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The Jet Powered Beer Cooler 105

Posted by michael from the hot-summer-nights dept.
kzadot writes: "A bit of good old kiwi ingenuity, you can make a jet engine in your own home, and keep your beers cool as a side effect. And not a single piece of Number 8 wire in sight. Full instructions included."
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The Jet Powered Beer Cooler More

The Jet Powered Beer Cooler

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  • Gold Star for the Day (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Slashdot goes back to its roots, and displaying something truly geeky and cool. This is why I read Slashdot.
  • Posted by Kewlhandtek:

    so this is what Yahoo Serious did after he split the beer atom
  • "Extra cold" is a relative term.

    Just how many relatives does your family tree have? Or is it a branchless tree?

  • Freon is better and less noisy.

    And thus it is for pussies without the balls to experiment, without the minds to investigate and without a clue to observe.

    Yep, it's like your average Seppo.

  • We all drink Lion Red or Ranfurly over here....

    Ahh, so you tilt your heads back and get your mates to urinate down your throats then?

    A note to the rest of the world. A considerable number of Lion Red "drinkers", in order to make that piss from a syphalitic donkey with renal disease sound good, call it Lione Rouge.

  • 2 Centigrade? Who the hell drinks Guiness at that ungodly temperature?

    For chrissakes, a stout needs to be served at room temperature goddammit!

    So you are saying that Guiness, who brew the shit he was cooling, are wrong with what they print on the can? Let me guess. You drink that stale piss from a horse with various social diseases know as Budweiser and consider that to be a good beer too?

  • The cause of, and the solution to, all of life's problems.

    --
  • Liquid nitrogen. Much better than dry ice. Plus you can make icecream with it if necessary (as I recall, fairly good icecream too).

    --
  • Maybe this combined with a turbine connected to a generator to generate the power to run an overclocked Athlon running cool, also from this.
    The first jet powered cooled overclocked Athlon with Beer Fridge. No worries about noisy fans with this one either ;-)
  • Connect a BBQ hotplate to the exit from the turbine and you've also got a BBQ or better yet connect it to a wetback and you've got the BBQ and hotwater for some coffee for later in the night when the beer runs out.
    Power, Cold Beer, Food, Caffeine/Tea and foot warmer plus a definite extreme oc status.

  • Re:Huh? (Score:1)

    by BJH ( 11355 )
    Funny how it has "Serve extra cold" on the can then, isn't it?

  • I once saw a methane (natural gas) powered refigerator in a local store. It didn't use any electricity, just a connection to a tank of methane. Does anyone know how these work?
  • yeah Lion Red or Speights, but Lion sponsor that gawd awful 'fake' rugby game though.
  • Sweet! I've always wanted to do this! Not cooling beer, but making a turbo into a little jet engine. Ages ago I was explaining to my little bro that a turbo and a 747 jet engine are more or less the same thing, which got me thinking how I'd try to do it :)

    And now this bloke's beaten me to it. I was gonna have a play and see what I could do when I upgrade the turbo on my 180sx! There goes my chance to get slashdotted!


    --Gfunk
  • Some will say "That's the point!!!"

    But with something like this going 100,000 RPM when it may only be designed for 7,000-10,000 RPM

    - It could easily fly apart with deadly fragments flying through the air, with the energy of something approaching a hand grenade, not to mention the danger when this happens of the LPG tank going up and taking the garage with it in a big fireball.

    I will say that again -

    THIS IS PROBABLY DANGEROUS

    Approach carefully and with caution.

    PS: I laughed a lot and thought it cool, but I would not like to see any one hurt by doing things like this.
  • There are almost half a million /. accounts - imagine if just 20% of them read /. in a 1 hour window and clicked that link

    I think your estimate of just 20% of slashdot readers at any time is a bit high. The average slashdot reader would have to be on slashdot almost 5 hours a day to reach this. This maybe normal for you and me, but on average?
  • Nice to see articles like this again. No MSFT bashing, no lawsuits, no layoffs, just pure news for nerds.

  • How much thrust does this generate? (Score:4)

    by wowbagger ( 69688 ) on Sunday July 29, 2001 @06:19AM (#2185772) Homepage Journal
    My question is, how much thrust does his jet produce? Could it be used to power, say, a hovercraft made from junk? I'd like to see something like this on [Junkyard|Scrapyard] Wars - ten hours to build a working jet powered (thing).

    Also, could he attach a generator to the spindle of the turbo and make electric power?

