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Education
A Stitch in Time, Fire from Water, Home Free, Department of Obscure Information
by Marc S. Reisch
May 23, 2005
| A version of this story appeared in
Volume 83, Issue 21
Mark your calendars for the time Traveler Convention set for May 7, 2005, in the East Campus Courtyard of Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Newscripts received word of the gathering too late to give potential attendees notice before the event, but after all, that really doesn't matter.
If you are just hearing about the event now, you may not have missed a thing and could still help enliven the gathering. "If time travel is invented in your lifetime, you can always come later," points out the event's organizer, MIT student Amal K. Dorai.
Visitors from the future are encouraged to bring proof positive of their origin from another time: a cure for AIDS, a solution for global poverty, or a cold fusion reactor.
However, the convention was a mixed success, Dorai reports. "Unfortunately, we had no confirmed time travelers visit us," he says. But "many time travelers could have attended incognito to avoid endless questions about the future."
Still, the gathering offered "a great series of lectures, awesome bands, and even a DeLorean." The latter is a gull-winged, futuristic car built between 1981 and 1983 and featured in the "Back to the Future" series of films.
Heat & Glo, a maker of gas, wood, and electric fireplaces, now offers the first commercially available in-home fireplace that extracts and burns hydrogen found in water. This distinction makes the new Aqueon the first gas fireplace that does not produce harmful air pollutants such as carbon monoxide and nitrous oxide.
While hydrogen-powered cars and fueling stations may be driving the shift to the pollution-free hydrogen economy, the firm claims that the Aqueon is the first appliance to drive the benefits of hydrogen home.
Operating the Aqueon couldn't be simpler. Just hook the appliance up to water and power sources. Hydrogen is produced via electrolysis when a current passes through the water to separate the hydrogen and oxygen. "Upon separation, the two elements channel individually and the Aqueon instantly ignites the hydrogen to create the flame," the firm says.
Hydrogen safety is a consideration. Heat & Glo's Tom Bachinski, vice president of R&D/engineering, says that "by instantly igniting the hydrogen, the Aqueon ensures a real-time combustion process that removes any chance of hydrogen fuel build-up."
Excess oxygen is no cause for alarm either. "The Aqueon either introduces the oxygen as a secondary source to add flame color and brightness or simply releases it into the room," adds Bachinski.
The 31,000-Btu flare features a 360-degree view of an open flame. The firm's literature says it "incorporates stainless steel and copper elements that evoke the fluid motion of fire and water."
Reader Allen A. Denio of Newark, Del., alerted Newscripts about the item after he read about it in a local news report. He circled the Aqueon's price range in the report--$35,000 to $49,999--and commented, "Every chemist needs one of these!"
A recent question on the television quiz show "Jeopardy" asked contestants what was invented by 1993 ACS president Helen M. Free and her husband, Alfred H. Free. The two, experts in development of dry reagents that have become the standard in laboratory urinalysis, invented the dip-and-read tests that allowed diabetics to easily and accurately monitor their blood glucose levels at home.
Free told an ACS staffer that she just happened to be watching the popular program when the question came up and had no advance notice of it.
Reader Howard J. Wilk of Philadelphia writes that while doing a patent search, he discovered, completely by accident, that one of the inventors of U.S. Patent No. 5,100,918, Prevention or Treatment of Sunburn Using the S (+) Isomer of Ibuprofen, is none other than Abraham Sunshine.
This week's column was written by
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