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Neutralizing Tear Gas

popularmechanics.com

1–10 of 54 posts

Re: Neutralizing Tear Gas

#2
Well that was a frustratingly useless article.

They brought in an expert to answer the question and he didn't answer the question. I still don't know what was in the thermos or what to use to extinguish a tear gas canister.

This would have been more useful and interesting if PopMech had just bought a few canisters, tested the various theorie, and reported the results.

Re: Neutralizing Tear Gas

#3
I can't help but think that there could be an unfortunate inverse to JFK's "Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." in this. Tyrants finding their nonlethal weapons not working might more quickly turn to using guns.

Re: Neutralizing Tear Gas

#4
post #2

Well that was a frustratingly useless article. They brought in an expert to answer the question and he didn't answer the question. I still don't know what was in the thermos or what to use to extinguish a tear gas canister. This would have been more useful and interesting if PopMech had just bought a few canisters, tested the various theorie, and reported the results.

The article quotes the person from the video who said it was mud.

Re: Neutralizing Tear Gas

#5
post #4
post #2

Well that was a frustratingly useless article. They brought in an expert to answer the question and he didn't answer the question. I still don't know what was in the thermos or what to use to extinguish a tear gas canister. This would have been more useful and interesting if PopMech had just bought a few canisters, tested the various theorie, and reported the results.

The article quotes the person from the video who said it was mud.

Plus, a tear gas canister is just something that is burning slowly, so if you immerse it in something you can extinguish it.

Re: Neutralizing Tear Gas

#6
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The article quotes the person from the video who said it was mud.

Plus, a tear gas canister is just something that is burning slowly, so if you immerse it in something you can extinguish it.

I didn't know that. I always assumed they were just compressed gas with a pinhole poked in them or something.

Re: Neutralizing Tear Gas

#7
post #3

I can't help but think that there could be an unfortunate inverse to JFK's "Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." in this. Tyrants finding their nonlethal weapons not working might more quickly turn to using guns.

The failure of teargas to disperse crowds is cited as one of the reasons for quickly bringing the water cannons into service, despite concerns related to using them in the very densely populated streets of HK.

Re: Neutralizing Tear Gas

#8
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The article quotes the person from the video who said it was mud.

Plus, a tear gas canister is just something that is burning slowly, so if you immerse it in something you can extinguish it.

Fire needs a flammable source, heat, and oxygen. I suspect the enclosed cannister space hampered the O2 and the mud hampered the combustible material. Mud does seem plausible.

Re: Neutralizing Tear Gas

#10
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The article quotes the person from the video who said it was mud.

Plus, a tear gas canister is just something that is burning slowly, so if you immerse it in something you can extinguish it.

It's pretty easy to put them out. Here is an alternative method that was used before the thermos method was discovered: https://twitter.com/alexhofford/status/1155514310308896768

Just behind the frontline is a taskforce who runs around putting out all teargas.

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