I travelled by air to Rockhampton by air recently to deliver an introductory occupational hygiene course for a client. I like to demonstrate industrial ventilation and one of the things I was unable to take on the plane with me was a Drager Smoke Tube.
These are small, sealed glass tubes, filled with clay impregnated with sulphuric acid. When the ends are broken off and air puffed through it, it produces a chemical smoke that can be used in explosive atmospheres. Not great if you get it in your eyes, but its “safe”. The airline passed me onto a dangerous goods packing form who offered to pack my tube for a mere $250, so i bought a new box of ten tubes and had them shipped as dangerous goods – for a total cost of half the price. I ended up giving away the unused tubes, as i could not bring them back on the plane with me.
I started looking at various miniature electrically powered foggers used in theatres. (I use a larger one from a local electrical shop Dick Smith but that is much to big to carry in my hand luggage) They all seemed rather expensive, but I found that a various companies make small fog machines to fit in the funnels of miniature electric trains. I bought one made by Seuthe on eBay that started smoking at 9V and was rated to 16V. It drew about 100mA, making the power consumption about 2 W. It seemed to work fine with the fog fluid used with my larger Dick Smith fogger.
More pictures to come.
