Re: Boise: anyone want a smoke-ring gun?

[Ludwik Kowalski <kowalskiL@MAIL.MONTCLAIR.EDU>]

The old methods of visualizing light beams was smoke
from a cigarette or chalk dust from an eraser. A couple
of drops of milk in water, combined with smoke in air,
can be used to demonstrate refraction, for example, by
using a laser pointer.

Kossom wrote:

> Howdy-
>
> I have already purchased one of these, and they are remarkably cool. They
> fire smoke rings as advertised, and I find them endlessly fascinating.
>
> The smoke has no odor, except in ridiculously high concentrations. It leaves
> no deposits behind that I have found so far, being way ahead of soap
> bubbles.
>
> Their biggest advantage is that they are an acid test for whether or not a
> person is interested in science. I got mine while summer school was still
> going on, and I sat around playing with it in the teachers' lounge and
> outside my classroom. The school's science teachers and most interested
> science students found the thing incredibly neat and would sometimes
> actively take it from me to play with it.
>
> Those members of the faculty who have shown no interest in science found the
> Zero Blaster pointless, which of course it is, not like it is going to cure
> cancer, but it's cool.
>
> * * *
>
> I have been trying to rig it to make fog for lasers but I have been
> unsuccessful. I figure that its release mechanism is designed to keep the
> fog holed up in the drum. Perhaps if I cut the top off? It reminds of this
> project
>
> <http://www.netcomuk.co.uk/~wwl/smokegun.html>
>
> where he makes a syringe powered smoke generator.
>
> Seems like this is similar and potentially cheaper. Do you think it might
> work? If so, sign me up for another.
>
> Marc "Zeke" Kossover