Throughout Argentina when you go out to a big beef dinner and you ask for some sparkling water often they will bring to you this fantastic contraption wrapped in metal gauze that will squirt water out of its nozzle by pressing a lever. Last seen in the U.S.A. by the 3 stooges with Moe squirting Larry in the eye, in Argentina they still use them often. And we fell in love. So last week we went to the market in San Telmo and we bought one. A brilliant blue one- oh so gorgeous.
Upon bringing it back we promptly filled it full of soda water, pressed the lever and waited for it to work. Well- it did not work. And after a bit of digging we find these things are basically a dead technology where these bottles were factory filled of water then gas. But its so pretty- and we are not the type to have decorations. It must work to be loved. The shocking thing is that no one on the internet seems to be curious to get these things working. Everyone just wants to look at them- suckers. But after a long talk with my engineer father and a winded discussion of Boyle's Law i think we have a strategy that is only moderately dangerous. It is based on the original patent:
our siphon
April 6, 2008
Siphon
4 comments:
You know, I think they make ones that use a C02 cartidge to get the bubbles happening. I have one of the old ones too.. but its so old the top is corroded shut.
yeah- i saw that. i spoke to one of the manufacturers but they put the bottle at a much higher psi than what the glass can handle. He said it would blow it up. i did notice that all of those were steel too.
current thought is surgical tube hooked up to the nozzle with the lever pressed down (like the image), bottle upside down and C02 in a small medical tank. Boyles Law (so better minds tell me) states that if the tank is at 100-150 psi then the bottle will fill at that level too. Not sure what psi this bottle is at but this ancient patent states that they were normally 100-150psi. Yours may not be corroded and maybe we should try this little experiment together??
I am game for that.. you have to see mine. Its super thick glass, and now that I look at it I dont think the top is corroded at all - just clamped on and I cant figure out how to get it off. It also has a glass straw inside. Its labelled Baas Beverages, Brooklyn NY. It was Michele's grandfathers. Still has a tiny bit of water in it, but cant get it out.
If the top comes off, you could use carbonation tablets like brewers use (thusly).
I believe that's period-appropriate, too.
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