Posted by Journeyman on 04/09/2019 17:04:43:
Don't know where you are situated but Amazon sell bio-ethanol and isopropyl alcohol. You may also find the bio-ethanol in garden centres.
John
Bioethanol, Alcohol à Bruler, Surgical Spirit and Meths are all similar, that is mostly ethanol with a good dollop of nastiness to stop people enjoying a bottle of it in front of the telly.
The alcohol content is fine. The awkward question is will the nasty additives in these concoctions upset the crystallisation of Camphor inside Antony's Storm Glass? Don't know! I think he'll have to experiment to find out!
A serviceable mix might be made from good Vodka as the pure-ish alcohol/water base, with added meths/bioethanol or French burning alcohol to make the strength up to 55%. Vodka would dilute the additives making them less likely to interfere.
The recipe is:
- 2.5 g potassium nitrate
- 2.5 g ammonium chloride
- 33 mL distilled water
- 40 mL ethanol
- 10 g natural camphor
Any chemists out there – I don't believe Potassium Nitrate and Ammonium Chloride react?
If so, I think the mixture either works by using the Nitrate and Chloride to balance the solubility of the Water/Ethanol solute so that the Camphor is at the tipping point between it's dissolved and solid form OR it's the Camphor that balances the Nitrate and Chloride at their crystallisation point.
As the tipping point is effected by temperature and pressure, it makes a crude weather forecasting device. The density of the liquid must be be important; whatever the crystals are made of they have to float in the tube rather than fall to the bottom like a Snow Globe.
Dave