RECENT SMOKELESS FIRE PIT TESTING-TRYING OUT SIX new models for this summer-got me thinking it might not be too hard to make one myself. Without taking anything away from companies selling these fire pits, building one is fairly simple once you have an understanding of how they work.
The short story is this: I started with a 55-gallon drum, cut roughly in half horizontally, as the main body. Then I slit one of those halves vertically down the side and squeezed it to a smaller diameter to fit inside the other half; this created the double-wall construction that makes these fire pits work. After adding a bottom, I created a cap that bridged the tops of the inner and outer walls. Finally, I cut holes around the base on the outside, in the bottom inside, and around the top edge inside. It's certainly not as pretty as something like a Solo Stove, but it works. And there's pride in building it by hand.
WHAT YOU'LL NEED
Find a steel 55-gallon drum, complete with a lid and a strap to lock it on, as well as a spare lid. Mine cost $20 at a salvage yard, but you can also find them on Facebook Marketplace or Craigslist. I like to know what was in any drum I use for a burn barrel, so I look for one that still has a label. If it was full of chemicals I can't pronounce or don't know anything about (which could emit noxious gas or even explode), I keep looking. This drum previously contained orange juice concentrate.
Esta historia es de la edición September - October 2022 de Popular Mechanics US.
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Esta historia es de la edición September - October 2022 de Popular Mechanics US.
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Henrietta Lacks - It's not surprising that Henrietta Lacks-whose
It's not surprising that Henrietta Lacks-whose "immortal" HeLa cells were pivotal in developing treatments for diseases such as polio, HIV/AIDS, and COVID19-is referred to as "the mother of modern medicine." But Lacks's legacy is complicated due to the ethical concerns surrounding the use of her special cells. Lacks, who died of cancer at age 31 in 1951, was never aware that her cells led to significant medical advancements or that they had been taken without her consent. And even now, her strange case raises questions about the morally dubious methods through which we achieved unquestionably positive breakthroughs in medicine.
Chasing an Asteroid - How NASA defied incredible odds to get its asteroid-hunting osiris-rex mission off the ground and in the process upended what we know about our solar system.
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Whether We Live in a Simulation - scientist Melvin Vopson, PhD, studies this exact thing- the possibility that the universe might indeed be a digital facsimile. And he claims to have evidence.
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The Ancient Language of Easter Island - Today, humans inhabit- or have, at the very least, explored- pretty much every corner of the planet. But that immense proliferation of Homo sapiens across the globe was a slow process.
With the first humans leaving Africa between 60,000 and 120,000 years ago, the species slowly spread across the Earth over many millennia. And one of the last places these ancient humans made their way to was the southeastern Pacific island of Rapa Nui, known more broadly as Easter Island.Located 2,360 miles off the coast of Chile, Rapa Nui is one of the most isolated places in the world. Its native people, who are also named the Rapa Nui, first arrived on the island's shores between A.D. 1150 and 1280, and lived in isolation until the arrival of Dutch navigator Jacob Roggeveen in 1722.
Underwater UFOs - A retired U.S. Navy admiral believes that the government should look to the oceans to help solve a mystery in the skies.
A retired U.S. Navy admiral believes that the government should look to the oceans to help solve a mystery in the skies. Rear Admiral Timothy Gallaudet, former Oceanographer of the U.S. Navy, recently published a paper arguing that unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP, more commonly referred to as UFO) and unidentified submersible objects (USO) are linked, and should be studied further.
Synching Up Our Circadian Rhythms - If you've ever done any kind of long-distance travel, or just woken up feeling under-rested thanks to daylight saving time, you know how important your circadian clock is.
If you've ever done any kind of long-distance travel, or just woken up feeling under-rested thanks to daylight saving time, you know how important your circadian clock is. Like many things in your body, your circadian rhythm is more complicated than it might seem on the surface. Rather than being entirely brain-based, it's actually controlled by a collection of several circadian clocks (central and peripheral) that all work together to keep your gears turning like a well-oiled machine.
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SAVING THE SUGAR BUSH
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