T-Shirt Tomfoolery

[Aggie]

Will have to check into shipping etc - they are somewhat pricey and there are alternative local options.  My biggest problem is that being lanky, I don't tend to fill out t-shirts that fit my frame (i.e. need a large for length but not for width).


Starting to think again about why nobody has yet started a local t-shirt co-operative that allows artists and designers to buy in and produce their own stuff using co-op owned equipment, and sell centrally on commission or produce at cost to sell independently.


_{I figure there should be a market for women's t-shirts with the following design, although it's a bit of an inside Transportation of Dangerous Goods joke that only safety-oriented people might actually get:}

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

Care to explain? 

[Aggie]

Google "Class 4.3"; other versions of the placard state the hazard explicitly.

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

[Aggie]

Subtle yet scandalous, the way I like it.

[Darlica]

Ooooookay.

I'm not going to ask you what your female companion has been up to.

Stupid me I though that  type of agitated state usually was the least dangerous...

[Lindorm]

Ooookaaayyy....

I recognize the sign, but I still don't get the joke. Women release inflammable gases when in contact with water? A 6.2 label I would get, or a class 8 label, or even a UN code of 946, but 4.3? Am I being particularily blonde here?

[Aggie]

4.2 is certainly more appropriate for some.  The joke's in the verbal shorthand description of the hazard rather than the chemical implications.  Unless the female in question is prone to farting in the bath.

OK, I'm being dense now and can't cross-reference UN 0946, apparently... 


_{split topic to avoid clutter}

[Lindorm]

OK, now that I have looked up the english language shorthand definition, I think I understand a bit more. The Swedish shorthand description is on the lines of "Releases combustible gas on contact with water". I was wondering if it was some sort of reference to some witch in a childrens movie that I can't remember right now that burst into smoke when exposed to water.


Hazard identifier 946:

9 = Risk of strong spontaneous reaction
4 = Inflammable solid substance
6 = Toxic or Biohazard

There is, to my knowledge, no substance with UN code 0946 -there is a gap between 0508 1-HYDROXYBENSOTRIAZOL, WATERFREE (hazard code 1.3, BTW) and 1001 ACETYLENE, DISSOLVED (hazard code 239).

Where I am stationed, we do run trains to and from local destinations with bulk loads of UN 1965, UN 1170, UN 1942 and UN1202, as well as a smattering of UN3268. We also carry phosphoric acid in breakbulk quantities to the Coca-Cola plant in Jordbro, outside Stockholm. We also run trains that originate and terminate elsewhere and carry lots of bizarre stuff. The towns of Sundsvall and Norrköping both have extensive chemical industries, so you get to see a lot of orange placards in trains from those places.

And sometimes, I am not even sure that I want to know what's in the container of "Cryogenically cooled gas, corrosive, toxic, Not Otherwise Specified"...

[ivor]

May as well throw this one in there too then:

[Aggie]

Ah, my ignorance at the composite hazard identifier.

You're thinking of The Wizard of Oz, by the way.

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

Wouldn't the sign apply for pure Na/K (explosive on water contact)?
--
Any who, "resbaladizo cuando está mojado" (slippery when wet) is gender specific: el suelo (he, the floor) está mojado (had it been feminine would be mojada) which limits it's use.

Works in English, though.

[Swatopluk]

And sometimes, I am not even sure that I want to know what's in the container of "Cryogenically cooled gas, corrosive, toxic, Not Otherwise Specified"...

If it's not chlorine, I'd guess some nitric acid derivate or relative. I don't think that fluorine is transported in large quantities.
Now that I think about it, it could be a hydrogen halide (HCl, HBr, HF) too.
Now that I think even more, phosphor halides are also possible.

Maybe you should do a check on occasion

[Sibling DavidH]

Yes, drill a little hole and have a sniff. 

[Lindorm]

And sometimes, I am not even sure that I want to know what's in the container of "Cryogenically cooled gas, corrosive, toxic, Not Otherwise Specified"...