    Given the rate of consumption of propane he'd have to get to create the degree of cooling, I'd guestimate that he could produce better than 10kW of power from this thing. That's enough to run your house.

  • Re:Methane Powered Refrigerator (Score:5)

    by wowbagger ( 69688 ) on Sunday July 29, 2001 @06:15AM (#2185773) Homepage Journal
    This is actually very common in Recreational Vehicle circles, as RVs often carry propane but don't have electricity.

    The refrigeration unit uses ammonia as the working fluid, rather than dichloro-difluro-methane (R-12). This is done because of the properties of ammonia.

    In a normal refrigerator, the working fluid is compressed from a gas into a liquid. In doing so, the liquid gives up its latent heat of vaporization (the energy it takes to convert a liquid to a gas), and becomes much hotter as a result. The hot liquid is then run through a set of coils to transfer the heat to the environment.

    The liquid then is fed through a throttle ( a small orifice) to reduce the pressure below the boiling point of the liquid. The liquid then evaporates, drawing the latent heat of vaporization from the environment (the inside of the fridge). The gas then runs back to the compressor and the cycle repeats.

    In an ammonia fridge, rather than using a compressor pump driven by electricity, a heat source is used, and a mix of ammonia, water and hydrogen gas is used to move the heat around. A good explaination is at howstuffworks: http://www.howstuffworks.com/refrigerator5.htm [howstuffworks.com]

    Basically, they use the fact that ammonia will dissolve in water to drive the ammonia around the cycle. That's why they cannot use R-12: it doesn't dissolve in water very well.
  • I know this guy quite well, and saw the engine running yesterday.

    Yes, he is crazy. At work we call him Freak.

    But then, this is the third time his website has been slashdotted, by my count, which is more than you can say for most people.

  • I work with this guy.

    > what caused him to want to do this?

    There might be some clue in the fact that at work we call him Freak. Another clue is that he bought a house with an extra bedroom so he had room for the life-sized R2D2 model he was building. Some people do things like that and for the rest of us it's better to just accept the fact and make sure we don't stand too close. :)

    > pointy haird boss with tie

    As it happens, his boss doesn't wear a tie. We're pretty casual here.

  • Re:How much thrust does this generate? (Score:3)

    by JoshuaLawrence ( 70476 ) on Sunday July 29, 2001 @04:45PM (#2185776)
    The guy who made this is a mate of mine, and I saw the engine working yesterday.

    > My question is, how much thrust does his jet produce?

    Not much. It uses a lot of propane, and makes a lot of hot air and noise, but is pretty inefficient from a thrust point of view.

    Of course, he is working on a kerosene afterburner.

    > Also, could he attach a generator to the spindle of the turbo and make electric power?

    No. The way to do it is to put another turbine into the exhaust stream. This turbine can be used to generate power or spin a wheel. It's unhealthy to attach things to shafts rotating at 100K RPM, as I think someone else on this thread mentioned. Another home-jet-builder north of here (Auckland, New Zealand) apparently used an extra turbine in this way to power a go-kart.

    When I saw it running, it got up to 100K RPM and 500 degrees Celsius (~900 F) but I saw no ice on the gas bottle. It wasn't running very long, the gaffer tape holding the air hose onto the combustion chamber was getting too hot and was about to give way.

    I didn't stand too close. :)

  • However, the instant you contain the liquid Nitrogen, like in a fist, you increase the pressure of the gas trying to escape. The pressure builds up enough to give you a very bad freezer burn.
    Actually, there's no way you could contain the pressure in something like a fist. A fist is hardly air-tight.

    What really happens is you'll get frostbite. Very quickly. A few drops of liquid nitrogen on your skin won't hurt -- as it boils, the gaseous nitrogen will act as an insulator, but more of it can freeze your skin in seconds -- and that's exactly what frostbite is.

    I grew up in Alaska, and they used to show this `frostbite film' every year, probably in the hopes of scaring you into being careful (it was quite gross what frostbite can do.) Frostbite induced by a little bit of liquid nitrogen isn't likely to be anywhere near as serious (because you usually only freeze a little bit of skin, not the entire extremity), but it's still best avoided.

