On Nov 17, 11:14 am, Ron wrote:
On Nov 17, 10:53 am, Ron wrote:

On Nov 15, 10:09 am, "HeyBub" wrote:

Evidently not. Who knew?

"A man using a vacuum cleaner to suck gasoline out of a vehicle was burned
and his house damaged when the fuel exploded, the Albuquerque Fire
Department said."

http://www.abqtrib.com/news/2007/nov...lbuquerque-man...

Well, there was an episode of "Mythbusters" were they *tried* to get a
vacuum cleaner (wet/dry) to blowup using this method and nothing
happened.

Shop-Vac Jet Engine

Myth: A guy was cleaning his pool and heard an explosion. He went to
his neighbor's house -- his neighbor was using a shop-vac to get the
sediment off the bottom of the gas tank in his boat. The fumes went
through the shop-vac and turned it into a turbine engine.

Test 1: Shop-Vac + Gas Can

They put a small amount of gas in a gas can so that it was mostly full
of fumes. They hooked it up to a shop-vac for five minutes to see if
they could get an explosion.

No explosion. It turns out that the shop-vac that they had chosen,
like most new shop-vacs, has a safety featu the motor is isolated
from the tank and air running through the tank, so the motor can't
spark the fumes.

Test 2: Short-circuited shop-vac + Gas Can

By accident, they short-circuited their shop-vac parts, sending sparks
everywhere. Happy with this discovery, they decide to rig a worst-case
shop-vac: short-circuit and a hole drilled through to allow the spark
to reach the fumes. They also added more gas to the gas can.

No explosion.

Test 3: Creating a Jet-engine out of Vacuum Parts

Tory went to A&G Vacuum shop to pick up some more vacuums. A&G Vacuum
was the site of Adam's facial run-in with a vacuum motor (Adam decided
to stick his face near a motor, which pulled in and chopped up his
lip). The Vacuum Man showed Tory an older vacuum that was capable of
sparking fumes into a fire.

This proved that it's possible for a vacuum to catch on fire, but it
didn't turn into a jet engine. With this in mind, Tory was tasked with
replicating the results of the myth, i.e. creating a jet-engine out of
vacuum parts.

Tory's design:

* Vacuum motor sucks in air into a tube
* Fuel injector made from a propane ring from a propane stove
* Flame catcher made from a conical strainer
* Fans at back

Tory: "There are going to be a lot of engineers out there going, 'What
the hell is he doing?' and I'm asking myself that on a moment-by-
moment basis, 'What the hell am I doing?'"

Tory's vacuum-based jet-engine was hung up chamber with an ignitor.
First try: no ignition. Tory moved the ignitor to the end of the
engine. Second try: still no ignition. Tory then tried an open flame
at the end of the chamber: finally, ignition.

There was a tiny, tiny bit of thrust when the vacuum motor started,
but for the most part it just tossed flames around the chamber.

Jamie's explanation:

"The whole concept of a vacuum cleaner being a jet engine is all
wrong. It goes against the principles that make jet engines. Vacuum
cleaner create vacuums, that's low pressure. A jet engine works by
creating more pressure, which completes the compression, so it's just
not practical."

mythbusted

http://tinyurl.com/2sclx7

It may not have become a jet engine, but it did make a pretty decent
flame thrower. Check out this video..it's worth waiting until 4:08 in.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2K42GbDN1Y