Non-Toxic Fire Breathing with Food for Fuel - 10 Foot High Fireballs

I know how you feel, you want to be able to breath fire, but you are not too keen on putting poisonous chemicals in your mouth.  In this Instructable, I'll show you how to blow a 10-foot-high plume of fire out of your mouth.  Obviously any activity that involves large quantities of fire has some risk, but this method of firebreathing uses foods as fuel, so there is no danger of poisoning from ingestion of the fuel.  Also the fuel is not flamable unless it is aerosolized.  This means that if you spill on yourself, your shirt is probably no more likely to catch fire than it was before.  With that said, I take no responsibility for your safety. 

The companion video provides instuctions and a demonstration.

 

Step 1 Materials

You will need fuel and a flame source.

Fuels intended for human consumption that I have tried with good results are:

Corn starch
Non-dairy coffee creamer - powdered
Powdered sugar

I like corn starch the best.  It has little flavor and produces a flame that burns very quickly with a satifying ripping sound

The most important thing to think about with your flame source is finding something that will not blow out too easily.  In the video I used a cotton ball that I soaked in white gas camp fuel and then attached to a wire.  Gasoline or alcohol should also work in place of white gas, as will many other things.

Comments

[jj.inc]

Awesome

[battle axe chrome]

awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Gotta try this!!!!!!!!!!

[jlund]

Or just put vodka in your mouth and blow hard wen it's far enough away light it and have fun till you spill then you go boom and I lol

[mvillanueva3]

Is the effect created by blowing all of the powder possible in the direction of the flame (essentially getting all of it out of your mouth in the end)? And would it work the same if the cornstarch were to mixed with water?

[shoemaker]

Yes, you want to blow all of the powder out of your mout at the flame. It is not possible to get 100% of the powder out of your mouth, because some will stick to the saliva in your mouth.

This will not work if you mix the cornstarch with water. The idea is to mix the powder with lots of oxygen. If the powder is wet, it will not mix well with oxygen. Mixing it with potasium nitrate might be an interesting execise, but that would definitely expand the explosion and burn danger.

You can check my youtube chanel for a new video using a potato launcher to blow the powder instead of your mouth. It is called "Flour Explosions."

[DeusXMachina]

You should mention more than just an offhand comment that any fine particulate powder poses a very real inhalation danger, possibly just as much as lamp oil in 'conventional' firebreathing. If you don't control your breathing or are downwind of unburnt powder, you can aspirate (inhale) that fine particulate, and it can cause pneumonitis. In searching for a substance that would be a suitable firebreathing fuel and pose less risk of lipid pneumonia, I learned that virtually any substance can cause pneumonia. Even vegetable oil.

You should always inhale and exhale through your nose until all fuel is cleared from your mouth, and train yourself to always pause for 1-2 seconds after a firebreath before inhaling. This helps reduce inhaling the dispersed fuel directly in front of your face.

Fire breathing with any fuel also poses the same risks of wind shifts, blowback, coughing, sneezing, hiccups and the involuntary 'gasp' reflex if something goes wrong, which all can cause fuel aspiration. So it should not be entered into lightly. Solid fuels do have the advantage of not wicking into fabric and making them flammable.

I'm not trying to be a buzzkill or anything, just pointing out important safety stuff that most people don't realize. Nasty firebreathing accidents, however, are a real buzzkill. I've been firebreathing for three years and training with some fantastic fire performers, and luckily the worst accidents I've seen have only been a few burnt noses and lips, and a few beard fires. I'd hate to see anybody injured firebreathing.

[mvillanueva3]

Thanks so much for the heads-up, I'll be sure to take this into account.

[Pyrophoric]

But will it blend?

[shoemaker]

I suppose that depends on what "it" is. You can, of course blend up some sugar ro make powdered sugar. I imagine that many things, once blended to a fine powder could be used for fire breathing fuel - wood, wheat, etc.

[MMoyce]

i tried this its cool

[MMoyce]

will it still work with dairy cofee creamer

[shoemaker]

Well, I don't think the liquid stuff is going to work, but powdered milk type might.

I was actually reading the ingredients of the coffee creamer I used in the video, and it turns out the first ingredient is sugar.

Flour will also work.

[Bill280]

Maybe you could mix some powdered sugar with some cornstarch to make a slightly tasty, but not too sweet fire breathing fuel.

[MoreMagical]

ehm.. im not english and have realy big troubles with finding what corn starch, or powdered sugar are.. is powdrered sugar the stuff you put like.. on ur pancakes and stuff? :3 and.. the corn starch .. is that stuff to make liquids thicker? :P sorry for the lame comment but.. thats me ^_^

[shoemaker]

I think the answer in both cases is yes. Powdered sugar is sugar with very small grain - like flour. Corn starch is used a a thickener for stuff like gravy and lemon maraign pie.

[GianniMora]

AWSOME... im gonna light my freind on fire and blame you.


                  -M 

[tictaclad]

 i did it at a party XD

[Shadow13!]

Cool. You can see a big non-dairy creamer fireball on the Myth busters episode with the saw-dust cannon when they amp it up and use the creamer.

[pyra_builder_1337]

neat