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Diurnal Pumping, Fluid Division

I caught this just before it made a mess:

Sta-Bil jar - diurnal pumping
Sta-Bil jar – diurnal pumping

That container lives in the garage, where the air temperature pretty much tracks the weather.

When the air in the main compartment heats up, it pushes fluid up into the dispensing compartment. Although both caps were screwed on finger-tight, apparently the smaller cap leaks just enough that the pumped fluid can push the air out through the not-so-good seal.

Another few weeks and it’d be sitting in a puddle!

Comments

6 responses to “Diurnal Pumping, Fluid Division”

  1. madbodger Avatar
    madbodger

    A friend of mine worked on mobile phone designs and one model kept mysteriously breaking its speakers. He finally came up with a hypothesis that the phone was acting as an air pump. He connected a small balloon to a port and rode an elevator up and down many times, and sure enough, the balloon slowly inflated.

    1. Ed Avatar

      That’s much better than a phone acting as a grenade…

  2. Daniel B. Martin Avatar
    Daniel B. Martin

    A few years hence you will be more concerned with Nocturnal Fluid Pumping, Liquid Division!

    1. Ed Avatar

      Which is also a concern of teenage males… [grin]

  3. tantris Avatar
    tantris

    Looks like the Sta separated from the Bil… I see several commercial opportunities here:
    1. “Cold still” the new gadget that lets you (hipster, aka bearded guy with plaid shirt) distill your own high-class brandy. The revolutionary cold still process (patent pending) will be much gentler on the flavor carrying compounds than the traditional high-temp industrial process. Simply pour your favorite wine in the special cold still bottle ($24.95 +sh) and a few weeks later you can enjoy your own artisan brandy. Bottles come pre-seasoned with a manly “petrol” scent.
    2. Second order perpetuum mobile. Converts heat into mechanical motion. Harvest free energy in your own garage. – This of course would have to be a kickstarter project ;)

    1. Ed Avatar

      How about this:

      Put an outbound check valve at the top of the smaller compartment, through a turbine to reservoir atop an inbound check valve on the larger compartment. Increasing pressure pumps fluid out, through the turbine, into the reservoir, whereupon decreasing pressure sucks fluid in from the reservoir.

      Put a generator on the turbine for FREE! ENERGY! FTW!

      Ignore everything that might hinder a successful Kickstarter, like physics: PROFIT!

      Now in full effect: an opportunity for a hipster Web 2.x designer willing to work for cocktail peanuts…