Canon PowerShot SD700 IS
ƒ/2.8
5.8 mm
1/100
Puzzle Series: What is this, or what do you want it to be?
Per the suggestion from the prior puzzle, this will be an over-night test… I’ll check back in the morning to see the wisdom of crowds…
35 responses to “What’s That? (74)”
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The Cone of Silence!!!
http://www.wouldyoubelieve.com/cone.html
(Zis is a better link than wikipedia’s) 😉"The Cone makes its first appearance in the very first episode. The Cone is so silent that Max and the Chief are unable to hear each other, making communication next to impossible."
"Max demands the Cone so that Hodgkins is unable to hear the information discussed. The Cone is lowered and Max and the Chief are unable to hear each other. Hodgkins can hear everything, however, so the Cone is raised."
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Some kind of oil lamp. I say this because of the white material pads that seem to be in the lower chamber to absorb a liquid. The top part has a conductor wire (?) so that looks more electric. Some kind of energy plug to insert into something else.
My science background is too minimal to properly guess. I tried! I might be back. I always love trying to guess. Merci pour le puzzle Steve!
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now, more seriously, more than the cone of silence, it looks like a light bulb and I guess it´s not causal. Mimosa thinks alike I think, for her comment.
I think that the parts (legs) down are to be switched/plugged somewhere… and I also think this, more than light, is designed to create some sort of electrolysis(electrochemistry +) to the susbtance put inside… or a centripetal / centrifugal force. That it is a device to "separate" or "alter" the chemical components of a substance(s) put insde… or turn it right into another thing…
A battery?
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hmm, maybe some sort of reactor where the "primordial soup" is simulated. put in water and simple molecules, add electricity and try to create amino acids…
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It is about 6 inches high and plugs into a wall outlet. A bug killer Tod? That is an idea. That might be want it we would want it to be.
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It’s got a removable top half, hence the bolts under the red ring. It’s made of plastic, so it doesn’t get that hot even though it has a filament. It has a threaded top to allow something to be dropped, vented or poured in.
Because it has an absorbent pad in the bottom, it makes me want to guess it’s a modern version of a killing jar for insects. Some liquid that would kill the insect with its fumes would be on the pad and the filament at the top of the jar would help dry it out.
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I first thought the top was threaded too, but the rings are parallel. It does have lugs on opposite sides of the neck. These are probably for locking. Maybe a cap or for attaching some other device (vacuum pump?) The base looks to be molded with keys, so it probably only fits in a socket one way. Molded in two halves, so the internal elements can be inserted. The red circle/white X dohickey looks like it’s for adjusting. The spring would keep tension on it to keep it from moving on it’s own.
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mmh…
I think that if it were a reaction chamber for "primordial soup" experiments it would have electrodes between which an electric arc would pass, rather than a filament.
if I’m correct the fluid entering from the black base would pass through the filter (loosing moisture?), exit sideways (the filtering chamber is colsed by the red lid hold in place with screws) and escape from the top.and now for the crazy one: is this a cold fusion related device?
by the way, should it be mounted upside down? and is the filament a platinum wire that acts as a catalyzer? and why three metal plugs in the base? too many questions… your puzzle are great, steve!
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Keeping in mind that I have no idea what I’m talking about …
How about a do-it-yourself lightbulb? Perhaps for schools to use in science class to study the effect of different vapours. Pour in a liquid – vacuum out the air – wait for the liquid to turn into vapour – and plug it in to a power unit. -
Another possibility for those things on the bottom would be some sort of a mechanical stud. where the inside turns aboutand the outside stays still.. It looks a bit lacking in protruding thingies on the center part, but those studs remind me of that with the flat bottoms. Plugs usually have rounded ends to help with insertion force.
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Its a FEMA emergency light bulb. Designed to be used with an emergency battery pack, which hasn’t been developed yet. Each bulb costs the federal government $250 and it has 3 warehouses full of these things…
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i keep on thinking this thing spins…. seperating some kind of fluid or oil…. and something gets burned off through the top….
i dunno… something to do with centrifugal forces…but then how would you attach something to the threaded top if it’s supposed to spin??? unless whatever’s attached is spinning too…or maybe this thing is upside down.
something get’s poured in through the bottom, the fluid get’s "filtered"…and then there’s a chemical reaction spurned on by the electrical current as it collects in the bubble and pours out the top….huh?
shoot… i just noticed Paul had the same notion…
😛just a hunch.
not betting any money on it yet…
i will ponder it while i go out for a burger
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Knowing Steve’s rocketry inclinations, could this be some sort of reaction propulsion device, seen upside down ?
