On 28 May 2005 08:02:04 -0700, jim rozen
wrote:

In article .com,
says...

Jim Rozen posted:

"do not sniff unknown gas bottles, that's bad policy"

Jim, sniffing an unknown gas is a standard technique in analytical
chemistry,

No it's not. It may have been at one time, but this is no longer
true. Nobody teaches this any more, and anyone who does this
is foolish and will at some point pay the price for it.

One friend of mine did this with hydrogen sulfide. Fortunately
the bottle rolled way from him when he fell to the floor and he
survived.

Another co-worker said "what smells like garlic?" when he got a
whiff of Arsine. Fortunately he only received some minor kidney
damage from that incident. The usual rule for that is, if you
detect an odor at all, you are in *serious* trouble.

Anyone who picks up an unknown, used gas cylinder and deliberately
whiffs the contents is playing a very, very dangerous game.

Same with pipetting viruses by mouth.

Jim
Knowing a bit of the history of this tank, I KNEW it was welding
related or beverage related
This narrows it down to either oxygen, fuel, or sheilding gas for
welding, or CO2 for beverage carbonation.. Knew it wasn't Oxygen - as
O2 bottles have LH threads.
No smell means not Acetelene, and not propane or MAPP.
That leaves shielding gas or CO2, Argon, Helium, or a mix.
My voice didn't get squeaky, so it's likely not helium, and none of
the others are dangerous in small quantities.

I'm pretty sure it was CO2 - and being as far out of date as the
hydro-test appears to be on it, it will likely end up in the scrap
bin.