Today's video is sponsored by Bill and Melinda Gates.
Today, we're doing an experiment to see
if we can make paper that's impervious to fire.
[Music]
Guys, we're currently in the studio,
which is completely covered with thin strips of paper,
and we've got blowtorches.
Seems like a terrible idea, right?
So this might seem incredibly dangerous,
but the paper
that were surrounded by is actually crepe paper,
and it's actually treated to be fire resistant.
So while it'll burn, it's not going to catch fire.
You mean if we start swinging these blowtorches around,
it's not going to burn down the whole studio?
Well, we find out.
Some of you may be surprised to know that paper
can be fireproof.
And as excited as we are to share this surprises with you,
we've also partnered with Bill and Melinda Gates to share
with you 9 of their biggest surprises from 2018.
You can read
about these surprises in their annual letter,
which we'll talk about in a bit,
but first, let's learn some more about this paper.
So we can see
that we've got plenty of spots where it got singed,
it got burned.
But even when you got the blowtorch concentrated on it,
it doesn't go anywhere.
The fire doesn't spread.
This would be a horrible fire starter.
Would not work at all, zero out of ten.
As you can see,
our studio is remarkably not burned down
despite being lined with paper and being hit with fire.
So this fire resistance
to paper is what we're trying to do today.
We're going to take a look at a few different recipes
of doing this at home,
and see which one works the best.
Here's the basic idea.
We've got three different recipes we're going to test
to try and make paper more fire resistant.
We'll see how they hold up against the stove, a lighter,
and a blowtorch.
Alright, we've now seen the commercially
available fire-resistant paper.
Let's clean up a little bit, and see if we can make our own.
We do have another type of pre-made heat-resistant paper,
and that's called parchment paper,
which is usually for baking.
So parchment paper is treated with silicone,
and that makes it
so that it's slightly more moisture resistant,
but also fairly heat-resistant.
However, heat-resistant does not mean
that it is burn resistant.
Parchment paper is designed to go in ovens,
and while it's great for things not sticking to it,
and it not burning up in an oven,
that doesn't mean it's actually fireproof.
As Calli's just showing you, it clearly candle lit on fire,
and it actually says
on the box to not touch it to an open flame.
We've got three different recipes
that we want to try to make this fire resistant paper.
The first is what I found online talking about how you
can use water with some borax
and some boric acid dissolved into it,
and soak the paper in that.
For our second recipe,
we are going to be doing basically the same thing,
except we are substituting our water for methanol.
Methanol is going to evaporate much faster
than water so our dry times going to be a lot quicker.
It also won't make our paper wrinkle.
As a third recipe,
we're using one that's something Grant has shown you
before quite a while ago.
He showed you how to make your own rocket wadding.
This is paper
that goes in between the end of the burning fuel,
and the parachute before it gets launched out.
You don't want your parachute to melt or light on fire.
So you use a heat resistant wadding in between the two
so it will still pop the parachute out,
but not add too much heat to it.
And what he used for that was just water and baking soda,
soak the paper in that,
pull it out, let it dry,
and that created a fire resistant paper as well.
So we're going to try all three of these,
and we're going to see the advantages
and disadvantages of each one.
So for our first recipe, we have a bowl of hot water.
We've got 4 cups of hot water,
and we're going to add 1/4 cup of borax
and 1/4 cup of boric acid.
[Music]
Stir it all up.
Let it dissolve.
While she's stirring that one up,
I'm going to get
our methanol version of the same thing going.
We're not going to have as much of this.
We're just going to use one of these little containers,
and we're going to do about two tablespoons
each of the borax in the boric acid.
[Music]
All right, here we go.
We've got methanol with borax and boric acid in it.
So what's fun about this is you may have seen us
before using methanol
and boric acid with pretty fun effect.
Green fire.
[Music]
Now, Callie has poured her solution into this pan already,
and it doesn't mix
into the methanol quite as well as it does into the water.
So we're just gonna let this sit, and see
if any of the powder settles out to the bottom,
and then we'll try and pour it off the top in the pan.
While we're waiting for that,
we're going to start mixing up our baking soda as well.
The good thing about the baking soda is
that you just keep mixing it in,
and once it doesn't dissolve anymore, any
that didn't dissolve we'll just settle out of the bottom,
and then you can pour it off.
We've now got our three pieces of paper,
and they all say
what we're going to be soaking them in.
So we've got the water and sodium bicarbonate,
also known as baking soda.
We've got the methanol, borax,
and boric acid going with the water,
borax and boric acid.
We're going to take one of these pieces of papers,
and thoroughly soak them,
like really let them absorb the liquid all the way
through the fibers of the paper,
and we have to take them out and let them dry.
[Music]
Now, trying to make fire proof paper
using methanol may seem a little counterintuitive,
because as we showed,
methanol is flammable, and with boric acid in it,
it burns green.
While these dry,
let's talk about Bill and Melinda Gates' annual letter.
Guys, some of you may be surprised to know
that paper can be fireproof.
But what you may be even more surprised to know is
that textbooks are actually becoming obsolete in the US.
Students who are using digital tools have actually been found
to be getting better grades,
and this is just one
of the 9 surprises the Gates found in 2018.
We both had our own share of surprises in 2018.
Calli, what would you say was your number one 2018 surprise?
I joined a YouTube channel.
