[Coco] Sort of OT: Recapping

[Bill Pierce]

Both acetone and alcohol, though HIGHLY flammable, evaporate almost immediately, so after a minute or two, probably the only thing flammable is the qtip itself.
A little "Gene Story" here...
Back in 79-80, I was living in Greenville SC with my older brother and got a job at an adhesive plant, "ParaChem Southern". We made flooring related adhesives for almost every flooring supply company.
Acetone is used in almost ALL water based adhesives to keep it from drying up in the container. Once it hits air, the acetone evaporates, and the glue dries. So, we had huge tanks outside filled with PURE acetone (not the stuff you buy in stores), and inside, we had 2 inch valves with hoses for acetone (not to mention lines straight to the mixing vats). We used the hoses to wash down in the evening as we would inevitably end up having glue fights in the drawing room where we filled the buckets. We would line up and spray each other down. And I mean SPRAY as in totally soaked. This stuff was ice cold for about 2 seconds and before you could count to 4 you were completely dry so you had to have 2 people wiping the glue off while one guy handled the hose.
The popular thing was to catch the newbies going across the floor and chunk a bucket of acetone at them. At 10-15 feet, the stuff would dissipate with victim standing there prepared for the liquid, looking stupid.
Ironically, we would wash down in acetone before going out for a smoke break or lunch. You could hold your lighter to your clothes minutes after after soaking in the stuff with no effect. It evaporates just that fast.
The factory was all big warehouse space with huge fans constantly ventilating the areas. In EJ's case, they were in a closed area with nowhere for the stuff to go. Like being inside a Bic lighter. The flash would have been huge.


-----Original Message-----
From: Gene Heskett <gheskett at shentel.net>
To: coco at maltedmedia.com
Sent: Tue, Dec 1, 2020 6:38 pm
Subject: Re: [Coco] Sort of OT: Recapping

<Snip>