Testing

Well, the time had finally come.  We had made the homemade Amazing Fog Machine as foolproof as possible, and it was, at long last, time for a trial run.  Here, you'll see the process of the Amazing Fog Machine's very first test.

Despite all the safety precautions built into the machine, we knew there was still a high probability that our Amazing Fog Machine would be nothing more than an expensive explosive device.  We were testing it in Dan's garage, with the door open (so as to have somewhere to evacuate the Amazing Fog Machine in case of a fire).  We also had a fire extinguisher, and keeping a safe distance while the Amazing Fog Machine was running was pretty much understood.

Dan and our fire extinguisher

We had one major worry.  Even if everything else worked as plan, we still had no way to keep the temperature of the iron soleplate from increasing indefinitely.  We would have to do the demonstration for as short a time as possible, or unplug the iron for long enough periods to keep the heat under control.  For various reasons, option A seemed to be the easiest.  And then, there was nothing left to do but begin the test.

A nice picture of us with our creation, possibly for the last time.

The moment of truth had arrived.  Tim plugged in the machine, and we waited.  At first, it seemed nothing was happening.  Then, little by little, tiny wisps of fog began coming out of the Amazing Fog Machine.  They were slowly replaced by a steady cloud of barely visible fog (We opted for the recipe for light fog; heavy fog would have required a higher concentration of glycerin).  It was working.  The Amazing Fog Machine was working.

Everyone crosses their fingers as Tim plugs in the Amazing Fog Machine.

It's working...IT'S WORKING!  This picture may not be the best evidence of that, but if you look closely, you can kind of see the fog.  Take my word for it, it was more evident if you were there.

The machine might have made a lot more fog had we left it on longer, but it also might have burnt out something (remember the problem with the iron soleplate).  So we turned it off immediately after we saw that it could make a decent amount of fog.  Checking it, we found, amazingly, that nothing was seriously damaged or burnt.  The Amazing Fog Machine had not only had a successful trial run, but it had survived to repeat the process later.

Dan checks the machine to find that, surprise, nothing is damaged!

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