mini-shades is lined with reflective foil. The controller built into the garland will allow you to simulate the dynamics of light transmission, like from living flames. To give the picture a visual stereo volume, you can select a holographic 3D image of an open fire of a suitable size.

Method two. Theatrical

As the name suggests, this method is borrowed from theatrical props. When, according to the plot of a play, it is necessary to light a safe fire on stage, the decorators use just such a fire.

To light a theatrical fire in the fireplace, you need to stock up on the following items:

The fan housing is dismantled. Its working part is rigidly mounted at the bottom of your fireplace so that the forced air flows perpendicular to the base. The electrical wiring is laid in cable channels and led outside the fireplace.

Three halogen lamps are mounted below the working plane of the fan: one along the central axis of the fan, two at an angle of 30 degrees in each direction. The direction of light on the future hearth should be from bottom to top.

As brackets for lamps, you can use the remains of a bent metal profile for gypsum boards. Light filters are attached at a distance of 1-2 cm in front of each lamp. It is additionally recommended to install a blue filter on the central lamp; this will give the flame more exotic reflections.

The next stage is imitation of flames. Future flames of irregular shape are cut from white silk and attached to the fan grille in “artistic disorder.”

The open fire simulator is ready for use. All that remains is to adjust the fan power, the angle of the light filters and fill the artificial parts of the fireplace with purchased birch charcoal.

Method three. water vapor

This method of simulating open fire is an order of magnitude more complex than the previous one. This will require very specific equipment and minimal skills in working with electronics.

This technical solution requires the following:

All of these devices can be purchased at retail or dismantled from old concert equipment that creates a steam effect.

Fog generators are installed at the bottom of a sealed container for distilled water. Each generator in its design involves a membrane, which, due to high-frequency vibration, creates a local reduced pressure. Under low pressure conditions, water evaporates at a temperature close to room temperature.

The fan is rigidly mounted in the active evaporation zone and drives the resulting steam upward. LED lighting, controlled by a decoder and a controller, creates a very realistic visual sensation of the play of light and shadow of living flames.

In the lower part of the fireplace, the steam is illuminated more strongly and there is a feeling of the presence of an open flame. At the top, the illumination is less intense and creates the illusion of smoke.

To prevent the formation of excess condensation, a diaphragm is installed in the upper part of the source.

Used lighter with flint plus cotton wool or paper

It doesn’t matter if a silicon lighter runs out of gas at the most critical moment—a flame can still be produced from it.

• You need to stock up on the same cotton wool, a napkin or a piece of toilet paper, placing them on something that burns longer, for example, on the same tablet candle, on a lump of dry grass or old dried moss.
• First, you need to remove the top metal cap, and, holding the lighter close, scratch it - sparks will fall on the tinder and cause ignition.

Therefore, do not rush to throw away a lighter deprived of gas - it can still help out by starting a fire without matches.

Working battery plus paper and foil

You will probably find packaging paper that is coated with foil on one side, like inside a cigarette pack or on a chewing gum wrapper. All that remains is to find a working cylindrical battery - and a fire without a lighter or matches is guaranteed.

• A thin long strip is cut from a piece of paper foil, capable of reaching from one pole to the other, but with a margin.
• If there is only a short piece, it’s not scary, just step back from the negative pole, which is a flat area, clean the insulating layer on the cylinder with a knife - this will already be the positive pole, and shorting them will give a discharge.
• You will have to experiment with the thickness of the foil, since it either burns out instantly or heats up slowly.
• It makes sense to make the jumper itself a couple of mm thinner than the ends of the tape.

Just place the sagging middle on a flammable medium - and the flame without matches is ready!

Simulating a live fire for a cardboard fireplace using Arduino and plastic bottles

But what is a fireplace without fire? And so I wanted to diversify this product with a large fire inside. In principle, it would be possible to make a fire by friction))), but still, the 21st century is in the yard, so I decided to get a fireplace fire (or rather to imitate it) to use an Arduino Nano controller to light the LEDs in a chaotic manner, which, in turn, they will “revive” the entire composition with a pleasant flickering of red light, a little like the trembling of flames, like in a real fireplace.

For this I used the following materials:

My tools in the process of “making fire” consisted of this:

Now how I proceeded, step by step:

1. First, I obtained 5 light-emitting elements. They were extracted from non-working optical computer mice. But we had to choose only elements that emit red light, otherwise it wouldn’t look like fire.

