Fire starter magnesium block - fun home brew clock battery project

A very short term actual possible use battery project, using a "Firestarter" magnesium block, carbon graphite, cloth, saturated salt water solution, electrical leads, wall clock. Caution: the battery will generate a amount of hydrogen gas and some lesser chlorine gas. The fire starter magnesium block can be found or obtained at Harbor Freight Tools, Walmart, REI
(misc., camping, sportings goods outlets). The carbon can be found in surplus, salvage, EBay, wood carpenter pencils (burn the wood off), artists stores graphite pencils, etc.

As is; the unit will likely cease to provide much voltage and
current likely within just a few hours due to drying up of the
cloth, salt buildup around the cloth contact area and the
accumulated magnesium oxidation scale, which all lower the voltage and current of the battery cell.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• firestarter magnesium block
• clock
• battery
• home brew
• carbon graphite

[smellanalan]

Very very cool! I actually understand this one haha, and I will show some friends, thaks pyrolytic!

[pyrolytic]

@smellanalan  Thanks. Actually, one could substitute plain old liquid bleach in the cloth instead of the salt water solution (electrolyte) and have even a better battery

cell....if.....one could stand the strong noxious bleach smell....or move it outside of the

house to dissipate the smell.

[COBladesmith80]

I guess it is a little impracticle, but still neat!

[pyrolytic]

@COBladesmith80 Yes; it is definitely impractical from the economics standpoint;

everything involved is much more expensive than just buying or having a common (and much more powerful) battery. It's more directly in the line of a temporary, student, "science fair" type thing.

[jmwnycprr]

Cool! How long will it last?

[pyrolytic]

@jmwnycprr As long as the saturated salt/water cloth is kept moist (without drying out); and/or when the magnesium block eventually oxidizes completely (probably measured in ~ a month or more). As shown this is a short term (?~hours) battery. A added adjacent jar filled with saturated salt water and extended cloth capillary action can be added to extend the battery for extended battery operation. Of course; it's cheaper to just use a commercial battery. ;>)

[jimpurcell]

Well done!

[monkeysdman1]

thumbs up if you noticed the red dot

[xxxrandomjamezxxx]

:)

[smellanalan]

@pyrolytic See you keep filling my brain with more! I look forward to more experiments!

[ncrdisabled]

Neat I will try it next time I make that trip to fraight