If it's not chlorine, I'd guess some nitric acid derivate or relative. I don't think that fluorine is transported in large quantities.
Now that I think about it, it could be a hydrogen halide (HCl, HBr, HF) too.
Now that I think even more, phosphor halides are also possible.

Maybe you should do a check on occasion

Flourine compounds are used in metallurgical processes, and I have myself operated trains that had tanker wagons loaded with hydroflouric acid (unknown concentration, though). I wonder what they were lined with, but I was not inclined to have a look. 

The company I work for also runs wagons loaded with cyanides from a chemical factory in Sweden to a Czech company that specializes in supplying process chemicals for metallurgical industry. Industry uses some very strange things...

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

Flourine compounds are used in metallurgical processes, and I have myself operated trains that had tanker wagons loaded with hydroflouric acid (unknown concentration, though). I wonder what they were lined with, but I was not inclined to have a look. 

Once, back in the day, I had in my hand a bottle of high molar Hydrofluoric acid.   It was unopened, and had likely been manufactured in the late 50's.  This was in the spring of 1976, and the bottle in question had been inherited to our high school from another, older school that had been closed.   

I was, at the time, the chemistry teacher's assistant for that hour, and was unpacking the boxes of inherited stuff.

Mr Barnard, my teacher, in a very calm voice, cautioned me to take great care with that antique bottle-- as it was made entirely of acid proof wax!   And, if the label was genuine and at all accurate?  There was sufficient 'chemical power' to dissolve my hand....  I carefully placed the bottle (it was an opaque green color) on the counter top....

Mr Barnard was like that-- he did not permit himself to become flustered, and possibly make matters worse...

Now that modern chemistry has discovered high-density polyethylene and high-density polypropylene?  Those antique all-wax bottles are a thing of the past-- pretty much no chemical attacks either of the poly's I mentioned.   About the only thing that does, is ozone or ultra-violet light, and that takes 10's of years or more...

So I quite imagine the liners for your tanks were either of those poly-plastics.  They've long since proved more than resistant to acids of all types.

I suppose there may be an oil- or benzene- based solvent that could slowly degrade the stuff-- but nothing common.  I know: I've looked for a solvent-weld chemical to fix polyethylene/polypropylene stuff (high or low density) and nothing fazes it.

Except heat, of course.    Then it flows like the wax it so closely resembles (chemically).



Which brings me to another question:  what lined the chemical cars prior to the widespread use of polyethylene/polypropylene?  Wax...?

[Swatopluk]

I essence, yes. Paraffine would be the term used. Maybe combined with some stabilizer.

Btw, some mad pranksters haunt(ed) the Berlin subway system with HF pens. In the past windows were scratched with diamond pens, these guys use fountain pens (or something like that) with HF. That is 'easier' and leaves a surface that is harmful to touch for quite some time. Apart from being toxic, fluoride inhibits healing.

---

Cyanides are used for galvanic baths because they yield the smoothest deposition of coatings. They are also used in goldmining for the purpose of separation of the gold from other components (I leave it to you, whether that is an improvement over mercury).

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

... Btw, some mad pranksters haunt(ed) the Berlin subway system with HF pens. ...

A while back, those were "all the rage" as an anti-theft item for cars.  The idea, was to inscribe your vehicle's VIN into all it's glass, as there were any number of auto theft and dismantling rings about-- fully 1/3 of the value of a stolen car (parts-wise) was it's glass.  If it was marked with a VIN, it was useless (or so the strategy went).

So, jumping into that particular bandwagon, some companies began marketing HF pens to do just that:  mark the 'un-markable'.   The pens did exactly what they were sold to do, but they also did much, much more, little of it positive.

Soon enough, the practice was quietly discouraged:  it wasn't effective anyhow.   The thieves would simply discard the marked glass-- after all, they had "invested" nothing in acquiring the auto in the first place...

[Swatopluk]

In one South American country (forgotten which) it was once* mandatory to have the licence number engraved in the windshield for that purpose.

*definitely before 1970