  • ok... (Score:1)

    by jmccay ( 70985 )
    As geeky as that may be, that solution might cost a lot in the long run. You have to continually buy the fuel, and that would cut into my Computer money. ;) Plus you would be adding to global warming problem.
    I have a better solution, and it cost anywhere for $12 (or less) to $21+. Buy a plastic cooler ($10 to $20) of the appropiate size you need. Then buy a few bags of ice. Around here, it's about $1 for a decent sized bag. Fill the coller with the ice, and place the beer in the cooler.
    If you have electricity in the shed, buy a compact refridgerator.
  • I'm sure the Irish LOVE being called "British".
    Although, I was a bit surprised as not that many people over here seem to prefer Guiness to local beers.

    And DB Draught???!? Which side of the tracks do you live on??? We all drink Lion Red or Ranfurly over here....

    (Just kidding, I consumed lots of Speights last night and ended up doings things with people I shouldn't have done... anyway, add Macs Gold to your list as well).

  • Couple this with a turbine and generator to produce power to run your computer and tools. The more you work, the more and cooler beer you can have.
  • yes absolute nutbars, all of them.
  • What cooled the beer had nothing to do with the jet engine. It was just the expanding gas taking up heat.

    He could of just put out his cig, opened the valve on the thing and let it roar, and it would get nice and chilly. Big smell though, and if some drives up causes a spark it might knock down the shed.

    He could use a take of compressed air with perfect safety however.

    I admitt my instincts would be to build the jet engine too. It's gotta be useful for something. (not that cold beer isn't useful).
  • How totally that kicks ass. It totally kicks ass. A lot.

    I was starting to get bummed out what with all the stifling of innovation going on with the DMCA and the MPAA and the RIAA and Microsoft and all that crap. Maybe more real-world hardware hacking is in order. Maybe it's time to abandon computers and start poking around with nuclear materials, megawatt lasers, railguns and large, high powered engines. This article has really cheered me up!

  • You could use the rotary motion of the turbine to perform some useful function as well.

    Ah, I know! Hook the turbine up to a generator, and use it to power your next LAN party! Jet engines, cold beer and Quake. Who could ask for more?
    --

  • My response was more like "What kind of heathen refridgerates beer?"

    But yea... Guiness is definitly in the class of beers that should be served at or close to room temperature.

    What the hell is wrong with people. I finnaly find a bar with people I like, and they serve a beer thats not too bad (Petes wicked ale), but I have to wait like an hour before my beer is even at a drinkable temperature!

    And yes, I am a born and raised American. I suppose its what I get from living in a place where beer companies can get away with putting more rice in their beer than barley.

    -Steve
  • Why is he not cooling DB Draught or Monteiths, or better yet, Speights?? Having a small British mum is no excuse.

  • Actually gets on hobby horse, having baited the unwary slashdotters) Guinness is drunk mainly by the Irish, but was originally made in England. Well, the story goes that they accidentally burnt a batch and decided it was worth selling on the docks. The Irish folk down there loved it, so they started burning it on purpose!

    And if you like Guinness, you should be drinking Mac's Black! A fine, fine beverage. And the humble DB Draught is a much-maligned drink, which should be drunk before a single chemically-permeated Lion product is allowed to pass the lips!

    I'm in Sydney now. Took me about a year to get used to the beer. Went home for a week and drained the hotel minibar of Monteiths every day. Bliss!

  • This has been on /. before.

    It's a Peltier cooler [overclockin.com] for your cans. Looks more afordable as it runs on electrical power.

  • this is a much better alternative to drinking bud light with ice cubes. i've seen things in grocery stores that cool a bottle of wine in 1 minute. it's just spinning water... anyone know about this?
  • This was a truly beautiful hack. I'm so incredibly tempted to build one now - could've really used it yesterday as I had a party and Britain was actually sunny and warm for once. Now if he could just come up with some way to incorporate this into a BBQ.

    I wonder how many other people here are now tempted to try something as potentially dangerous as this now.

  • I think a beer mug with a copper base plate in
    combination with a peltier embedded coaster
    would be pretty damn cool. .. :-p
  • hell yes. this is one of the best things i have seen in WEEKS. now all he needs to do is hook this up as a motorbike. then he'll have cold beer AND be able to cross town as a side-effect. just don't mention the side-effects beer consumption can have upon someone driving a jet-engine-propelled bicycle across town.

  • Helocopters are better (Score:3)

    by elgonzzo ( 129077 ) on Sunday July 29, 2001 @11:06AM (#2185793)
    While I was a chopper machine in the army, a friend told me about a very neat trick some units use to cool down the beer for battalion/squadron parties. They attach 2.75" unguided rocket stores on the external mounting points. Cobras and Apaches can carry 4 stores each. Now, 2.75" also happens to be about the diameter of a beer can, and each store can hold 19 rockets. Because the tubes are about 5' long, a single store can hold a lot of beer.

