Yeah Stephen, no joke, cheap lithium batteries have been known to explode. Here's a sample link, google for more.
http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,113416,00.asp For a while there were many stories in the papers about this problem, I even remember seeing video of a phone exploding. I shamefully admit that I got a chuckle reading about this, the number of people who just yak away on these things in public places makes me feel less than charitable. But it would suck, to be sure. The battery gets very hot before it blows, so you would get a warning of sorts. This is more of a manufacturer problem, a well designed battery won't do this. A cheap knockoff will, however. It's either the big head with a phone, or the little head with the laptop. Either way, you're a hurting puppy. I haven't heard more stories recently, I suspect whomever was importing and selling these things was reigned in. K. -----Original Message----- From: Stephen A. Lawrence [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, April 21, 2005 4:54 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: Spontaneous ignition Keith Nagel wrote: >Whilst a rocket propelled laptop would be as exciting and saleable >as a liquour propelled one, there would be some liability problems >with the former that make the later more appealing (grin). >Is there a twelve step program for my Dell Inspiron? > >I was always partial to the famous rocket designer Bob Truax's >formula, nitric acid and aniline. Makes a dandy hypergolic >fuel. He did the first JATO device for the Navy with this, I think. >Beat out Goddard who tried gasoline and LOX, all kinds >of problems with that and it didn't autoignite. > >Come to think of it, laptops and cellphones _do_ explode on >occassion. > Say what??? Do you get any kind of hint before they let go, or does the phone just unexpectedly blow your head off in the middle of a conversation? And regarding laptops, this definitely makes me feel a bit less sanguine about actually using the beast on my _lap_. > Cheap lithium batteries that build up elemental >lithium aren't as fun as sodium, but it does the job. Never >go cheap on batteries. > >K. > >
