Oh, yes. The grade of steel wool definitely makes a difference. I found some steel wool that a fellow student had handed out as a "freebie" (I think the Brits call it a "gizzit") at the Wilderness First Aid Instructors class I took back in February. I could see as soon as I looked at it that it was much finer than the coarse soap pad I was using. I took a tiny sample (about the size of a postage stamp when it was stretched out) and applied the 9V battery. The cotton wool burst into flames within a few seconds.

Oh, well, my one consolation is that it's better to kill a patient in training than in the real world. <img src="images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

It must have been the soap pad because if you use just plain SW you should be able to take away the 9 volt and have the SW stay lit.

Frank

That stretch is possible if you have a good hunk of SW. Otherwise, one could take a bit of stainless steel wire and tape it to one of the contacts (+) and then down the side of the battery towards the other pole so that the two are easier to touch to the SW. Both the stainless steel wire and elctrical tape or duct tape are in my kit.

Of course, those with brass wire would be out of luck as it is a poor conductor of electricity. <img src="images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />

Er, Bill, are you sure about that conductivity? Copper resistivity is less than 2 microhm-centimeter. (The lower the number the better the conductivity is one way to look at this.) Typical brass (a copper alloy) has a resistivity of about 7 microhm-centimeter. Steels typically range from a low of about 10+ (pure iron is 10) to over 70. The stainless steels tend to the higher end, IIRC - IOW, worse conducters than "ordinary" steels.

However - either will do for lighting off steel wool at 12vdc, I'm sure. Worst case, the resistance in the wire is higher than that in the steel wool and it gets red hot (even melts) and... FIRE!!! <grin>

But if you've got an automobile and juice in the battery, just use the cigarette lighter you tossed in the glove box - it gets plenty hot enough if you have tinder - try it out.

SS wire in an auto has lots of jerry-rigging potential anyway - I carry steel and copper wire in my vehicle kit, and you can guess which one is used for "structural" emergencies... Example: recently, one of my kids - new driver, clunker car - called to say that his right rear wheel had "fallen off" in the middle of the street. When I arrived, I found it pancaked, but still attached - the ball joint on the upper control arm was worn out and popped out. Jacked it up, squeezed it back together with a C-Clamp (those have been invaluable in the car kits over the years, too), lashed the ball joint together with steel wire, and took the clamp off. He drove it home several miles without incident. (And since then he has replaced ALL the ball joints and a bent radius arm all by himself, which tickles me.)

Drag out your CRC and see if I'm on-target about the resistance, but I think that I'm pretty close.

Be Prepared

Tom