were can I get liquid Nitrogen

a lot of chemical companies (ie AirGas) or scientific suppliers can sell it (if they WILL sell it is another question).
 
a college campus. you will need a suitable container though....
 
You can get liquid nitrogen from Airgas, IF, you have a dewar to hold it in.. They will not fill a thermos for you :D If they do let me know, they will be fired.. :eek: Dewars can be had at medical supply stores.. Range in size from 1 to 35 liters and larger if you want.. Not sure what they cost..

You can lease a 170 liter, 600+ pound tank from Airgas.. I don't remember what the lease cost is, but the refills are around a $100 to $120..
 
I may be wrong, but I was under the impression that you need some kind of liscense to buy hazardous chemicals.
If you want you can come out to my college and fill up a thermous from the giant tank of it we have just sitting outside. It only has a chain link fence around it with barbed wire on top of it, it's not like they want to keep people out of it or anything.
 
daragon said:
I may be wrong, but I was under the impression that you need some kind of liscense to buy hazardous chemicals.
If you want you can come out to my college and fill up a thermous from the giant tank of it we have just sitting outside. It only has a chain link fence around it with barbed wire on top of it, it's not like they want to keep people out of it or anything.
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so your going to steal it?
 
daragon said:
I may be wrong, but I was under the impression that you need some kind of liscense to buy hazardous chemicals.
If you want you can come out to my college and fill up a thermous from the giant tank of it we have just sitting outside. It only has a chain link fence around it with barbed wire on top of it, it's not like they want to keep people out of it or anything.
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Is liquid nitrogen really hazardous? I mean, you can seriously hurt yourself with it, but you can also do that with Draino (lye). It is not like if you spill it anywhere you will contaminate anything. In that respect, Draino is actually more hazardous that liquid nitrogen.
 
Yes, it is really dangerous. If you accidentally spill it on your hand or arm you will either have serious front bite, or lose the limb depending on how much you spill on yourself.
 
I know it's old, but if you remember Terminator 2, when they freeze T1000, that was liquid Nitrogen. If you never saw that one, remember Alien Resurrection. The aliens freeze that dude when he goes in the chamber. That is what LN can do, I'm not sure if they were pretending that was LN though.
LN is scary stuff. What's even scarier is in another thread, I saw a pic of a guy carrying some in a styrofoam cup wearing a gardening glove. I would stay away from it unless you KNOW what you are doing, or know someone that does.

And I was being sarcastic about the stealing the LN thing, but we seriously do have a giant tank of it at my school. What’s funnier was when one of the hoses broke and it was geysering into the air. It was noticeably colder in the area around there, it was great.
 
No license required in my state.. Don't know about any others.. Only an approved container..

Yes it's very dangerous.. cryogenic burns.. Thrusting your hand into liquid NI is not much different than thrusting it into a deepfryer filled with boiling oil..
 
GORANKAR said:
Yes it's very dangerous.. cryogenic burns.. Thrusting your hand into liquid NI is not much different than thrusting it into a deepfryer filled with boiling oil..
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A few years ago, my high school physics prof demonstrated how, if you're quick enough, you can actually dunk your hand in and pull it back out. If you're fast enough (don't try it without practicing first), the heat from your hand creates a gas envelope. You still feel the cold, but no permanent damage.

Oh, yeah- and I'd like some too, please! I'm trying to take my Newcastle over 3GHz, or else push a P-M 1.5 over the same mark. I'm bulding a vacuum chamber to eliminate condensation over the next weeks, it'll be done by the end of the summer.

The part that strikes me as funny is that NJ now prohibits the sale of compressed air to minors. It's not because of the gross misuse in terms of cold-generation (I've got a permanent frostbite scar on my forearm from an after-work game of freezer-tag, which was still lots of fun. I got off light, I got a co-worker right in the small of his back), but rather because of its "whip-it" potential- that is, inhaling the fumes for a cheap high.
 
I think I'll pass on "practicing" dunking my hand into L NI.. On a side note Liquid Helium is a bit colder than L NI.. But L HE is very very very expensive..

The laws in each state vary.. We can't sell a tank of anything to a minor.. The only things we seem to require a license for are medical grade gas/liquids and refrigerants.. Any adult can come in off the street and buy L NI, automotive NOs, liquid Argon,liquid carbon dioxide, liquid Helium, acetylene, whatever..
 
