Ken Brown <k.brown@ccs.bbk.ac.uk> wrote :
mmotyka@lsil.com wrote:
ichudov@Algebra.Com (Igor Chudov) wrote :
One thing I would like to buy is a pressure cooker.
I have found them to be of little use. Save some $, try a garage sale.
I used to use them a lot. Great for beans et.c And not as expensive as a goode steamer :-)
Rinse, pre-soak over night, most beans cook in a reasonable time.
Pressure cooker much faster to heat up. Also for large samples the water adds heat to sample faster - food in an oven at 200 degrees is often not much more than 100 inside while the outside is already roasting.
Water condensing on a cool surface may add heat quickly but many common inks are water soluble. It is the heat that does the killing. With mail, the problem is poorly conducting, but very thin materials. Dry roasting ought to work. Temperature TBD, 160C+ from other info.
Personally I would quite like to keep microbiological samples separate from my cooking equipment :-)
True, but then life is one great big microbial soup ain't it? What lives on that leg of lamb when you throw it in the pan?
A nitrogen atmosphere might be a good thing to reduce oxidation of inks and paper. I doubt it would help your new Visa card though.
But oxygen is just the thing to be nasty to bacteria. Hit them with activated oxygen. Peroxide works wonders - kills all known bacteria (yes, even spores) and doesn't permanently damage the environment :-)
True, but you'd have to experiment with the stability of inks at high temperatures - I was just musing that the chances of still being able to see them would be better if oxygen were not available. H2O2 is also a damn good bleach. Just look at Hollywood. Mike
I'm not understanding the comments about wetness affecting mail in a pressure cooker -- using it as an autoclave, that is. I would assume anyone doing this would put the perishable objects in a waterproof container, such as a canning jar. You can get them in 1/2 gallon size. And I'm sure there are any number of steel, aluminum, etc. waterproof containers that would work as well. -- Harmon Seaver, MLIS CyberShamanix Work 920-203-9633 Home 920-233-5820 hseaver@cybershamanix.com http://www.cybershamanix.com/resume.html
On Wednesday, October 17, 2001, at 10:59 AM, Harmon Seaver wrote:
I'm not understanding the comments about wetness affecting mail in a pressure cooker -- using it as an autoclave, that is. I would assume anyone doing this would put the perishable objects in a waterproof container, such as a canning jar. You can get them in 1/2 gallon size. And I'm sure there are any number of steel, aluminum, etc. waterproof containers that would work as well.
As I write about in another post, this is generally correct. The main purpose of an autoclave or pressure canner is to get the internal temperature to above 240 F, because some organisms can live at boiling water temperatures. However, pressure canners allow the air inside Mason jars, or cans, to escape during the heating process, then during the cooling period the lid is pressed down on the lip of the jar and a seal is made. This is a big part of canning, of course. I doubt an already tightly-sealed Mason jar would implode, but it might. Some experiments would be easy to do. (Along with experiments to see what temperatures are reached inside sealed containers after various amounts of time. I have a "peak temperature recording" thermometer, but mine is only good for "normal" weather temps. I'm sure such things exist for higher temperatures. Check a chemical equipment supply house, like Fisher, or even Edmund Scientific. Or just type suitable terms into search engines, if actually interested in doing this experiment. Experimenting with anthrax cultures is no longer feasible, or politically safe to do.) --Tim May, Occupied America "They that give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." -- Benjamin Franklin, 1759.
participants (3)
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Harmon Seaver -
mmotyka＠lsil.com -
Tim May