Timeline for Were postal pneumatic tubes in Berlin (Rohrpost) cleared with wine?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
10 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Nov 24, 2023 at 16:11 | comment | added | Michael Harvey | Maybe worth noting that a number of liquids had 'spirits of...' or 'spirit of...' common names which may be thought obsolete now: of hartshorn (aqueous ammonia), of nitre (nitric acid) of salt or salts (hydrochloric acid), of vitriol (sulfuric acid), of nitrous ether (ethyl nitrate), of copper (acetic acid obtained by distilling copper acetate), of vinegar (acetic acid more generally). | |
| Nov 23, 2023 at 22:07 | comment | added | Mike M | alcohol spray works on my vehicle locks in winter (ooh, it's about time to get that out of the closet) | |
| Nov 23, 2023 at 11:44 | comment | added | Ilmari Karonen | @GEdgar: Yes, and more importantly the freezing point of ethanol–water mixtures is significantly lower than that of pure water, so water ice will dissolve in liquid ethanol even below 0 °C. | |
| Nov 23, 2023 at 11:40 | comment | added | FerventHippo | @GEdgar presumably the idea is that the liquid ethanol would interact with the frozen dihydrogen monoxide, melting it and thus clearing the tube. | |
| Nov 23, 2023 at 10:09 | comment | added | GEdgar | So ... this helps because? The freezing point of ethanol (-114 C) is much lower than the freezing point of water? | |
| Nov 23, 2023 at 7:47 | comment | added | Mark Morgan Lloyd | @NateEldredge The American author might have been relying on a prohibition-era source which refused to admit the existence of anything stronger than small beer. | |
| Nov 22, 2023 at 19:11 | history | edited | Laurel | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
added 312 characters in body
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| Nov 22, 2023 at 19:04 | comment | added | Nate Eldredge | So perhaps the Missouri Review author read this report, or something similar, but misunderstood it, and wrote "wine" instead of what a modern audience would just call "alcohol". | |
| Nov 22, 2023 at 18:59 | comment | added | Nate Eldredge | An important note here is that the term is not just wine, but spirits of wine. That's an old-fashioned generic term for distilled ethyl alcohol. We're not talking about pouring a barrel of Riesling down the pipes; more like an industrial solvent. "Spirits of wine" needn't come from wine at all, nor be drinkable; it just identifies the chemical substance. | |
| Nov 22, 2023 at 18:53 | history | answered | Laurel | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
