Date:         Thu, 25 May 2006 22:24:20 +0100
Reply-To:     Niall Mac Caughey <nmacc@YAHOO.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Niall Mac Caughey <nmacc@YAHOO.COM>
Subject:      Latent heat
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Physicists, chemists and refrigeration or A/C engineers can cheerfully ignore this as I'm sure it's old news to you, but it was a surprise to me.

  Yesterday afternoon I pulled the old fuel pump from my 2.1 and needed something to plug the outlet of the tank which was over half full.  The nearest thing to hand was a small ratchet wrench with a round, knurled handle, just the right diameter.  I tightened down the clamp and left it for about 30 minutes.

  When I came back out and crawled under the van, I noticed that fuel was managing to seep out of the pipe along the knurling of the handle.  I also found the end of the pipe was surrounded in a white, crystalline deposit.  I was wondering what on earth had gotten into the fuel, when I realised that it was ice!  While not a hot day, temperatures were in the 70s (F).

  This has to be the best demonstration of evaporative cooling I've ever seen, and it certainly works better than the fridge in my Westy. I have a new respect for latent heat.  Anyone for a gasoline chiller?

  Niall