Hi Ed, At 11:02 AM 25/11/1998 -0800, you wrote: >I'm amazed that the hyperbaric chamber O2 percentage is 100%. Can anyone confirm this? In a 100% O2 environment, I'd think even a tiny speck of oil in your wristwatch band would self-ignite. If I follow up on this, then I've got a good excuse to avoid cleaning my gutters this weekend!
I've got bad news for you: there is not going to be any ignition without a heat source. You'll need a spark plug on the wrist watch. Unless you use diesel oil in your watch. But then, of course, you'd have to compress the air fast enough to create heat (adiabatic heating). Alas, this sudden increase in temperature would kill you much before the watch blew up. In other words, a hyperbaric chamber that compressed fast enough for dieseling, would not be a very useful medical tool. "The operation was a success, but the patient died." By the way, I think your Uncle Al needs to re-think his answer. 1. Pure oxygen at high pressure is highly toxic and would kill the patient almost immediately. 2. The "bends" don't happen under high pressure. This happens only if you decompress too fast. Under high pressure, more nitrogen than normal goes into solution in the blood. If you decompress too fast, this nitrogen then turns into gas again, creating gas bubbles in the blood and joints. Very painful; sometimes fatal. The whole purpose of a hyperbaric chamber is to recompress a diver that has come up too fast, and has the bends. This makes the extra nitrogen dissolve back into the blood again and stop the pain. Then they slowly lower the pressure, allowing enough time for the nitrogen to be expelled by the body. No. A hyperbaric chamber uses straight compressed air. Normal oxygen percentage. It's just a pressure vessel with a big air compressor. Cheers, Egon :-) --------- This message is coming from the emc-pstc discussion list. To cancel your subscription, send mail to [email protected] with the single line: "unsubscribe emc-pstc" (without the quotes). For help, send mail to [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], or [email protected] (the list administrators).
