Such fires might appear eerily tranquil to people accustomed to the capricious nature of earthly flames. “Astronauts are all very excited to do our experiments because space fires really do look quite alien.” “If you ignite a piece of paper in microgravity, the fire will just slowly creep along from one end to the other,” says Dietrich. Absent the upward flow of hot air, fires in microgravity are dome-shaped or spherical-and sluggish, thanks to meager oxygen flow. The flame persists because of the diffusion of oxygen, with random oxygen molecules drifting into the fire. Without gravity, hot air expands but doesn’t move upward. The upward flow of air is what gives a flame its teardrop shape and causes it to flicker.īut odd things happen in space, where gravity loses its grip on solids, liquids and gases. This convection process feeds fresh oxygen to the fire, which burns until it runs out of fuel. The pull of gravity draws colder, denser air down to the base of the flame, displacing the hot air, which rises. Here on Earth, when a flame burns, it heats the surrounding atmosphere, causing the air to expand and become less dense. That fire continues to surprise us is itself surprising when you consider that combustion is likely humanity’s oldest chemistry experiment, consisting of just three basic ingredients: oxygen, heat and fuel. “There have been experiments,” says NASA aerospace engineer Dan Dietrich, “where we observed fires that we didn’t think could exist, but did.” After a notable fire is started, latch the fire box door, open the ball valve to the handle position of 7 o’clock and let come up to desired temp with the adjustment of the ball valve.Recent tests aboard the International Space Station have shown that fire in space can be less predictable and potentially more lethal than it is on Earth. Once the charcoal is lit, close the fire box door until the is a 1 inch crack from closing, the rain cap should also be at about a 1/3 of the gap. Using a lit Plumber’s Torch, stick the nozzle through the fire grates and allow the torch to light several pieces of charcoal. The second method, drop about ½ of a chute of charcoal on top of the fire grate and close the charcoal chute door. After a notable fire is started, latch the fire box door, open the ball valve to the handle position of 7 o’clock and let come up to desired temp with the adjustment of the ball valve. Open the ball valve to the handle position of 7 o’clock and close the fire box door, the rain cap to about a 1/3 of the gap. Drop about 1 pound of charcoal on top of the light match and close the charcoal chute door and you should get ignition. Check to see that there still active fire on the match. Remove one of the big matches from the package and light on the side of the box allowing the flame on the end to become the size of a large lemon, open the charcoal chute door and drop into (a clean charcoal chute) and land on the fire grate. makes a product called Strike-a-Fire that can be used. After this has been verified, move on the next step. Check both areas to be sure the chute and fire grate are clean and clear of any ash or other obstructions. But before beginning the process of making a fire, open the firebox and charcoal chute doors. There are two methods that we consider to be effective and efficient in order to start a fire in a Gravity Feed Smoker. Therefore the cook chamber doesn’t dry out as much either - this creates a nice moist cooking environment that doesn’t tend to cause meat to dry out as fast while it is cooking. The heat/smoke moves through the cook chamber of a gravity feed much slower than in a typical offset stick burner smoker. So by controlling the amount of oxygen that is fed in, we can control the amount of “fire” or the temp in the cook chamber. Once this process has started air and heat movement naturally drafts up, around and out through the exhaust stack. Once inside the cook chamber, the divider plate evenly distributes the air and heat and allows the natural convection process to begin. Next, the exhaust stack creates a natural draft which pulls air into the firebox from the ball valve, it then moves across the fuel and through an into the area where there is a “tube” that allows the heat/smoke to transfer from the firebox into the cook chamber. This is known as “oxygen depletion” so oxygen only exists in the area of fuel in the bottom 4 to 6 inches of the chute and atop the fire grate. The chute (full of fuel) cannot ignite all of the charcoal in the chamber at one time, because there isn’t enough oxygen available for combustion. The amount of “fire” is controlled by the amount of oxygen that is allowed in from the ball valve. A Gravity Feed Smoker works on the principle of a sealed environment.
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