# Sulphur mining in an active volcano



## rusty (Feb 9, 2011)

Be sure the watch the youtube video half way down the page http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12301421

Crater lake 1km across, and its water has pH of 0.5 - similar to battery acid


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## AuMINIMayhem (Feb 9, 2011)

Wow... nice post!

There's a line in there about how they cover their faces with wet rags... wouldn't that be the last thing you'd want to do? Ever spilled a spot of sulfuric acid on your jeans? It just makes a small brown spot.. until you wash them, then it looks like you took a torch to them when you pull the out of the washer! :shock: I can only imagine what those fumes are doing to any "moisture laden" parts of their bodies.. eyes, sinuses, lungs.. ughhh. That's gotta be horrible..

...and I thought cutting up a 50 lb bag of onions the other day for the restaurant sucked! :lol: (oh how I hate doing onions!) Same principle though.. onions give off minute amounts of sulfur dioxide (?) which turns into a mild sulfuric acid when it comes in contact with your eyes, which is why they burn..


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## Barren Realms 007 (Feb 9, 2011)

AuMINIMayhem said:


> Wow... nice post!
> 
> There's a line in there about how they cover their faces with wet rags... wouldn't that be the last thing you'd want to do? Ever spilled a spot of sulfuric acid on your jeans? It just makes a small brown spot.. until you wash them, then it looks like you took a torch to them when you pull the out of the washer! :shock: I can only imagine what those fumes are doing to any "moisture laden" parts of their bodies.. eyes, sinuses, lungs.. ughhh. That's gotta be horrible..
> 
> ...and I thought cutting up a 50 lb bag of onions the other day for the restaurant sucked! :lol: (oh how I hate doing onions!) Same principle though.. onions give off minute amounts of sulfur dioxide (?) which turns into a mild sulfuric acid when it comes in contact with your eyes, which is why they burn..



If you pour a small dilute amount it will do that to your jeans. But if you pour a very concentrated amount it will eat thru them. And if you have a lot get on your jeans you had better get out of them quick because it will eat thru them very quickly. I was working on a drain one day setting down on the floor and tipped over a 1/2 gal that ran onto my pant's and it ate them up within minutes, luckily it was at my dads house and I called for him to get me something to wear while I shucked out of them. The joy's of being a plumber. :twisted:


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## AuMINIMayhem (Feb 9, 2011)

sounds like something I would say at home.. 

"Honey, I spilled some sulfuric on my pants... you gotta help me outta these quick!" :twisted: :lol: 

good thing she's got a sense of humor. :mrgreen:


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## shaftsinkerawc (Feb 10, 2011)

Wondering if I'm misreading this photo. Is it a 2 layer photo. One cloud is moving left and up, (white cloud). The other appears to be going to the right (sand spit looking tan at top of ridge in the bottom center). Just curious.


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## Irons (Feb 10, 2011)

AuMINIMayhem said:


> Wow... nice post!
> 
> There's a line in there about how they cover their faces with wet rags... wouldn't that be the last thing you'd want to do? Ever spilled a spot of sulfuric acid on your jeans? It just makes a small brown spot.. until you wash them, then it looks like you took a torch to them when you pull the out of the washer! :shock: I can only imagine what those fumes are doing to any "moisture laden" parts of their bodies.. eyes, sinuses, lungs.. ughhh. That's gotta be horrible..
> 
> ...and I thought cutting up a 50 lb bag of onions the other day for the restaurant sucked! :lol: (oh how I hate doing onions!) Same principle though.. onions give off minute amounts of sulfur dioxide (?) which turns into a mild sulfuric acid when it comes in contact with your eyes, which is why they burn..



Try cutting the Onions with a knife with a very thin, sharp blade. I use a Rapala filet knife. I doesn't crush as many of the cells. Your eyes will thank you for it.


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## Oz (Feb 10, 2011)

Come on, just slice and dice your onions in a fume hood :lol:


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## Barren Realms 007 (Feb 10, 2011)

Put the onion in the freezer for a while and it will solve the problem and you will not have any problem with tears when cutting them.


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## Irons (Feb 10, 2011)

Barren Realms 007 said:


> Put the onion in the freezer for a while and it will solve the problem and you will not have any problem with tears when cutting them.



He works in a restaurant, not a prison work camp. They have standards in restaurants. :mrgreen:


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## Barren Realms 007 (Feb 10, 2011)

Irons said:


> Barren Realms 007 said:
> 
> 
> > Put the onion in the freezer for a while and it will solve the problem and you will not have any problem with tears when cutting them.
> ...



Yep I have standards in my cooking as well. You don't put them in over night just long enough to where they start to harden up. By them time you cut them up you have no tears and the onion is still firm and good for cooking and they are not mushy. 8)


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## eeTHr (Feb 10, 2011)

If you put an onion in a blender with some water, and run it until the onion is liquid, then filter the solution, will you end up with dilute sulfuric acid? Which could be evaporated like is done with battery acid?

What would the organics in the juice do?


:?:


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## AuMINIMayhem (Feb 18, 2011)

Irons said:


> AuMINIMayhem said:
> 
> 
> > Try cutting the Onions with a knife with a very thin, sharp blade. I use a Rapala filet knife. I doesn't crush as many of the cells. Your eyes will thank you for it.




yeah, if we were doing a couple here and there that would be one thing, but we're doing 45-50lb bags fo them at a time... we have a Hobart Deli slicer on hand to do the job. 8) 

What we do is put them in our walk-in cooler over-night and then slice them the next morning. It does help, but no matter which way you slice it (pun intended :mrgreen: ) it still sucks. :roll: 

btw... on a side note.. produce prices are REDICULOUS right now.. 

example: a case of Green Peppers used to run around $15.80 (give or take a dime or two).. this past week one case cost over $55! :shock: .. and ALL of our produce has seen a roughly 400% increase in price since the summer. Apparently, this winter's been particularly rough on the farms and the cost of fuel is driving prices up as well.. :roll:


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## jimdoc (Feb 18, 2011)

At the pizza shop I worked at we always had the young guys do the jobs like cutting onions. My friends and I started out at the bottom doing the unwanted tasks, and then my friend ended up buying the place and hiring the young guys to chop the onions. The freezing trick works also.

I miss working at that shop, it was the best pizza anywhere, and now its gone. I hope my friend wrote down the secret recipes so he can reopen a shop someday.

Jim


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## AuMINIMayhem (Feb 18, 2011)

jimdoc said:


> My friends and I started out at the bottom doing the unwanted tasks, and then my friend ended up buying the place and hiring the young guys to chop the onions.
> Jim




Yeah... I wish we were in that position. Economy's killing us at the moment, we have 1 employee right now. Things are turning around though. This is our first year and it looks to me as if our end of town is rather "seasonal".. a lot of people that were regulars seemed to take off for the winter months and now they're coming back in. It's all those little nuances about this town that are very strange, it's not like good old Orlando. That town is like a clock the way things run down there. There's never really an "off-season", especially in the restaraunt businesss down there.


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