    So they load the stores up, take the chopper up to 10,000 ft, fly around for 10-20 minutes and then come back down. This gets the beer nice and cold.

    "Get as drunk as you can be in the Arrrrrmy!"

    "If there were no eternal consciousness in a man, if at the bottom of everything there were only a wild ferment, a power that twisting in dark passions produced everything great or inconsequential; if an unfathomable, insatiable emptiness lay hid beneath everything, what would life be but despair?"
    Kierkegaard, Fear and Trembling
  • if you can find either a generator that can withstand 100krpm, or a gear reduction that can take the torque .. hmm .. ;-)

  • That's not a chemical reaction--that's just the temperature of the dry ice. The acetone is used to facilitate heat transfer between the dry ice and whatever it is you're trying to cool. Acetone freezes at -95C, so it stays liquid at dry ice temperatures.

    I suspect -80 beer wouldn't be fun to drink though :)

  • It's a shame when no one anymore recognizes the sheer *hack value* of something like this. I think it's very apparent to anyone who reads this that there are certainly more effecient (and definitely quieter) ways to do this. But imagine the conversations this would evoke:

    "Got any beer Bob?"

    "Yea, hold on"

    Bob flips on the jet engine...

    "Say, uh, Bob, whatcha doin with a jet engine?"

    "Oh, it cools the beer"

    "Oh... O... K..."

    Do you get my drift?

  • This was discussed, of course. :) In the summer, you still have a need for hot water. In the winter, you still have a need for cold drinks. And you always have a need for electricity. ;)

    Like I said though, this contraption probably isn't *that* useful, but my idea was more useful than the original one. :)
    ---
  • If it wasn't enough that he was using a compressor not to re-compress the gas he was expanding, but to run a jet engine, he's topping it off by building an afterburner on it to roast weinies when the exhaust is already hot enough to broil them in seconds. He seems to bear a remarkable resemblance to Tim on Home Improvement.

    However, I see a possible useful application for this. This very contraption could be used as a combination hot water heater/air conditioner/electrical generator for his home. Just add a generator on the get turbine, immerse the propane tank in a coolant to circulate where needed, and pipe the jet exhaust through the orifice normally used by a natural gas flame in your natural gas hot water tank. I somehow doubt that this would be efficient at all three jobs, but hey, his concept wasn't any less silly, that's for sure. :)
    ---
  • Good idea, I didn't really consider it (seemed too cold to use to keep things just above freezing). However, dry ice is easier to obtain for most people.

  • Alternatives to jet engine beer cooling (Score:3)

    by proxima ( 165692 ) on Saturday July 28, 2001 @11:42PM (#2185801)
    I have to admit, this hack to cool a bunch of beers is truly amusing. However, the best part about the article was the author's witty humor:

    "If I ever do get a car it will be something to tinker with and be small, old and British. Just like my mum. "

    "A closer inspection of the can shows how it quite clearly states 'SERVE EXTRA COLD'. It is interesting to note that here is one of few times a bloke will actually read the instructions for anything. Ever. "

    and so on.

    Although a jet engine is a fast and furious way to cool beer, I present a few practical and impractical alternatives to accomplish the same task.

    1.) Duh. Buy a mini-refridgerator/freezer. Set it to the coldest setting possible. If no power is available in a given shed (though this was his garage), run a nice long extension cord from the house. This should get below 5 degrees Celcius. This solution is costly, slow, and gets no points for creativity. Moving along...

    2. Dry ice. Dry ice is much colder than freezing temperature, but properly insulated it could serve to create a long-lasting ice box from which to cool the beer. Care must be taken not to bring the beer to freezing point, as that would obviously ruin it and damage the cans. Obtaining more dry ice is annoying, but so is obtaining more propane.

    3.) My memory of chemical reactions fails me, but I do recall a variety of endothermic (takes in heat from surroundings) reactions that could be employed to draw away heat from the cans of beer. However, most reactions I recall would require vast quantities in order to cool to the desired temperature. Nonetheless, put in a well-insulated device, with some sort of quantitative control over chemical reaction, this could work. What would be even cooler (no pun intended) is to have an automatic temperature monitor that would mix more chemicals when the temperature got above a certain point. Yes, essentially a thermostat for an endothermic reaction.

    Any other ideas?

