Posted on 11/30/2004 4:57:24 AM PST by scooter2
KENT - "Philip has been a kid who tinkers with things ever since he was little," a grieving Claudia Quinn told KOMO 4 News Monday night after her son's bizarre and tragic death.
Sunday, 24-year-old Philip Quinn was tinkering with a lava lamp at his home in Kent. His girlfriend and his parents became worried when they couldn't find him and couldn't get him to answer his phone.
Claudia and Bill Quinn drove from their home in Auburn to check on their youngest son. They thought maybe he'd just overslept. They were devastated by what they found.
"I looked around the corner and saw his body slumped there in the corner and just couldn't believe what I saw," said Quinn's father.
"There was glass from the kitchen clear to the living room," his mom told us. "They said it appeared that a piece of glass punctured his heart."
Philip, in a fatal act of experimentation, had placed a lava lamp on the kitchen stove. When used properly and heated only by a small lightbulb, 40 watts in most cases, a lava lamp is essentially harmless: a mix of wax or oil and water sealed in a glass bottle with a small air space at the top of the bottle to allow for the liquid to expand under heat.
"It wasn't bubbling fast enough for him," his mom guesses. "Because when we walked in the stove was on at the lowest setting."
Even at the lowest setting the amount of heat was too much. As Philip watched the lava lamp on his stove the pressure began to build too much and too fast until it essentially exploded like a grenade, showering him with glass and sending a large shard deep into his chest.
He was found just a few feet away from the stove. He bled to death and never had a chance to call for help. The King County Medical Examiner has ruled the death accidental.
Police found no evidence of drug or alcohol use.
Philip Quinn leaves behind a 15-month old daughter. He was also the youngest of three brothers. Funeral services are planned for this Saturday.
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"Nothing ventured... nothing learned."
;-)
Is THAT all there is to it??!
When I think of the hours wasted... back in college - just watching and wondering, awestruck at the technical marvel that captivated my imagination and took me to places far, far away.
Hell hath no greater fury than a lava lamp on a stove
LOL
I warmly recall the year my wife (NRA Cert Instructor) gave me a stainless Mitchell P-08!
A lot of people at my local range do not know my name, but still call me "The guy with the Stainless Steel Luger".
.spoo
Let's not leave out the stove maker and the entire glass industry. After all, the glass industry has known for years what flying shards of glass can do to your heart, and they haven't even put a warning label on anything.
It could be the penultimate innovation!
Not strong enough to contain an exploding spaghetti squash! Blew the door clean off. Our two dogs eating it off each other's backs was priceless.
Tip #1: Poke more than two holes in squash before microwaving.
You can have my lava lamp when you pry it out of my cold, dead fingers!
Dudes, like I've always said, never put a smokin' hot bong down next to your lava lamp!
LOL, re "LOL"
No, Darwin Award Candidates have to kill themselves before passing on their genes. This guy leaves a 15-month-old daughter making him ineligible for the award.
Philip Quinn leaves behind a 15-month old daughter.
At least the daughter is a tad safer now.
This falls into the category of:
"CAUTION: Do not stare into beam with remaining eye!"
......related......
August 21, 2000
Web posted at: 1:54 PM EDT (1754 GMT)
LONDON -- Inventor Edward Craven Walker once said, "If you buy my lamp, you won't need drugs."
Walker, who died Tuesday of cancer at age 82, was talking about that blob-filled symbol of psychedelia, the lava lamp.
Inspired by another kind of "blob light" that mixed oil and water, Walker decided the lamp would be more interesting if the oil were thick enough to form sculptural shapes. He spent a decade developing his "Astro lamp" before he began manufacturing it in 1963 from a factory in southern England.
By the 1970s, the lamp had become must-have furniture for the funky fashion-conscious. But the lamps' success faded in the 1980s, and Walker sold the rights to Mathmos, one of Britain's fastest-growing firms.
Walker, who flew reconnaissance missions for the Royal Air Force in World War II, also developed an interest in nudism and owned a nudist resort on the south coast of England.
But the Singapore native will be best remembered for his lava lamp, which he believed had staying power.
"I think it was always be popular," he said. "It's like the cycle of life. It grows, breaks up, falls down, and then starts all over again."
Do not dissasemble and place on stove burner. Glass will shatter and pierce your heart.
Simply Mother Nature's way of cleaning the dead leaves out of the gene pool...
moronic is one term that comes to mind.
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