By the way, they are very bright, so I don’t recommend shining them into your own or someone else’s eyes directly, it may not be safe for your eyesight!

2. Diodes from mice have a current consumption of about 75 mA. On the one hand, it gives excellent brightness and rich red light. On the other hand, such consumption is too high to power them directly from Arduino. Whose maximum current per output is known to be no more than 40 mA. Therefore, I decided to connect the LEDs to the controller using a simple load control circuit via N-channel MOSFET transistors.

A uniformly concave spoon or ladle plus a cotton or paper roll

The larger the diameter of the object and the depth of the concave bottom, the faster a fire will appear in the sun without the need for matches or a lighter. The tablespoon can be straightened so that the concavity on all sides is approximately the same - this is necessary for maximum concentration of the sun's ray beam at one point.

• A couple of napkins or a piece of toilet paper should be rolled into a tight roll the size of a pencil.
• One end of the roller is cut off evenly and smeared with soot, or ash - this will be like a wick.
• Now all that remains is to direct the concave bottom towards the sun, bring it close to the point where the beam of rays is reflected, and wait for the haze to appear.

Then you will have to inflate the homemade wick and bring it to the tinder in order to start a fire in the absence of matches.

Condom filled with water plus coals

This trick for making fire without matches or a lighter has the same principle of a focusing lens, concentrating the rays of the sun into a single point.

• First, fill the straightened condom with a portion of water.
• Next, pull the tip down and press it between your knees.
• Now you need to pour as much water into the product as possible so that the homemade “lens” has a larger diameter - this will create a flame faster.
• The water collected below in the form of a round flask must be secured by tying a condom in a knot on top.
• Then they put a pile of coals and direct a beam of sunlight onto one of them, waiting for a slight smoke.
• They take a heated coal, blow it red hot and, pressing another one to it, continue to blow.

Now the hot coals are returned to the pile and, still fanned, tinder is added - soon the long-awaited flames will appear.

Block of ice plus wick

On a sunny frosty day, if you don’t have matches and a lighter at hand, and the need for fire arises, you can look for a block of glass-like ice - and a flame, after some effort, is guaranteed.

• The block is cleared of snow and roughness, first with a knife or ax, and then polished by hand.
• The main thing is to achieve the shape of the meniscus, when one of the surfaces is convex, the other can be left flat.
• Now the concentrated sun spot is directed onto the wick until smoke comes out.

All that remains is to light the tinder with a hot wick and make a fire.

Frictional force for making fire

The friction method has long been used to produce flames, so it is not a sin to use ancient knowledge in an extreme situation.

• Rubbing a stick on a wooden block, if you make a hole of similar size in the block, will lead to the appearance of smoke, even when everything around is damp from rain.
• If you sprinkle a thin layer of cotton wool with soot or chalk and then roll it into a tight roller, then quickly rolling it between two boards will cause a fire inside.
• If you wrap a flexible wire or a guitar string with handles on the ends of the sticks around the trunk of a log and, placing a wick, begin to rub quickly, the wick will soon ignite.

In principle, any friction between two hard surfaces will lead to strong heating.

What can act as tinder and wick

Dry paper for lighting a fire is not always available, but fire is needed. The following means can serve as wick and tinder:

• cotton wool and cotton insulation;
• rags;
• handkerchief;
• cotton pads and tampons;
• toilet paper and napkins;
• small chips and wood shavings;
• old reeds, reeds and cattails;
• rocking old cattails;
• birch bark;
• hay and straw;
• old dry moss.

The main thing is not to get lost and look around, you will definitely find something suitable for lighting a fire.

Flame control

Manufacturers of gas fireplaces have achieved complete control over fire. The flame can be of different heights and intensity. The flame is controlled using a remote control: gas fireplaces have convenient and simple controls.

The biofireplace has several combustion modes: normal and economical, with low intensity, which allows you to increase the burning time of the fireplace.

The fire in a wood-burning fireplace with an open firebox is left to its own devices: it burns as long as there is fuel in the firebox and there is draft. Such fireplaces are the warmest, but burn on one fireplace for no more than 2-3 hours, therefore they are considered decorative.

A glass-ceramic damper helps control air flows and ensure smoldering mode: the fire is visible, but the heat is controlled. When the valve providing traction is partially closed, the fire burns less intensely (the access of oxygen decreases) and takes longer - up to 4-5 hours.