Water and air would be fed from the black "socket", said socket possibly containing an electrically-driven water pump.
The water would react with some metallic powder (aluminium + catalyst?) contained in the white "teabags", and produce inert alumina powder + gaseous hydrogen.
The hydrogen would be directed via the hollow black support tube towards the electrically-heated (platinum ?) electrode near the bottle opening.
A secondary channel of air + cooling water would be injected (via a pressure spring-controlled valve?) near this platinum electrode, where the hydrogen and air is ignited.
The heat and pressure produced by the hydrogen explosion would violently expel through the bottle opening the liquid water, water vapour and air contained in the "combustion chamber".
A mole of aluminium (about 27 grams) should be able to decompose enough water to generate about 3 grams of molecular hydrogen, whose combustion could generate enough energy to accelerate a one-kilogram rocket to a speed well in excess of Mach 1 😉
… or it’s a purification device in which you pour coke from the top and you get properly filtered, drinkable water at the bottom 😉
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=)
OK… So I read in your answer (I may be readng wrong, tho) that this is a device to make hydrogen through an eletrolytical reaction… (or something 😉
I imagine in my limited knowledge that the main thing you can obtain hydrogen from through an electrical reaction is WATER?
I googled this idea… found this… could be?
http://www.wam-a-bam.com/hydrockickbank.html?hop=henlem&tid=...To make "Fuel"?
(note the "Telstar" visual marks on the "Hydrostar" logotype…ha!)
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So a hydrogen maker is a partial bingo and a cone of silence or light bulb was getting warm….
Hmmm…. using electrolysis:
The three electrodes could be that one is an exciter and the other two go to the filament…. That filament might be where the hydrogen is emitted and the surface area of the filament makes it easier for the bubbles to form (assuming it were submerged in water or other hydrogen containing liquid.
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Bingo nhr + Alieness/xGunner. Nhr’s guess is distributed up in the notes, ending with: “Electrode-initiated, controlled hydrogen explosion violently expels water and vapour from here.” That is exactly right
The only error in the notes is that there is no air or water feed with this unit. Those are poured in from above during setup, not fed from below…
Water and citric acid are added, filling the chamber to about half-full. One set of electrodes down in the “tea bag” area perform electrolysis on the water for about 3-4 minutes, splitting the water molecules to Hydrogen and Oxygen gas that bubble up: 2H2O -> 2H2 + O2
The upper electrode is kept dry, and is used to ignite the accumulated gasses. The waste produced is pure water, much of which is still in the chamber to be used again.
And to what end? Launching a rocket, of course. =)
So it’s the reaction chamber for what Estes calls a “clean burning, environmentally safe and energy efficient fuel.”
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Steve wrote:
> One set of electrodes down in the “tea bag” area perform electrolysisDumb me! Prior electrolysis indeed makes so much more sense than hydrogen generation using metal powder! Aluminium powder unfortunately captures as alumina all the oxygen produced in the water decomposition, which is why I had to come up with a contrived supplementary water+air feed explanation to supply to the combustion chamber the mass propellant (water) as well as the oxygen (air) required to ignite the hydrogen…
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I am not surprised that it is rocket-related!
I was close about the size, it seems.You see Steve how so much more fun it is to not give the answer right away. The more you wait, the more interesting answers you get. Most enjoyable!
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haha :-), cool
I never thought about a rocket launcher – but I should have known better…
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Neat!, I launched my first rocket yesterday… A beginner Estes. My daughter was suitably impressed when it went way too high, and parachuted into the tall trees we have around here. The little pink army man parachuted it seemed forever and was lost also. I went looking for the body and found someone else’s old lost rocket upon which they had taped the letters "SEX MACHINE". Kinda surreal…, but apropos.
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