Re: Solvents For Shutters, part 2.

[P3D John W Roberts <roberts@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

>Date: Tue, 3 Jun 1997 23:14:41 -0500
>From: P3D Bill Davis  <bd3d@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>Subject: Solvents For Shutters, part 2.

>HEXANE:  Hexane may damage peripheral nerve tissue and result in muscular
>weakness.  Overexposure may cause central nervous system damage.  Exposure
>may cause severe irritation of the eyes, nose, throat and lungs.
>Overexposure can cause dizziness, weakness, unconsciousness, nausea,
>vomiting and diarrhea.  Death may result.  Nitrile gloves are recommended.

Incidentally, I believe commercial gasoline contains a large percentage of
hexane and heptane (or isomers).

>VM&P NAPHTHA:  What is this stuff?  I don't know.  It was listed as 45% of
>one of the tape head cleaners.

I've heard lantern fuel referred to as naptha. I looked it up recently, and
there are a number of substances that are all called naptha, some of which
*could* be Coleman fuel, but "naptha" doesn't appear to be a very precise
term. I don't recognize the "VM&P".

>Lantern Fuel:
>Of the two brands I was able to check, Lantern Fuel 1 (Coleman) was listed
>as being 100% petroleum hydrocarbons (not real specific here), the other
>was composed primarily of hexane. No telling what other materials may be
>packaged as "lantern fuel".  I couldn't find a chemical synonym for "White
>gas", though I'd heard that name associated with lantern fuel since Boy
>Scout days.  (Although we referred to it as "high-speed fire starter" on
>winter campouts) I was under the impression that "white gas" was just
>unleaded gasoline.  Is "white gas" just a generic term for a type of
>petroleum?  Dunno.

Coleman sells stoves that will burn either Coleman fuel or unleaded gasoline,
and gives them different model numbers and charges more than for the ones that
only burn Coleman fuel, so they appear to regard it as a different product.
One difference I've noticed is that commercial gasoline contains an enormous
number of different compounds (aside from the additives), with different
volatilities, so that anything which is exposed to it will continue to smell
like gasoline for hours at least, possibly days or longer. Coleman fuel
appears to evaporate much more quickly and consistently, so the odor tends
to dissipate much more quickly.

Note that some lanterns and camping stoves use kerosene, which is extremely
good at seeping out of containers, and takes approximately forever to fully
evaporate.

>What about Ether?  A list member in the Netherlands uses "ether" to clean
>camera parts. "The ether I'm talking about is the one you buy in a small
>brown bottle at the drugstore", he explains.  Does anyone know which
>material this is?  Again, I seem to recall that "ether" was an early
>anaesthetic, but I can't find a specific chemical commonly known as
>"ether".  Anyone?

That would probably be diethyl ether, C2H5-O-C2H5. It has been used in the
past as an anaesthetic. It will quickly cause rubber to come apart, is
very volatile, extremely flammable, and with prolonged exposure to air
(for instance in a partly empty bottle) tends to form a class of gaseous 
compounds (I think they're called "oxiranes" - this is from memory) which 
are extremely unstable and violently explosive. It used to be available in
some US drug stores - don't know whether that's still the case.

An additional note: on a microscopic scale, many metals are somewhat porous,
and will soak up organic solvents and release them by evaporation over a 
prolonged period of time.

Thanks for an extremely useful and informative post.

John R


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