flaming - (Sep/15/2004 )

I bet some of you are rolling your eyes!

to heat fix smears or flame tube openings, can i use one of those small propane or butane torches they sell at walmart?

thanks!

yes, they work.
we don't use them regularly, though, but in the student courses where not enough bunsen burners are available, we have them work with the camping equipment.

i hope we both mean the same thing. i'm thinking about (blue) propane/butane gas cartridges, that can be put into a "camping cooker".

mike

We use them in our lab as well. Fairly common really. You can actually buy proper bunsen burners for "Camping Gaz" type bottles, to get a better flame control. VWR etc sell them. Increasingly, labs are switching to flameless sterilizers as well.