If you choose to clean coins with acetone, DON'T do this: Pensioner escapes injury after Milton house fire sparked by nail polish remover and cigarette
Smoking and using acetone.....LOL! My old boss told me a story about how he was cleaning stuff in the lab with acetone and kimwipes. He nearly filled a trash can with acetone soaked Kimwipes. Here comes his boss walking by smoking a cigar (this was the 'good old days') and he taps his cigar ash into the trash can igniting a very exciting but short-lived fire....very fortunate not to burn the whole lab down! A couple of years ago I was pumping gas and a twenty-something pulls up next to me to fill up. I see him sitting in his car smoking a cigarette.....I'm watching thinking he's going to put that out, right? Nope, dumbarse gets out and proceeds to start pumping gas with the cig hanging out of his mouth. I said edited dude? You trying to kill us? At first he refused to put it out until I started walking his way and I picked-up my language. I was seriously going to yank it out of his mouth and toss it into his car. LOL
That's almost as dumb (OP's article) as putting acetone in a Styrofoam cup......... Yeah, I was dumb.
Years ago our neighbor was smoking while striping furniture paint in his house. Saw him smoking through the window. A short time later I hear sirens. The house was engulfed in flames. Total lose. Ironically the police said that they suspected they were selling certain smoking type drugs, and the smell from the fire confirmed it. Not a good story considering the lose of property. But people will do what they do without thinking of the potential consequences.
Oh, I dunno. Could've been worse: "J. Sanford Saltus, an international figure in the numismatic world, died suddenly at the Hotel Metropole, in London, on June 24, 1922. His body was discovered lying on the floor, fully dressed, by one of the hotel maids. A verdict of "death by misadventure" was rendered by the coroner's jury. The evidence at the inquest disclosed the fact that on the day before his death he had purchased a small quantity of potassium cyanide for the purpose of cleaning some recent purchases of silver coins, and retired to his room. Shortly afterward he ordered a bottle of ginger ale. A glass containing the poison and a glass containing the ginger ale were found side by side on the dressing table, and it is believed that while interested in cleaning the coins he took a drink of the poison in mistake for the ginger ale." (I believe the original source of that particular version of the story was the August, 1922 edition of The Numismatist. It was also reported in the New York Times.)
I hate to admit but many years ago I had a 1/4" drill that was not working well, sooo I squirted some WD-40 in it. That didn't go well.
I'm reminded of the "gas fight" scene from Zoolander. Worth watching if you haven't seen it. Seldom has violent death been quite so funny. Zoolander gas fight !!!! - YouTube
Sounds like my father looking for a gas leak - shessh I must of "discussed" this with him for 10 minutes on the stupidity of it. I also once had a relative learn a good lesson about fireworks and outhouses - lucky to only have lost eye brows and a good buzz cut.
I had a brother-in-law who was explaining how it was safe to use a cigarette lighter to look into a carburetor...he still has the scars on his hands.
"Her mother she could never stand, Sing rickety-tickety-tin, Her mother she cold never stand, And so a cyanide soup she planned. The mother died with a spoon in her hand, And her face in a hideous grin, a grin, Her face in a hideous grin." Tom Lehrer - The Irish Ballad
Seriously? I thought it was funniest movie Ben Stiller has ever made. Starsky & Hutch was pretty good, too.
Gasoline fumes are NOT ignitable. That's just Hollywood legend. It takes a Flame to ignite gas fumes. Easily researchable.
What. First of all, there's no "flame" igniting gas vapor in an engine cylinder. Yes, the effective temperature of an electric spark is hotter than a "flame", but it's not a flame. Second, I'll take the word of professional firefighters and their reference documents over an unsupported claim. Is an ember from a cigar or cigarette hotter than this? You bet. If you drop a cigarette into a puddle of gasoline, it might just go out -- but it might not. Drop it into a bucket of gas-soaked papers, with enormous surface area and low effective specific heat, and you're virtually guaranteed a bad surprise -- at least if you're following misguided advice like this. I guess I should apologize for jacking my own thread, but I won't let a dangerously false assertion like this go unchallenged. Please don't encourage stupid behavior.