[SML] Sal Ammoniac smoke

[Steve Boone]

Oh, oh! Pick me!

Heating Cones were a replaceable element for a type of space heater that simply had a medium screw base socket in the middle of a shiny copper/metallic reflector.  The space heaters look similar to an old table model oscillating fan, except—no blades.
There is an illustration of a cone in the old 3rd edition of Parker and Smith: Scene Design and Stage Lighting.  You can also still Google some pics of them.
https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/ld8AAOSwMmBVx-3U/s-l400.jpg

The HCl vapor (“smoke”) really isn’t smoke at all.  It is real hydrochloric acid in air.  If you had a long-running show, the acid vapor basically rusted every steel nail, screw, hinge, and whatever else was within sight of the heating element.  And the smell was acrid and quite memorable.  It irritates your respiratory pathway basically because everything wet picks up the hydrochloric acid from the air.   I was always a little wary of it.  HCl in air is scary, dangerous stuff if you are exposed to a high concentration.  But, it only takes a little to make a smoke-look that hangs around for what seems like forever.

The HCl acid vapor in air is also the way that Titanium tetrachloride works to make the “smoking gun” image used in Hollywood Westerns.  Except you _really_ don’t want to get TiCl4 on your skin (it will react even more vigorously than in air), and it effects the metal finish by making a kind of dark etched area, so it ruins the gun you put it on.

Ahh, the fun behind the entertainment industry!  Next thing you know I’ll be making a lightning effect by holding a rasp and a screwdriver, connected to an arc-light transformer, while wearing rubber lineman’s gloves!

Surprised to still be alive.
Steve Boone




On May 3, 2018, at 20:30, jdunfee12--- via Stagecraft <stagecraft at theatrical.net<mailto:stagecraft at theatrical.net><mailto:stagecraft at theatrical.net>> wrote:

Since childhood, I have read about using Sal Ammoniac in a Heating Cone to make theatrical smoke.  However, I have never seen this done, nor even seen what such a heating cone looks like.  A search for a "heating cone" shows up some cone-shaped systems which you use to heat a bearing (I am guessing to expand it a bit, to put onto a shaft).  Is that the sort of "heating cone" used for smoke?

A search on Youtube also turned up nothing except how to clean your soldering iron.   I also searched "ammonium chloride", since that seems to be the same stuff. But, again without success.

Anyone know of a site that shows a picture, or ideally a video of such a contraption in operation?

-Joe
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://theatrical.net/pipermail/stagecraft_theatrical.net/attachments/20180508/f5f9236e/attachment.html>