h a l f b a k e r yA dish best served not.
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I'm not completely sure that the energy required would be
tiny. |
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If you're looking to keep the salt perpetually warm, I'm
guessing that's a watt or two of constant power. That's
going to drain a manageable battery in a few hours.
Alternatively, if you're looking at an on-demand heat-and-
dry, you're probably looking at a few tens of watts for
maybe a minute; in that case, a manageable battery will be
good for a few tens of uses, which may be viable. |
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Perhaps a better alternative is to include a little sodium
aluminosilicate in the salt. Sodium aluminosilicate is
already present as an anti-caking agent in pre-ground table
salt, so it might work with larger, grindable salt crystals. |
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A further alternative is to make the salt grinder airtight,
with a sealable, removable cover on the base, to keep
moisture out. |
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Another (better) approach might be for the salt cellar to have a small hatch in the side where a silica gel sachet (such as is included in the packaging of new electronics) could be inserted. This would absorb moisture from the salt and swapped with a fresh silica gel sachet when necessary. |
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OK - the stair carpet *is* looking a bit dirty |
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A common trick on boats and seaside homes is to
but some dry reice in the salt shaker. (Not sure
that doing the same in a grinder), The humidity
goes to the rice in preference to the salt. |
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Salt with ricin ? Sounds a bit dangerous ... |
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There are rechargeable grinders available for the person
who has nearly everything. I bet these run warm, allowing
the salt to flow freely. |
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How about a parallel chamber connected to the salt reservoir
by air. This should be filled with a MORE hygroscopic material
like sodium hydroxide. Water will associate much more
readily with the NaOH forming a sort of gummy alkaline slurry
over time. This will have to be replaced occasionally, and it's
likely to be a fiddly job more suited to the small fingers of any
Child Resources that happen to be about. |
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It can be parked when not in use on a docking station that's mains operated, and delivers power to the low level heating elements. I'm not keen on silica gels etc as solutions. I want a rediculous halfbaked gadget. |
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One could conceivable have a saltshaker, storing both Sodium (andor Potassium for the diet-conscious) and Chlorine, separately : combine to taste. |
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Ooooh, you should post that, [FT] ... |
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If you sprayed metallic sodium into a mixer nozzle where it met chlorine gas, not only would it season the food, but cook it at the same time. |
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Is it filled with sea salt? |
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Sea salt has a natural affinity for water. |
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Try filling it with rock salt instead. |
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Isn't rock salt just sea salt that hasn't been in the sea as
recently? |
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Rock salt is usually purer; sea salt contains a lot of other salts
besides NaCl, some of which are probably more hygroscopic. |
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I suppose if your cellar were fashioned from U-238
there would be enough natural heat to assure free
flow for a lifetime. |
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No, there wouldn't. Uranium isn't used in RTGs for that very reason. |
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You'd need a far more active isotope; Strontium and Plutonium are popular. |
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^ Wrong isotope, my bad. I was thinking 235, said to be
slightly warm to the touch. |
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Not noticeably ... the main impression is of astonishing weight. It goes against intuition that such a small object can be so heavy. |
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HEU is rarely encountered now, anyway. It's expensive to make, and not very useful. |
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Well, you can get magnets that are permanently magnetic,
and electrets that have a permanent electric charge. What
we need is to find a thermet - a material that can be
permanently hot. |
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Actually, how much power is available from stray radio waves
in the average household? You could have a sort of crystal set
salt cellar. |
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// how much power is available from stray radio waves in the average household? // |
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Microwatts, unless you have a leaky microwave oven. Typically, the most powerful devices - intentional radiators like CB radios - only emit a few watts, and to get heating effects you need to be in the near field region. |
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Ham radios are an exception, but they're not commonplace. |
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// You could have a sort of crystal set salt cellar. // |
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Haha. No; you need a semiconductor junction, and sodium chloride won't provide that. |
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//Ham radios are an exception// Well, it seems to me that if
someone has devised a radio capable of cooking ham, it ought
to be able to keep a salt cellar warm. |
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//Ham radio// or //radio capable of cooking ham,// |
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Or "microwave" as everyone else calls it. |
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