I decided to bust my tail a bit and double or, I guess, triple-write just so I could have an article in the Halloween Issue. I ended up picking up another article anyway, so it seems this effort was a bit pointless. Is what I would say if I did not enjoy writing these! I know I am able to bring a laugh or a smile to at least one person’s face each week, so that makes all of these worth it. Sap aside, as promised last week, we’ll be getting Sp00ky!
What’s the spookiest thing you can think of? Is it zombies, clowns, death, failure, disappointing those you love? Perhaps it is forgetting to wake up for a midterm, finding Pierce is out of chocolate milk, or trying to order Tu Taco at 7:46 p.m. For me, it’s probably losing sight of what’s most important in your life and forgetting to cherish those whom you hold dear. While a fog machine cannot do that, it can make you lose sight of what’s right in front of you, and that counts for something. Fog machines are used in a variety of ways. They are used in theaters, movies, haunted houses, concerts, photography, and any room into which I’d like to make a dramatic entrance.
As for the working principles of fog machines, you cannot have artificial fog without fog fluid. Modern fog fluids are typically water-based solutions with a small amount of either glycol or glycerin mixed in. Fog machines typically contain a reservoir that contains the fog fluid, a pump to move the fluid from the reservoir, and a heating element. Once the fluid makes contact with the heating element, it is instantly vaporized and expands in volume. This expansion in volume forces the vapor out of the machine. Once the vapor makes contact with the outside air, it forms an opaque aerosol. Funnily enough, after last week’s article, an aerosol is nothing more than a colloid of liquid particles dispersed in a gaseous medium. Additionally, since fog fluid is nothing more than water and glycerin or glycerol, I am pretty sure you can drink it, and I am pretty sure it will taste like sugar water. I will be testing this theory. If this is the last article you get out of me, read my other ones and talk about how great they are, or I will haunt you.
Depending on how much or how little fog you would like, you can adjust the pump speed. Pumping too much fluid at a time will cool down the heating element too quickly, though. You can also adjust the opacity or “can’t-see-throughy-ness” of the fog produced by changing the amount of glycerin or glycerol that is in the solution. The more glycerin or glycerol in the mix, the less see-through the fog. If you’d like to try making your own fog machine at home, dry ice was used for a while before modern fog fluids were developed. Get a big enough tray of dry ice, put a box over it with a hole in it, pour some water in there, and get yourself a box fan, and you should be in business. Just be careful not to give yourself a freezer burn! As always, thank you for reading, and have a Happy Halloween! 🎃
