Electric Wand Makes Fire Disappear

National Geographic ^ | 3/30/11 | Charles Choi

[Nachum]

Electric wands could allow future firefighters to extinguish flames with a wave of the hand, recent experiments suggest. Currently, firefighters use water, foam, powder, and other substances to tame flames. But a team from Harvard University's Whitesides Research Group has shown that electric fields can snuff out fires too (Snip) Based on this principle, the wand in the experiments essentially uses electricity to push the flame away from the burner, "detaching it from the fuel source, so it goes out." The scientists now want to move to suppressing fires both farther away and wider in scope by experimenting with the

[Nachum]

Cool beans

[Minn]

I’ve wondered if you could extinguish a house fire by deploying some sort of fold up dome or tarp over the house to starve the fire of oxygen.

[UB355]

Fine if you have a crane handy and no trees in the way.

[bigbob]

Wear a cup!

[Minn]

Maybe the rig could be light enough to be lifted by something not unlike the current ladders on the rigs. Position the thing over the middle of the house, push a button and boom - a big fire proof baggie engulfs the house. Firemen quickly seal the edges against the ground, and perhaps you pump in an inert gas from above to force the oxygen out. That way you wouldn't need a tight seal against the ground.

Of course you would have to be real sure nobody was left in the house.

I'm sure there are a million reasons why it wouldn't work or they would be doing it by now.

[mass55th]

Aguamenti!

[razorback-bert]

Where will they the electricity, when all the cars are using it up?

[MinuteGal]

"Electric wands could allow future firefighters to extinguish flames with a wave of the hand."

Oooo, oooo, I'm re-living my Buck Rogers days all over again!

Leni