  • As cool as a jet engine is (wow...) I would of have bought big plastic bags, filled them up with the expanding gas, sealed the bags, got throughly drunk with my cold beer and then shot the bags with a flare gun and watch mini-mushroom clouds appear in my backyard.
    Come on. Being a pyro keeps you sane ;)
    BTW, this also works with 2 liter pop bottles (plastic) filled with a bit (1/4 bic lighter) of butane. Just throw those into a camp fire (watching for stray sparks of course, to avoid setting forest fires, and be sure to be about 10 feet away when you throw it).
    Come on, whats better - cold beer and explosions shortly thereafter or cold beer and a jet engine that takes weeks to build?

  • Which came first? (Score:4)

    by doorbot.com ( 184378 ) on Saturday July 28, 2001 @11:51PM (#2185803) Journal
    So, when these things finally hit the market, why would you buy it?

    1. You have beer on tap (at your house of course) and need a way to cool it.
    2. You have petroleum gas on tap, and need a way to use it.
    3. You have neither on tap, but need a reason to get both (on tap).

    This new jet-engine-cooler begs the question... is this truly the man's barbeque? It cools, it charbroils, it's a jet engine!

    One small difficulty is you'd have to lash your fixins down lest they be blown into the next county.

    You could use the rotary motion of the turbine to perform some useful function as well. Perhaps providing a mobile platform for the jetberque?

  • yeah (Score:1)

    by vectus ( 193351 )
    why do i get the feeling that this guy has overclocked his pentium II to run quicker than my brand new athlon?
  • You don't drink stouts at room temperature. (note the period)
  • If you follow the links at the bottom, you'll see that the beer cooling effect was more of an "accident" ... just an afterthought.

  • Africa is full of them - at least it was when I last went on a walkabout ten years ago.
    Do you remember the old, pre compressor, fridges? I guess most of the /. crown is to young to remember those...anyhow, it's the "reason" you'll never find an engineer in hell, he'll find a way to use the temperature difference to create air conditioning. (Wow, I shure massacred that old joke.)

  • Because it is as a king among beers.

    Speights is good, but nowhere near the thick goodness that is Guinesss :)

    Don't get me started on DB...
  • Has this guy ever heard of a refrigerator before?

  • What happens when your green square container runs out of beer??

    If you were to attach wheels and some sort of steering mechanism to your jet engine you could use the propulsion to goto the store and get MORE Beer! Hence, when you get back to the shed your beer will again be cold! And you won't run out!

  • Check out his links at the bottom, specifically how he built his engine [asciimation.co.nz] He didn't build the engine to cool beer, he did it just for the hack; just because he could. IMHO, this is even better.

    Not that the beer page wasn't funny or anything...
  • He's from New Zealand. He should be cooling 'Black Mac' (from Nelson). Fantastic stuff. I brought some back to England with me and a friend voted it the best beer he'd ever had.

    HH
  • And for those where Stanford has blocked the subnets of their ISP :-/
    Thanks
    --------
    For sale: Rhesus-Monkey-Torture-Kit 40$
  • ....but this is just stupid.
  • Not my room. I need an air conditioner :(
  • Now I can cool all that free beer everyone's talking about.
  • Yeah, but would you really want a JET ENGINE with this sticker on it?
    This Jet Engine is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.
    Now when it blows your beer to the next county and you try to sue, you won't be able to. And you'll have to release all derivative works under the GPL.
  • Reminds me of a New Zealander who I used to have on the same Rugby team as me...

    He had a story about how there was a rumor concerning an old house that had a beer buried within its walls.

    This remained occupied for about 25 years or so, and when it finally became abandoned a whole group of friends went off to this house to see if the rumors were true. After digging through the crumbling walls they did indeed find it to be true, a bottle of beer was indeed their. Now the unbelievable happened, they opened the beer and each took a sip, and each kept saying how disgusting it was, but they continued until they were totally rat a*sed and the bottle ran dry...

    Not surprised one of them made this contraption for cooling beer!

    Matt
  • Nope, but they have Jonah Lomu!

  • Hey watch it. I resemble that remark thankyou very much!

    --
  • Looks more affordable as it runs on electrical power.

    Electrical power? More affordable? I'm thinking you're not a resident of California. :-)

    As for the beer cooler, pretty neat idea, but probably not one you can use if you have neighbors living close by. I'm sure those "no leaf blowers before 9am" ordinances would be quickly amended to include jet-powered beer coolers.

