In some respects , firefighting engineering science has come a retentive path over the retiring several tenner — we now have flame suppressing foams and powders for instance , as well as new ways of delivering them to the fire .
But essentially , we ’re still fighting fire the erstwhile fashioned style : point hose / bucket / pressurize container and drench . But a squad of Harvard investigator envisions a daytime when fire-eater will snuff out flames not with a strong-arm appetite suppressant but with ablast of electric stream .
Today at the 241st National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society , scientists described a agency of suppressing or decimate flames without deluge edifice or exploit a vast source of water system . Noting a 200 - year - erstwhile observation that electric charges can affect the shape of flames , they seized on the phenomenon and developed an electrical wave “ blaster ” that could be the basis of a young genre of firefighting tech .
The researchers ’ setup involves connect a 600 - watt amplifier to a form of scepter that directs the electrical current into a shaft of light . The researchers then created an open flame about a foot high . From a distance , the scepter was able to snuff out the flame only over and over again .
The process by which it does this is complex , the researchers say , and is really not really well understood ( there are a lot of different things happening at once , apparently ) . But critically , it seems the carbon particle ( soot ) generated during burning are easily charge , and once charged they answer to galvanising fields in strange means that involve the stableness of the flame . excite that stability hard enough , and the flaming collapses .
Six - hundred watt is roughly what it take up to power a high - end car stereo , but the researchers think they could achieve standardized event with one - tenth the wattage . That means such a wave blaster could be par down into a hand-held whole or one carry on the back .
Such a blaster could reserve fire fighter to open a path in a wall of flame to get inside ( or out of ) a burn construction , or open up a passage of escape for people trap indoors . The tech could even be build into roof get on regular like the sprinkler that are omnipresent in buildings today , saving intact edifice from getting imbrue when a flaming break out in one belittled corner .
[ Eurekalert . Image : dvs viaFlickr ]
This mail earlier appear onPopular Science .
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