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The winter months are approaching, and for those of us who live up North, this means that we must prepare ourselves for frigid temperatures and lots of snow. Now, regardless of how much we prepare, believe it or not, sh** happens. Your heater might fail during a blizzard, or your car might die on the highway in the middle of nowhere, etc. There are numerous things that can happen to you that would put you in an urban or rural survival situation.
Don't believe me?
Well, here's a quick example: Last January, my area got several feet of snow, and I was lucky enough to NOT be one of the hundreds of motorists stranded on Lake Shore Drive (in Chicago) for more than six hours. Hypothermia was a real threat for those people, and if the rescue workers hadn't gotten to them in time, they would have all perished, and some of them did.
Now, I am going to show you how to make a quick and easy MacGyver-like contraption that will keep you warm long enough to preserve your life, if you are to ever find yourself in a survival situation with minimal supplies.
Don't believe me?
Well, here's a quick example: Last January, my area got several feet of snow, and I was lucky enough to NOT be one of the hundreds of motorists stranded on Lake Shore Drive (in Chicago) for more than six hours. Hypothermia was a real threat for those people, and if the rescue workers hadn't gotten to them in time, they would have all perished, and some of them did.
Now, I am going to show you how to make a quick and easy MacGyver-like contraption that will keep you warm long enough to preserve your life, if you are to ever find yourself in a survival situation with minimal supplies.
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All you need to make this is chapstick, some sort of porous material, and a flame source.
1) To my knowledge, any type of lip balm will work, whether it is based from petroleum, beeswax, or shea butter. I don't know about you, but I carry chapstick with me when it's cold outside. And if you don't, then maybe you should.
2) The porous material could be anything from paper to a piece of clothing. Cotton works best, but anything is better than nothing.
3) The flame source can be a lighter or matches; this is another thing you should always carry with you. A small book of matches will easily slip into your wallet, and you won't even realize that it's there until you need it.
1) To my knowledge, any type of lip balm will work, whether it is based from petroleum, beeswax, or shea butter. I don't know about you, but I carry chapstick with me when it's cold outside. And if you don't, then maybe you should.
2) The porous material could be anything from paper to a piece of clothing. Cotton works best, but anything is better than nothing.
3) The flame source can be a lighter or matches; this is another thing you should always carry with you. A small book of matches will easily slip into your wallet, and you won't even realize that it's there until you need it.
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Matches do not have a large enough burn time to be able to do this, and while a lighter would work, this would burn up a lot, if not all of the fuel, depending on how full the lighter is. Personally, I would much rather sacrifice some chapstick and a small strip of cloth (which could be from anywhere, not just your clothing), rather than waste my source of ignition.
However, as I said in my article, something like this would mainly serve to heat up the interior of your car if you were stranded, and didn't have any candles in your emergency pack. In this day and age, cell phones have given people a false sense of security, and many don't even have emergency packs in their cars anymore.
One stupid question though (just for the sake of have new ideas spring up … ) :
what about the car's tank fuel ?
Of course gasoline is dangerous but diesel is more manageable. Would anybody try to get some fuel from the tank and impregnate a wick with it ?
What would be the pros and cons ?
This, of course, is in a survival situation, otherwise there is no point of doing such a thing that seems quite foolish.
thank you
However, this would have to be something done in an outside environment, because even if the gas doesn't flash up and burn you alive, gas vapors are still dangerous to inhale.
The advantage would be that car fuel is readily available, the disadvantages would be everything else. ;P
Car fuel was designed to be explosive, it should really only be used to start fires; there are plenty of other fuels that would be available for use in stoves, lanterns, handwarmers, etc. in an urban survival situation, such as: any solution that has more than 50% concentration of any alcohol, stable hydrocarbons (propane, butane), organic solvents (i.e. paint thinner), any type of oil or grease, and the list goes on and on.
Your question wasn't stupid at all, thanks for the comment.
I was thinking about being stuck in a storm in the middle of nowhere, not in the city where help is closer at hand.
Still my idea seems more dangerous than practical.
Again thank you.
As I said, a gasoline lamp would work, I just don't recommend it. (By the way, a simple lamp can be made from a tin can and a strip of cotton fabric. Maybe that will be my next instructable).
A better substitute would be motor oil: you can either temporarily disconnect one of the many small-diameter hoses under the hood and use it to siphon out a bit of oil, or, if you can get under the car and reach the oil pan, you can loosen the drain plug and collect a little of the oil, but make sure you quickly re-tighten it before too much leaks out!
Oil, unlike gasoline, is slow burning. If you tried to keep a gasoline lantern burning all day, you'd use up a lot of gas - gas you will desperately need for traveling. However, an engine that requires four quarts of oil will run on three, and that quart of oil will last you a while.
But this is all assuming that your car is still running...if it isn't, obviously you can use up whatever you want.
That's how such lack of creativity leads to mishaps ! …
By the way, you're right about the possibility of being stranded in a city. I simply had my own country in mid (France) which is lucky enough to be usually safe from major natural disasters. My bad ! … I should have recalled my life in San Francisco where I experienced a few earthquakes.
Funny how we remember the good things in life and do away with the bad ones when they don't leave permanent marks ! …
STAY ON THE SAFE SIDE by keeping a window opened even slightly to let in fresh air.
Plus, if I didn't say it, somebody else would've.
Pour the alcohol over the toilet roll and let it soak in, then light it up. It'll last for hours but DO provide adequate ventilation. The flame is almost invisible so be careful. To put the flame out, simply cover top of can with something inflammable (I carried foil in the trunk too) another caution: careful with the hot can!
melt about half a block of parrifin wax on a hotplate or double boiler and soak kleenexes in the wax. when the wax dries, you have a fast burnung firwestarter with a suprising big flame.
Thanks for the comment.
one question: does all type of lip balm work with your idea?