    ~Philly
  • Guiness SHOULD be served cold. Go into any pub in the UK or Ireland and ask for a Guiness and you will find that it is served up cold. There is now an additional variety called "Guiness Extra Cold" which is served in many pubs over here, but I prefer the original. Perhaps you are confusing Guiness with Bitters which SHOULD be served at room temperature?
  • On the subject of ammonia refrigerators, those Miracle-Gro feeders where you fill up the plastic canister with powdered Miracle-Gro and attach it to a hose get very cold when water starts mixing with the powder. This is because Miracle-Gro is mostly ammonium nitrate, which undergoes an endothermic reaction when mixed with water. There are instant cold packs available which contain a bit of ammonium nitrate and a small vial of water. Bend and snap (like a chem-light) and the water mixes with the ammonium nitrate and there you have it- instant cold. Heating ammonium nitrate drives the water off so it becomes solid again, and the process can be repeated. I think someone once developed an adsorption cycle refrigerator that used ammonium nitrate and water as the refrigerant.
  • Down in southern Louisiana, all dem Cajuns jus' love to boil dem mudbugs, and they do it with the simplest burner possible, often made from an old tire rim to which legs have been welded and a few pieces of iron rebar have been welded to the top to set a huge aluminum pot (or galvanized washtub) on.

    The burner is made out of a sawed off chunk of thick black pipe with a smaller piece of pipe centered in the bottom with a pipe cap on the end and a hole drilled in the pipe cap. This makes a simple, yet effective venturi burner.

    Fill the wash tub with water, hook it to a propane tank (use a looong hose and an adjustible regulator), light the burner and turn it on full blast. (If the pipe ain't glowing orange hot you ain't got the gas turned on enough, yet too much gas will cause it to flame out.) A standard gas grill sized tank oughta be enough to boil two sacks.

    Then dump in lotsa salt and cayenne pepper, onions, potatoes, corn, garlic and lemons. (See recipe at http://www.neworleansweb.org/recipe4.html).

    By the time the water's boiling, there oughta be a quarter inch thick layer of frost on the tank from that south Louisiana humidity, so go ahead and stick the tank in the other wash tub, you know, the one that was full of beer and ice, but now is only half full of warm beer and water because someone forgot to get an extra bag of ice.

  • Who needs a wife when you've got cold beer?
  • >Freon is better and less noisy.

    But also comes with less bragging points.
    Matt
  • ISTR seeing similar on pyro pages..take 2 refuse bags, fill one with an oxyacetelyne mix, and the other with helium. Tie together, attach slow-burning fuse, & release.

    Not that I condone this, of course...
    Matt
  • The phrase describes the pseudo distributed denial of service attack (dDOS) that occurs on a site that gets linked in a /. story Basically a site is slashdotted when people can't bring up the site because so many other /. people are trying to as well - Its from all the nerds clicking on the link at about the same time thus overwhelming the poor target webserver. If the bandwidth pipe isn't overwhelmed than the webserver is (often due to the server it runs on or Max # of processes being set to 100 or 150 or soemthing) There are almost half a million /. accounts - imagine if just 20% of them read /. in a 1 hour window and clicked that link - hating it!
  • OK - So even 10% and I forgot to mention that there are hundreds of thousands of Anonymous COwards out there without accounts that will also hit a site So yes, 20% might be high - but when you factor in all the non account holders - then the number gets even higher. Bottom line is hundeds and hundreds of people hit that link at the same time for an extended period often overwhelming a poor APache server set to 150 concurrent connections.
  • Like a previous poster noted - this is a CLASSIC /. post that has nothing to do with technology politics and intrigue!

    Of course - whats scary is someone operating a jet engine while drinking beer - shouldn't there be some sorta law? (KIDDING!)

    I loved his tongue in cheek description of the project. But I'd really like to know, er, what caused him to want to do this? I mean it is really cool and I can imagine when he has parties, all the male folk and even some of the ladies flock to the shed to see his toy.

    I also laughed to see the intake right behind the control panel - hmm the possibilities - pointy haird boss with tie visists "Here, sir, just stand at the control panel here and hit this red button. " Problem solved!

  • 2 Centigrade? Who the hell drinks Guiness at that ungodly temperature?

    For chrissakes, a stout needs to be served at room temperature goddammit!

