Hand Boilers (Colors May Vary)

Product Information

The liquid inside hand boilers is typically given different colors for visual appeal, and also to better show the liquid as it bubbles and moves through the boiler.

If you have cold hands the hand boiler will not work as well since the heat from your hand is not high enough to cause the liquid to evaporate and boil. You can try it out on a cold winter day, after you come in from outside. See what happens! Hand boiler toy, built into a ballpoint pen. The warmth from the fingertips vaporizes some of the red liquid inside the tube, causing it to rise and bubble up into the top chamber as if the liquid was boiling. Mechanics [ edit ] This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.Robison, John; Watt, James; Brewster, David (1822). System of Mechanical Philosophy. Vol.2. Edinburgh, Scotland: J. Murray. p.14, footnote. Find sources: "Hand boiler"– news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR ( January 2018) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message) A hand boiler is a toy made out of hand-blown glass and filled with a special liquid called ethyl alcohol. The boiler consists of a larger lower bulb and smaller upper bulb, connected together by a twisting glass tube. This liquid inside the boiler is special because it appears to boil at a low temperature. And all it needs to do so is the heat of your hand. As you probably know, water boils at a temperature of about 100 degrees Celsius. With a hand boiler, the temperature of your hand is enough to cause the liquid to bubble and appear to boil.

A hand boiler functions similar to the " drinking bird" toy: [1] The upper and lower bulbs of the device are at different temperatures, and therefore the vapor pressure in the two bulbs is different. Since the lower bulb is warmer, the vapor pressure in it is higher. The difference in vapor pressure forces the liquid from the lower bulb to the upper bulb. Thus: Franklin, Benjamin (1769). Experiments And Observations On Electricity, Made At Philadelphia in America …. London, England: David Henry. pp.489–492. p {\displaystyle \Delta p} = the difference in vapor pressure between the two bulbs (which can be determined via the Antoine equation)h {\displaystyle \Delta h} = the height of the column of fluid above the fluid's level in the lower bulb