I recall in 5th grade, being in science class... a class of probably 15 people everyone was given little tiny water cups full of liquid nitrogen. We were allowed to dip our pens into it, and they gave us little flowers and stuff like that... also froze a raquet ball and threw it against the wall...

odd how they would let 11 year olds play with it like that... (they did it every year at a small well known private school)

also had a wart frozen off my foot when i was much younger too... anyway, fun stuff I just dont think its *that* hard to obtain.. but maybe i guess it varies from state to state..
 
Oh, yeah- and you actually can drink it, but only about a teaspoon of it. Make sure you salivate a lot first to lubricate your throat, and be prepared to kiss your manners goodbye. It expands roughly seven hundred-fold as it evaporates, so you do a LOT of burping/belching after drinking.
 
I remember that demonstartion to, we didn't get little cups of it though. I also remember them passing around Mercury, that doesn't make it a good idea. When was the last time you heard about them doing it today? The last time I saw it was when my HS shop teacher bought a 100 gallon tank of it and brought it to class. He had a ligitamite reason to have it, but the still "didn't ask him to return" thext year. LN is not a toy, it is not to put your hand in, or to drink.
All I can say is, if you want to mess with it, nothing you are going to read here is going to stop you but, please use care. All you need to do is imagine that your hand or foot is that raquet ball.
 
Yeah in AP physics a week ago they were playing with it outside.

They put some in a 2 liter pop bottle and put the bottle under a upside down trash can, then placed a yard stick on top the the trash can, when the 2 liter exploded it pushed the trash can up so fast that it snapped the yard stick into 3 pieces, just think how much power htat trash can needed to do that :p

Also they had a 20oz bottle and they couldnt get it to go off, so one kid threw it and the 2nd time he threw it, it exploded at the top of the throw, that coulda taken his hand off easily.

When the bottle explode they complete turn the pop bottles into fine pieces of plastic.


LN is not sometihng to play with when not paying attention
 
sniper991122 said:
I recall in 5th grade, being in science class... a class of probably 15 people everyone was given little tiny water cups full of liquid nitrogen. We were allowed to dip our pens into it, and they gave us little flowers and stuff like that... also froze a raquet ball and threw it against the wall...

odd how they would let 11 year olds play with it like that... (they did it every year at a small well known private school)

also had a wart frozen off my foot when i was much younger too... anyway, fun stuff I just dont think its *that* hard to obtain.. but maybe i guess it varies from state to state..
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bah...i remember in 3rd grade we had a demonstration in class with mercury. the teacher poured about a nickel size of it into a kids hand and we passed it around the whole class. then when everyone had it, the teacher washed it down the sink.
 
have you tried talking to rural vets?

They use it to freeze bull semen all the time, and it would be easiest to obtain under the impression your using it for farm use or somekinda animal use.
 
acascianelli said:
bah...i remember in 3rd grade we had a demonstration in class with mercury. the teacher poured about a nickel size of it into a kids hand and we passed it around the whole class. then when everyone had it, the teacher washed it down the sink.
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That seems highly irresponsible. Mercury is a toxic substance which can be absorbed through skin. If I had a kid in that class I would have been unimaginably pissed off.
 
Lazaryn said:
Yes, it is very dangerous. Just as dangerous as petrol or natural gas. You know that you can hurt yourself driving a car as well?

:D
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Wellllllll.....I'd say it's a wee bit more dangerous......I'll be happy to pour gas on my hand long before I'd pour LN on anything I have...... :D
 
The biggest danger when handling liquid nitrogen is if you wearing absorbant clothes like a sweater etc. If you spill a little on your skin or hands it will floaton it's own little pillar of steam and fall off quite quickly, it will actually not be in direct contact with your skin.
 
Heh, at my school (also a well known private school) an old Mercury thermometer got stepped on (not the schools, fell out of someone's locker etc) and got tracked around the entire hallway. They wouldn't let us in the building for a week to clean that place out.
 
C1utCh said:
Heh, at my school (also a well known private school) an old Mercury thermometer got stepped on (not the schools, fell out of someone's locker etc) and got tracked around the entire hallway. They wouldn't let us in the building for a week to clean that place out.
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Mercury is very toxic though, thats why.
 
i heard that you were supposed to work naked when handling it.. is that true? it was something about LN sticking to clothes but not to skin long enough to cause damage..
 
FanZ said:
i heard that you were supposed to work naked when handling it.. is that true? it was something about LN sticking to clothes but not to skin long enough to cause damage..
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Be my guest. Just don't take any pictures.
 
