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| This solution is my solution to a MakeShift challenge from page 170-171 of Volume 05 of Make magazine. I do not have permission to copy the challenge, but I can explain my solution. The problem is to stay alive in a vault that only has 24 hours of air left. You must stay alive for 48 hours. |
| Great. Just Great! I’m stuck in this
bank’s vault and only have 24 hours of air. Unfortunately that is
24 hours less than the 48 hours I need. Sure hope I work well under pressure,
because the supplies to work with are limited.
There is no chemical way to make oxygen. The fire extinguisher contains CO2. Not a very reactive gas. It doesn’t burn and the bond of oxygen to the carbon is strong. It would take a plant to make oxygen out of the carbon. Using the fire extinguisher would be lethal, but I might just have another use for it. As far as making oxygen from the water through electrolysis producing oxygen and hydrogen from a batteries current, it just isn’t possible due to the fact there is limited water and the process is slow and inefficient. There is no sense wasting air and effort trying to defeat the safe. There are no explosive materials and I am no safe cracker. My only hope is to find a way to get fresh air. And right now my best bet is in the top of the safe. A little 3/4 inch vent. Now I’m not sure of the exact mathematical formula. That is how much air entering the safe and how much CO2 I produce by breathing will give me what amount of breathable air. After all, gas is compressible. This is one of those mixture problems. You know the ones from calculus with salt entering and leaving the tank at a different rate. You remember those hard ones that take a differential equation. I’m not in the mood to do math right now, but I know that breathable air entering the vault is better than no air entering the vault. I begin to assess the room for my plan. I take the small table under the vent. I take the garden hose and place it into the vent cutting a slit if necessary. I then take a couple of rags wrap them around the hose and jam them into the vent to hold the hose in place being careful not to block the air flow. I do not have enough materials to explore the vent, but assume it is connected to a larger source of fresh, breathable air. Hopefully the water cooler is filled with water. That is what is going to bring the fresh air into the room. I continue working steadily and deliberately. I take the cooler and stick the hose in the water. I will fit the cooler to be open at the top. I want the water to fill at least a foot or more of the hose. I can stick objects into the water to get the desired volume shape of the water. Now for the other part of the simple devise the fire extinguisher. It isn’t going to be activated. That would prove to be deadly. It is simply going to raise the level of the water up and down. This will create a makeshift pump. It has to be man powered, but more importantly it will keep me alive until the vault’s timer unlocks. I place the extinguisher vertically holding it to the side of the cooler with pieces of the steel cable. I tape the pin of the extinguisher so it doesn’t accidently spray. Then a make a lever out of the yard stick and use the chalk line reel as a fulcrum. This will serve to push the extinguisher up and down rasing and lowering the water level. I then put a hole in the hose slightly above its highest level when the extinguisher is not in the water. So as the extinguisher goes into the water adding volume to increase the height of the water in the hose a pump is formed as the extinguisher goes out of the water (it has the tendency to float, hence the wire to make it easy to control) the water level will decrease pulling air from the small vent into the room. This air will exit the hose from the hole made slightly above the peak of the water line before the fire extinguisher is pressed into the water. This will create a sucking action much like plunging a drain. The water shape and height and volume of the water cooler can be adjusted by estimation. I see no easy solution. This one requires me to perform work and use slightly more oxygen. To figure out the amount of time vs oxygen is too complex of a math problem. The amount of oxygen consumed would have to be estimated. There is no time for math problems. The more time wasted on calculations and thinking of a plan is air lost. This plan must work! |
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