    Dancin Santa
  • finally, rocket science put to good use!
  • However, most reactions I recall would require vast quantities in order to cool to the desired temperature. If you want a nice chemical reaction to absorb a whole bunch of heat just obtain some dry ice (solid CO2 for those that don't know) and mix in acetone. In the lab we were able to acheive temperatures below -80 degrees C. How far below I don't know because that's where the thermometer bottomed out. It was cold enough to freeze the Kymex beaker to the table instantly, and then shater it a short while later.
  • It looks like one of those jets for model airplanes. If I remember correctly, these produce about 20 pounds of thrust.

    When I was looking at them last time they where about 6K$.

    There's no way to connect something like a generator to the spindle directly. You got to understand that something rotation at 100K RPM is going to produce a lot of frictional heat. That's why a lot of these type of devices (Turbos work similarly) have 'air' bearings. In other words the entire spindle floats in air by forcing air between the spindle and the supporting material. Adding something that connects directly to spindle will fail faster than you can say 'Hand me the fire extinguisher!', whilst removing fragments of metal from your forehead.

    Although you probably could do it, building a hovercraft with this is probably only useful if you intend for it to fly.

    Seriously, as the guys says, the exhaust fumes are a mere 500 degree C. Combined with parts that move at 100K RPM this is NOT a toy. This puppy attached to a moving object is definitely a 'stand back everyone' kind of thing. ;)
  • My personal favorite cooler has always been the old camping trick of tying the cans to a rope staked to the ground, then dropping the whole thing into a running river. That makes them either cool down, or break off and go floating. Either way the warm beer is dealt with.

    Of course, this works for any flowing material. There is no reason that he couldn't, say, put beer in front of a fan, then pour gasoline on it to get some additional cooling from evaporation. Or use a nice, quiet water pump / radiator combination to get that quick fluid flow.

    If, however, one wanted to use decompressing gas to achieve coolness, why not weld a CO2 mini canister holder onto a metal can holder, then insulate the heck out of the outside? You could be using one cartridge per beer (maybe two), and it would be a heck of a lot quicker than the five-minutes it takes him now.

    Or perhaps there is a way to put the can inside of a piston or compression chamber, compress it (without crushing the can), let it return to room temperature while stored inside the piston, then De-compress it just before you were planning on drinking.

    The irony of all this is that his current design pretty accurately mimics the principles at work in all modern refridgerator compressors, but with the added bonus of a jet turbine. That, of course, would be a nice feature for a modern refridgerator, but you would have antitrust suits from the microwave people in the blink of an eye.

  • Re:Alternatives to jet engine beer cooling (Score:4)

    by Zeio ( 325157 ) on Saturday July 28, 2001 @11:50PM (#2185836)
    One of the best things about being a B.S. in chemistry was fooling around with chemicals, and Liquid Nitrogen Ice Cream rules...

    This was excerpted from a popular liquid N2 site:

    ===

    If you are anything like me, then you love ice cream. There is nothing like making your own, but the problem is, it just takes too long to freeze and some things just don't like to freeze.
    A while ago Scientific American [April, 1994 pgs. 66-71] had an article call Cooking with Chemistry or something along those lines. One of the recipes was one for using Liquid Nitrogen to make Ice Cream.
    Great!

    Now as you all know, Nitrogen is about 78% of the volume of the atmosphere and has a boiling temperature of one hundred and ninety five point eight degrees below zero Celsius.
    In plain simple English, it's cold.
    The price is about two cents to $2.75 per 100 cubic feet depending on purity, which isn't anything important here, so get the two cent stuff. You will also probably need a container, which you can rent/borrow from the people that you are buying the Nitrogen from. Don't use a cooler, as it will not survive the trip.

    Simple rules for handling Liquid Nitrogen:
    I could say DO NOT LET IT TOUCH SKIN but someone will be a bone head and do it anyway. The truth of the matter is that the human body is so hot to the Liquid Nitrogen that it will boil in your hand with out any harm to you. However, the instant you contain the liquid Nitrogen, like in a fist, you increase the pressure of the gas trying to escape. The pressure builds up enough to give you a very bad freezer burn. Enough to need medical attention, so take my word for it and don't.

    Ingredients needed to make simple Vanilla Liquid Nitrogen Ice Cream:

    -----

    Milk
    Heavy Cream (Half and Half will do nicely)
    Real Vanilla not that fake junk that's sold!
    Sugar
    Liquid Nitrogen

    Equipment needed:

    ----

    Stainless Steel mixing bowl
    Wooden mixing spoon
    gloves
    a big sink or a level place out side.

