Our weekly Snippets column is a collection of short items: responses to posted articles, practical self-sufficiency items, how-tos, lessons learned, tips and tricks, and news items — both from readers and from SurvivalBlog’s editors. Note that we may select some long e-mails for posting as separate letters.
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Our Editor-At-Large Michael Z. Williamson mentioned some “less lethal” solid aluminum projectiles for paintball guns. He notes: “They are also available less expensively on Amazon, but this way you support a smaller business.”
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Mike Williamson also mentioned:
“The UK has demanded access to the Apple Cloud, and Apple has complied. Note that any info in there that is NOT from UK [users] is still accessible, and can be furnished to other nations’ intel or LEO (including the US) without any warrant or process required, since it would be willingly furnished, not subpoenaed. Remember: The term “Cloud” is merely a name for SOMEONE ELSE’S COMPUTER OR SERVER. People should make every effort to avoid using cloud storage for anything personal, private, or financial. Companies storing massive records is one thing, though that is still subject to hacks of personal data. Individuals should never use cloud storage if at all possible. For data security: Hard copy is the best. The second best is isolated (disconnected or air-gapped) hard drives or USB sticks. A less secure (but still relatively secure) third choice is to have PCs or mobile devices that are no connected to the Internet.”
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Terry in Southern Idaho forwarded this news link of interest: Currently, All U.S. Phones Can Connect to Starlink Satellites for Free. This Will Change in July.
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Reader Gary H. wrote this query:
“I recently opened a bag of oatmeal that had been stored for 5 years in a food-grade mylar bag in a food-grade 5-gallon bucket. I immediately smelled a metallic odor. When the oatmeal is prepared it definitely has a metallic taste. Clearly, that mylar bag which I purchased on Amazon and was advertised as food-grade was not a quality product. I searched your website for information about this issue and for suggestions for a proven mylar product that does not leach. However, I did not find any info on this topic. Do you (or any of your readers) have any suggestions for manufacturers that are proven not to have this problem? I did seal this and other bags with an iron. Is it possible that in heating the bag to seal it, that I caused this issue?”
JWR Replies: This is something that I haven’t ever encountered, so I’m polling the readers for their observations.
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Reader John L. wrote with some very useful advice:
“The multi-part article you ran about home fuels contained a question about re-filling propane tanks. As a mechanical engineer who has done this for many years and has not (yet) blown himself up, I thought I would offer a little of the physics behind how and why to do it safely.
If you want to re-fill propane tanks, you should understand the physics of what is going on, to minimize the risk of serious problems.
Propane is a gas when it comes out of the jets in your appliance, mixes with air, and burns. But it is sold and stored as a liquid.
We are all familiar with the fact that water boils at around 212 degrees F (depending on your altitude) and that “boiling” is the process of turning from a liquid to a gas. You may have seen a science experiment where a partial vacuum is applied to a vessel containing water, and the water starts to boil at room temperature. Most of us have used a pressure cooker or pressure canner, which prevents the escape of water vapor produced as we heat the contents, thereby building up pressure, that raises the boiling point and keeps the remaining water in the liquid state at higher than normal boiling temperature, to cook the food faster or destroy spoilage spores.
Atmospheric (or other) pressure surrounding liquids, tends to keep the liquid molecules together, in the liquid state, tends to keep them from flying off separately as a gas. The temperature at which a liquid boils (changes from liquid to gas, or gas condenses back to liquid), therefore depends on the type of liquid, and the pressure on it.
At atmospheric pressure, propane boils at around 40 degrees below zero Fahrenheit. That means that if it is 50 below where you live, and you open the valve on your propane tank, no gas will come out. You would have to pour it, like gasoline. At 50 below, your propane generator will not start.
To keep propane liquid at 70 deg F, requires around ten times normal atmospheric pressure, or around 150 PSI (pounds per square inch). Your propane tank is like a pressure cooker. As its temperature rises, propane vaporizes until enough pressure builds up to keep the remaining propane in liquid form.
You could keep propane in a tank, or a balloon, in gaseous form, under no pressure (only atmospheric pressure), But at atmospheric pressure, it would take only about an ounce-and-a-half of propane to fill a 5-gallon container. 5 gallons of liquid propane, on the other hand, weighs around 20 pounds. So the advantage in convenience of storage, of a fuel that can be stored as dense liquid, but vaporizes to burnable gas, is clear.
So, let us say I have a “full” tank of (liquid) propane that I bought, and a smaller, empty tank that I want to fill.
