What Happens When You Burn a Magnesium NeXTCube Computer Case? [Retromodo]
Computers, Workstation, fire, , Magnesium case, Magnesium fire, Nexcube No Comments »
If you are old enough to remember, NeXTCubes were high-end workstation computers built in the late 80’s and early 90’s that featured a die-cast magnesium case. Magnesium was an attractive metal because it was strong and light—but as any high school chemistry student with a penchant for pyromania can tell you, magnesium burns with a brilliant white light. Naturally, this lead some to wonder what would happen if you set one ablaze.
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Back in 93′ Simson L. Garfinkel, then Senior Editor at NeXTWORLD Magazine, indulged his curiosities and discovered that, with some effort, it will generate a magnesium fire. The pictures are the main attraction here, but Garfinkel’s quest to burn the cube is a definite must read for retro geeks and people who get a twisted pleasure out of watching things burn. Hit the link for the full story. [Simson via Macenstein]
Original post by Sean Fallon
A user at Niketalk forums posted up these images of an iPod nano that went up in smoke this morning. The forum user, MJair was awoken at 2AM by the fire alarm going off. On a quick panicked inspection of the room, an “orange glow” near his PS3 was seen. That orange glow was nothing less than a fire, approximately a foot wide in length, which was said to be rapidly spreading. Checkout more images of the nano wreckage below.galleryPost(’nanwrgi’, 3, ”);
In an attempt to get back at her husband for walking out on their marriage, a Chinese wife gathered up the entire stock of cellphones from the retail store they once shared, and proceeded to burn the entire lot before leaving the house. After the smoke cleared, the total damage was estimated to be 400 phones valued at $42,000. No word on what kind of charges this woman is looking at, but I think the lesson here is that if you are an ass with a psychotic girlfriend—hide your gadgets. [
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This kind of reminds me of the table at my first Japanese apartment, which had a heater bolted to the bottom, but Ward Huting and Gerard de Hoop’s version is a lot sexier with its discular luminescence. Its chewy center oozing warmy warms is a built-in candle—not a totally exposed heat source like my old table—which you can warm tea or naughty children over. It’s supposed to be social like a campfire, so it probably works best if you turn your heat off several hours first so people are forced to gather ’round it for warmth. [
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