    ---

    First figure out how much you want to make. Multiply the total amount of ice cream by five to get the amount of Liquid Nitrogen needed to freeze the ice cream. A gallon of ice cream will thus need five gallons of Liquid Nitrogen.
    Mix the Milk, Cream, Vanilla and sugar in the mixing bowl. The ratios should be twice as much cream as milk and about 8 tbsp of vanilla for every gallon of liquid. Sugar should be about 1 cup dry measure per gallon. If that's too sweet then half it. I do not know how artificial sweeteners react to the cold, so I don't recommend the usage of them.
    Mix the ingredients until the sugar has dissolved into the milk and cream. Add in any fixings (candy, coffee, other flavors). Move to the sink if you haven't already. Pour in the Liquid Nitrogen slowly and mix with the wooden spoon until completely frozen, which should be about 10 minutes. Wear the gloves, because it's going to be cold.
    For a better freeze, prepare the icecream in a pressure cooker, and after adding the Liquid Nitrogen, clamp shut for 5 minutes.

    Eat!

    If you want, you can add cookie dough or just about anything else to the mixture. Don't worry, it will freeze (trust me, it has no choice but too!).
    Other flavors can be made by replacing or adding with the Vanilla with your choice of:
    Coffee (hot, strong and fresh is the best) - with a few whole beans - yum!
    Cookie dough - either homemade or store bought will do.
    Candy - A Milky Way is good in bits, as is Heath Bar.
    Liquors - Don't worry about the low freezing point, Liquid Nitrogen is much lower!

    ---

    Let me tell you, this stuff is excellent.
  • Get real! This is made from a turbocharger -- they're designed to spin at 100K+ RPMs.

    If you really want to see dangerous -- look at this page [aardvark.co.nz] !

  • No, this [aardvark.co.nz] is a Darwin award about to happen.

    And this [aardvark.co.nz] is another late entry ;-)

  • Jet hovercraft? No problems... check out

    http://www.danger-island.com/~dav/video/srl/ [danger-island.com]

  • Laser Cooling [colorado.edu]

    and for the goat shy...

    http://www.colorado.edu/physics/2000/bec/lascool1. html

    Use the jet to make electricty to power a laser and get VERY cold beer...

  • A few drops of liquid nitrogen on your skin won't hurt -- as it boils, the gaseous nitrogen will act as an insulator

    Just wanted to mention to those who have not run into the concept of film boiling yet how this amazingly cool phenomenon works. It's called the Leidenfrost Effect and a 1977 Scientific American article written by a hilariously brave professor is what sparked my original interest in science.

    A reprint can be found at http://www.lovephy.com/public_html/exp/2000exp/lei den1.html [lovephy.com]

  • ...beer is the true mother of invention!
  • Who needs a wife when you've got a rocket powered beer cooler?!?!?!?
  • Forgive me for being such a n00b, but what exactly happens when a site gets Slashdotted?
    -==-
    We are Microsoft. You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile.
  • True to life Kiwis.

    A single bottle of beer is enough to get "a whole group of friends" drunk.

  • Ah Yes, but in the stupidity lies the true genius.

    Finally, the Rock has come back to Slashdot.

  • Uh Oh! (Score:5)

    by JBowz15 ( 451573 ) on Sunday July 29, 2001 @12:48AM (#2185847)
    A jet poowered beer cooler....

    Doesn't this sound like a Darwin Award waiting to happen?

    Finally, the Rock has come back to Slashdot.
  • Given the rate of consumption of propane he'd have to get to create the degree of cooling, I'd guestimate that he could produce better than 10kW of power from this thing. That's enough to run your house.
    I think you're right, I have a 12kW propane generator at my house and it doesn't use propane fast enough to put ice on the propane tank. (it's not a jet engine, unfortunately, just a two cylinder four stroke)
    -
  • It happens in New Zealand at Otago Uni. Check it out.

    http://www.physics.otago.ac.nz/research/bec/

  • Freon is better and less noisy.
  • ..wait til he tries to split the beer atom..
  • Funnily enough, d'you know who first split the atom? Ernest Rutherford. Guess where he grew up. (Here's a hint: lots of sheep and a jet-propelled beer-cooler...oh, okay, it was New Zealand.)
  • Oh, go on...you're too kind...

    I'll blush if you keep it up.
  • But really, wouldn't using Liquid Nitrogen to cool it make more sense since it's naturally cold when it's liquid? (Yes it also means that if you can keep it from expanding, you can keep ur Athlon below freezing)

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