The message . 23
from Victoria Clare contains these words:
(Keith Dancey) wrote in news:c24kno
:

Beware - Sodium Chlorate is a fire hazard.

I have never dared use it.

Nowadays you can only get it with a fire inhibitor added.

I have seen it used as a firelighter. It burns quite quickly, but I
wouldn't say it was as scary as all that. It stays put, unlike, say,
petrol, and burns out very quickly.

It doesn't burn at all. You have to mix it with something flammable, and
it serves as a source of oxygen if its temperature is raised
sufficiently.

Mixed with a flammable powder the pure stuff explodes. Pure sodium
clorate solution when it soaks into foliage is dangerous, because when
dry, the dry leaves will ignite with just a spark. I once saw a field of
weeds go up like that. It sent a fireball several hundred feet into the
air

If you have an old shed that has been creosoted, I'd say that's more of a
fire hazard.

I wouldn't. If we are still talking about the old unadulterated stuff
which I used to buy as a boy, for making bombs, the sun shining through
a piece of glass, a carelessly discarded piece of cigarette ash, a spark
from a steel heel will all set it off.

I used to buy the stuff loose, by the pound, from the local florist. If
he'd known what I was using it for he would have had a fit. As it was,
he used to warn me how dangerous it was, and it was only with very great
difficulty that I held my tongue!

--
Rusty
Open the creaking gate to make a horrid.squeak, then lower the foobar.
http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/hi-fi/