Where you not planning on that ahead of time?
Setting out a New Year's resolution for 2018?
You know, I think
the application went out sometime in about March.
At the time, I was a sculptor,
I was an illustration student.
This came out of left field,
and I was honored,
and just so excited to be a part of this channel.
It was amazing.
The guys have been fantastic to work with,
but no, this blew me away.
This has been a dream come true,
but this was probably one of the biggest surprises
of my life.
Very cool.
For me surprises in 2018, especially about the channel,
I have to say I was super surprised at
what videos did really well,
and what videos seem to underperform.
Some of the highest performing videos were things
like putting food in a vacuum chamber,
and seeing what happens if you try and melt magnets down,
and they really took off a lot more
than I was expecting them to.
And some of the ones
that I kind of personally thought were really cool,
I was like, oh, this is going to be so great.
They just kind of didn't go anywhere.
So it's fun to see what other people are
the most interested in,
and see what the results are from that.
While we experienced our own surprises in 2018,
the Gates shared 9 of theirs in their annual letter.
Head over to GatesLetter.com to
read the surprises they've encountered in their work,
and how those moments
are prodding them to help make the world a better place.
I think they're all dry.
I think so.
Taste kind of like baking soda.
Do you regret that?
A little bit.
I regret it for you.
Thanks.
Now, we want to do some tests.
We want to apply heat to these.
I'm thinking a stovetop?
Sounds good.
A lighter.
Yep.
And a blowtorch.
That's my favorite.
All right.
To start off,
we've got a control piece of paper.
It's just paper.
There's nothing even printed on it,
and it's not treated with anything fireproof.
We've got a pretty hot stove going here.
We're going to see what it does.
Water and baking soda.
Here it goes.
I'm gonna set it on one corner.
Whoa!
That very very quickly turned dark.
That went so much faster than the regular paper.
It did.
I'm just curious.
What is it heat different
>> that the stove just heat up? >> Yeah, it could be.
Stove have already been hotter.
Is that what did it?
Well, it was different.
Oh.
>> Well. >> It is on fire.
Okay, so the stove wasn't properly heated the first test,
for our second test,
it was, and this lit on fire very quickly.
So initially, I thought, oh, it's doing terrible.
It just burns so fast.
But then, compared to our properly heated stove test,
that actually did great.
It didn't light on fire.
Water, borax, boric acid.
Here it goes.
Already better.
Charring.
Shrinking weirdly.
That's amazing.
Really not lighting on fire though.
Not at all.
So even this part that's like the ember,
that's going way slower
than the other stuff, and we do not have any flames right here.
Finally, the methanol, borax and boric acid.
Turning black.
Wow.
Shriveling.
>> And it's on fire. >> And it's on fire.
And it's green.
Let's move on to lighters.
Yes.
Water, borax, boric acid.
1, 2...
6, 7, 8...
10, 11, 12.
I don't think--
I don't think it's gonna catch on fire.
It's not catching on fire.
So it's burning, obviously,
and it actually seemed to burn almost the same speed,
maybe a little bit slower,
maybe took like an extra second before it turned black.
But it didn't catch on fire.
Methanol, borax, and boric acid.
Now, this one, we got to light on fire with the stove.
We did and it was green.
A little bit of green flame in there.
1, 2...
6, 7, 8, 10...
I thought I saw some flame coming off it,
but it--
Oh little.
Tiny tiny bits of flame.
Just little bit.
Just barely catches.
But as soon as the heat source goes away--
Yep.
Baking soda.
>> That turned black much faster. >> It's on fire.
It was on fire for a second.
It was on fire for a second, but then I went out.
So, so far, I would say that two for two,
our water, borax,
and boric acid is doing the best.
Well, should we try our torches?
Yeah, we should.
All right.
Blowtorch.
Regularly paper.
This is going to take a long time.
1, 2--
That's about one second.
Water, borax, and boric acid.
1, 2--
Well...
But it didn't stay.
About the same amount of time to start burning,
but it's not burning anymore.
That's weird.
Yeah.
Goes right out.
Methanol, boric acid, and borax.
>> That one's staying as a flame. >> Still on fire.
Yeah.
Still on fire.
It's spreading a little-- Oh, and now, it's out.
Baking soda and water.
Here it goes.
1, 2--
Still on fire.
It's now out.
I think the accelerant is gone.
I don't think there's any methanol traces left
that's making it burn better.
But I think the water is doing a better job
of dissolving the two chemicals,
and really getting them to spread,
and really get into all of the fibers of the paper.
That's my guess.
I like it.
So our water, borax,
and boric acid is definitely more flame resistant than any
of the others.
So, can you make fire resistant paper?
Yes, you can make fire resistant paper,
and it's not that difficult.
No, most of these supplies you can find,
the easiest one obviously will be baking soda and water.
If you really want the best fire resistance,
then the water, borax,
and boric acid is your best combination.
That stuff really does not like to spread a flame.
It acted quite a bit like the crepe paper.
It really did.
As long as there is direct heat on it,
it was burning.
But as soon as you take that off,
it just kind of goes out.
Thanks again to Bill and Melinda Gates for sponsoring this video,
and sharing their annual letter with us.
Guys, go to GatesLetter.com,
and learn about more of the things that they
found surprising about 2018.
Guys, that's not all,
we've always got more for you to see.
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Talk to you then.