First, we need to look a little closer at that “full” tank. A properly-filled tank must never be completely full of liquid propane. This is because (almost) all materials expand when heated, and liquids are relatively incompressible. We see the result of this when our pipes freeze and burst. Water is unique among common materials that it has to expand to crystallize (freeze), but it is usually liquid water, pressed against by freezing (expanding) water elsewhere in the system, that bursts your pipe. If the water were compressible like a gas, its pressure would rise only slightly as freezing compresses it by 1 part in 7. But since it is relatively incompressible, pressures can develop of hundreds or thousands of PSI, sufficient to burst the pipe.
Unlike freezing water, liquid water, and liquid propane, behave normally, expanding as they heat up. A solid, relatively non-stretchy vessel completely full (no air space) of any common liquid, will soon see dangerously high pressure, if the liquid is heated. A propane (or water) tank that has a significant air- or gas-filled space over the liquid will not, because the gas compresses with only modest increase in pressure, to make room for the expanding liquid.
For this reason, propane tanks must never be completely filled. Your commercial propane-filling-station assures this in one of three ways. One is to place the tank on a scale, and put only the proper weight of propane into it. Another is to run the propane through an accurate meter that registers how much has been transferred, The simplest in practice is to use a small bleed-valve, built into the main tank valve. This bleed valve is connected to a tube that reaches down into the tank, to the proper maximum filling level. It is opened slightly as the tank is being filled. As long as only gas leaks out, you know the liquid is still below the maximum safe level. As soon as it begins to sputter with liquid, you know that proper level has been reached, and you stop filling. If we are going to safely fill tanks at home, we have to assure that we will not over-fill.
Actually, the problem we will most likely run into, is not being able to completely fill a tank. If we connect an empty tank to the regular outlet on a full tank, only gas will be transferred, because the outlet on the full tank is above the liquid level. If we leave the tanks connected for hours or days, some propane may slowly condense to liquid in the tank we tried to fill, but that is not practical.
To practically transfer liquid to an empty tank, we need to turn the “full” tank upside-down, or connect our hose to a special outlet that draws from the bottom of the tank. [JWR Adds: This type of outlet is commonly called a “Wet Leg.”] But remember, if we are connecting to an empty tank, the liquid flowing into it will see a pressure insufficient to keep it from boiling, so it will immediately begin to vaporize as it enters. The vaporizing will absorb heat and lower the temperature, so some propane will be able to remain liquid as the pressure rises. But pressure will equalize and flow will cease long before the receiving tank is full. My experience has been that I can fill a tank no more than about half-full. Propane sellers are able to fill tanks completely (or up to the safe level) because the propane is pumped, creating enough pressure to condense all the gas in the receiving tank.
You or I could potentially fill a tank completely, if we manipulate the temperatures and therefore the boiling points. If we choose a warm day, with our large tank at 70 deg F (tank pressure around 150PSI), and put the tank we are trying to fill in a bathtub of ice water (32 deg F), since the vapor pressure at that temperature is only around 50 PSI, the 150 PSI from the large tank would be plenty to condense all the gas entering the colder tank, into liquid. Before considering such a trick, be sure you have a way to definitively prevent over-filling!
The last caveat I will offer is that the small tanks sold for camp stoves or soldering torches are intended to be disposable. That means they are made of much thinner material, and to lower standards than tanks intended to be stored and re-filled many times. There is no easy way to determine that they will not leak or explode, if they are re-filled.
You attempt to re-fill propane tanks entirely at your own risk. I do not recommend that anyone attempt this without proper training and equipment.”
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JohnnyB of Tennessee — one of my favorite Meme Vloggers — has expanded to the Rumble platform: Spicy Freedom. If you love funny/conservative/pro-gun/libertarian memes, be sure to click “Follow” there!
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Mike in Alaska sent this legislative alert:
“Those liberal skunks are in the woodshed again … Alaska needs to move its capitol onto the mainland part of the State accessible by the road system.
Anti-gun lawmakers have introduced dangerous legislation in Juneau this month — House Bill 89 — a gun-confiscation scheme disguised as a “Red-Flag” law.
These laws trample on your constitutional right to keep and bear arms, violating fundamental due process protections and leaving law-abiding gun owners with little to no recourse.
Time and again, we’ve seen these laws weaponized in other states, stripping innocent people of their rights and making them even more vulnerable to future victimization. The bill text is available here.”
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And lastly, there are some interesting insights on prepping from this video from our favorite wandering Finns of the Alluring Arctic Sailing vlog: The Most Insane Thing We’ve Ever Tried (Winter IN ICE). Note: They recently completed the Northwest Passage, above the Canadian mainland, from Alaska to Greenland. See their video archives for the whole story.
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