Microwaving water...(and a late Hello)

Yeah, we had a lengthy discussion on the dangers of superheating water in containers that don't lend themselves to nucleation a few months ago. Just don't nuke it in a perfectly flawless container.

Well, presuming that your coworkers have been covering their bowls of chili, there won't be weird stuff in it . . . .

Now, the question is whether superheating can be used to make proper tea at high altitude. Get the water well above boiling, then drop in an infuser and seal. The idea her is to bring the water up to 212'F under conditions where it usually boils at lower temperature.

--scott

I think you'd have a very hard time sealing the container without suffering severe burns. The instant the infuser hits the water it's going to start boiling all at once. It's also going to release a great deal of steam, so the pressure the seal is going to have to hold back would be considerable.

Better seal it fast and very tightly. Couple of ml of water turning to several L of steam in an instant is going to generate some serious pressure. Then you'd need to bleed off the pressure before opening.

I suppose if you were really intent on getting the temp right you could do it in a pressure cooker of some type. Canner?

Melinda

I wonder if there's a market for a "pressure pot". I wonder if I could manufacture one. I wonder if I'll ever give up on crackpot ideas and get a real job....

... oh, wait. I did. Feels kind of good to be gainfully employed. :)

Derek,

How did you get that Celtic Knot in your header?

Resa

I have one of those expresso coffee makers which I never use. I did initially use the steam boiler with the nozzle to heat cups of water which only took seconds. I think steam can be hotter than 212f but I'm sure the boiling tea cup temperature was only still 200f at my altitude.

Jim

Mel> I suppose if you were really intent on getting the temp right you could do

Right. And it has to be an a nonconducting case, so a stainless steel canister with a rubber seal and a pressure release valve is out.

--scott

It's called an X-face. 40tude Dialog, my newsreader, makes it easy to add one to messages. So does Xnews.

However, you appear to be using a Mozilla program for newsgroups, and I don't know how to get an X-face in outgoing messages for Mozilla.

You might try playing with the following extension, as it allows for custom headers

Also, you can use the following link to generate the header for representing the picture you want to use.

Any questions? I'll do what I can to help.

Derek

Thanks, Derek! I'm using Thunderbird, and the Mnheny extension, so I'll play around. Thanks for the link!

Resa

You're very welcome. Have fun with it!