Soap stamps out grease fires.A common household safety tip cautions cooks not to throw water on a grease fire, because water will spread the blaze rather than put it out. Special fire extinguishers fire extinguisher: see fire fighting. for grease fires contain chemicals designed to break apart fatty acids fatty acid, any of the organic carboxylic acids present in fats and oils as esters of glycerol. Molecular weights of fatty acids vary over a wide range. The carbon skeleton of any fatty acid is unbranched. Some fatty acids are saturated, i.e. , forming a soapy layer that smothers the flames. To test if this soap-making mechanism actually does what's claimed, Jenny N. Davis and Philip J. Karjala of the College of St. Benedict in St. Joseph, Minn., studied the products of grease fires in their laboratory. The researchers burned small amounts of cooking oil and then extinguished ex·tin·guish tr.v. ex·tin·guished, ex·tin·guish·ing, ex·tin·guish·es 1. To put out (a fire, for example); quench. 2. To put an end to (hopes, for example); destroy. See Synonyms at abolish. 3. the flames with two kinds of materials made by Ansul in Marinette, Wis adv. 1. Certainly; really; indeed. v. t. 1. To think; to suppose; to imagine; - used chiefly in the first person sing. present tense, I wis. See the Note under Ywis. . After chemically analyzing the foam, they found that it contained a mixture of salts resulting from reactions between the oil and the extinguishing agents, thus confirming how the flames get snuffed. |
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