We’re two days away from Halloween. Unless you have small children or an insatiable love for chocolate, you probably don’t get as excited about Halloween as you did when you were younger. Well, get excited again, because everyone knows that compressed gases and pumpkins go hand-in-hand. OK, so most people don’t immediately make that connection, but it’s true.
Behold the Punkin’ Chunkin’ contest, where competitors try to launch pumpkins as far as possible. The secret to defying gravity is by using compressed gases like nitrogen. We were turned onto the contest by GAWDA President-Elect Bryan Keen. He told us about a customer who used compressed nitrogen for the pumpkin launching contest. In the competition, teams use giant cannons powered by nothing but air, and the results are stunning.
In 2008, one team set the Punkin’ Chunkin’ record by launching a pumpkin 4483.51 feet using compressed gas. That’s about .85 miles. Not bad at all. This year’s contest runs Nov 5-7, and will air on the Science Channel on Thanksgiving. Here’s a little preview of what you might see: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpfGGWK46pc
Changes in gas cylinder technology often look to improve on external aspects: RFID tracking, automated filling, ultrasonic testing, and so forth. It’s more unusual to see major changes to the actual cylinders themselves. After all, what kinds of improvements can we make to something so durable and effective? When I came across this see-through cylinder, it struck me as really innovative. The idea behind it is that customers will always know how much gas is left, and they’ll never run out at an inopportune moment.
The publishers of the well-known how-to series have just published Welding For Dummies. The books have been around since 1991 and cover seemingly everything, so why did it take them so long to publish Welding For Dummies? (It appears they did print TIG Welding For Dummies in 2008, but that only covers part of it.)