FanZ said:
i heard that you were supposed to work naked when handling it.. is that true? it was something about LN sticking to clothes but not to skin long enough to cause damage..
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I don't think we'll see that happening in the classrooms or college labs anytime soon :p
 
FanZ said:
i heard that you were supposed to work naked when handling it.. is that true? it was something about LN sticking to clothes but not to skin long enough to cause damage..
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everytime i've dispensed it ive been fully clothed... additionally i double up on gloves to keep the cold snaps from hitting my fingers. that crap friggin hurts
 
My O-chem professor said that when he was in school his professor did a demonstration where he gurgled it in his throat. Evidently it's perfectly safe because it has such a low boiling point. No B.S.
 
pigpen said:
My O-chem professor said that when he was in school his professor did a demonstration where he gurgled it in his throat. Evidently it's perfectly safe because it has such a low boiling point. No B.S.
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That's actually what makes it dangerous - theoretically whatever surface it's boiling off of will be lowered in temperature to the boiling point. You can bring it into contact with your skin or mouth because it forms an insulating gas layer between the two that keeps you from freezing as long as you don't keep it there for too long.
 
Indeed; I've eaten LN soaked graham crackers before. It's rather entertaining to blow out puff of water vapor from the cold. You have to keep it moving around to prevent the old "tounge stuck to frozen thing" from happening.
To those of you with your warning posts, you probably don't open power supplies or discharge CRTs either, right? Just be respectful of the chemicals and equipment you are working with, and you'll be fine, for fucks sake.
 
explain_paramedics.gif
 
Thanks to everybody involved. Hearing people talking about how it’s extremely dangerous and that you shouldn't play around with it, and then talking about how they played around with it and didn't have a problem... Priceless. That kind of warning is about as effective as when someone is smoking a cigarette, and after taking a long drag tells someone who is a non-smoker that smoking is bad for you.

Warning labels and restricted sales are there for a reason... It’s because someone did something stupid enough that it then became required to warn everybody about the potential danger. Nobody can deny that people in this world sometimes do REALLY stupid stuff, and that thoughts of dangerous items/actions heavily imply that a certain level of caution is required...yet people still get seriously hurt, and then business policies have to change or warning labels added in the hopes that others don't exhibit the same (or similar) moronic acts of carelessness and disobedience to either implied or expressed danger. --Remember the McDonalds incident where a guy got burned by coffee? DUH, its hot, because that’s how coffee is served and why it comes in an insulated cup...But then a shitload of money had to be spent for the court case and new cup lids that had a warning printed on it.

Always be mindful of the possibilities that could happen. Think about potential risks, pick the worst case scenario, and then ask yourself if you'd be willing to suffer those consequences. If I needed to use Liquid Nitrogen for something, you can bet your ass I'd be looking into what Hazmat gloves cost.

I have never looked into acquiring anything like that before, so I have no clue where to go, the restrictions, the prices, etc... However I do hope that unlike some of the other warnings, mine actually will make you think two or three times before doing something that could potentially fuck your life up permanently (or end it prematurely).


Now that I’m done with my little rant, I think I will browse the Darwin Awards for more of this kind of humor. If you’ve never heard of them, it’s an award given to people who die doing stupid shit that pretty much everybody knows was a really dumb idea.

http://www.darwinawards.com/


Oh, and good luck with your project.
 
GORANKAR said:
No license required in my state.. Don't know about any others.. Only an approved container..

Yes it's very dangerous.. cryogenic burns.. Thrusting your hand into liquid NI is not much different than thrusting it into a deepfryer filled with boiling oil..
Click to expand...

In my college physics lab we got ahold of a giant canister of the stuff. We were messing around with it dipping stuff in it and such. We eventually started dipping our fingers in it to see what it would feel like. It stings and you learn real quick to jerk your hand away, but you're not going to get a cryogenic burn if you just get a little on you. Now if you take a bath in the stuff... that's another story.
 
A quick dip of the fingers, prolly not. Immersing an entire hand, even for only a couple of seconds, yes... I have recieved burns from splatter alone.. While in the process of filling a container like the one at your school.. It is just something that should be handled with care.. The potential for injury is just too great to ignore.. Do what you want, I choose to treat the stuff with respect...
 
We pay about $150 per 200 l dewar filling. One thing to remember if you want to buy smaller quantities, you use more LN2 chilling your small dewar then you actually use to fill it. So don't be surprised about a hefty surcharge for small vessels.
 
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