Recipe for “Florida” water to keep cool?
MisterSteve
| Posted in General Discussion on
When we had summer practices for football in Louisiana, the coaches would have a ice chest filled with what they called “Florida” water for dunking a towel in and hanging around your neck. It really would cool you down.
We were told to never drink it, and it had a slight ammonia smell.
I’ve tried google, but no luck. Has anyone got a recipe for this or something similar?
-steve
Replies
It was waste water from the nuclear power plant. That's why your hairs falling out.
I'm sorry, I thought you wanted it done the right way.
Two ways a wet towel could make you cooler than simply 32F water.
1) The water is colder than 32F because something was added to lower hte melting point of the water ice in the cooler. Table salt is an obvious and safe possibility. Might kill the grass if you spill a lot. Other salts (Potassium salts, etc) and some cellulose compounds offer even lower ice-melting temperatire. But do you really want 10F salt water on your skin - that could cause frost bite. Any alcohol would be effective too but not cheap and unless it was ethanol, not safe to drink. And many alcohols (especially methanol) would not be safe on your skin as you would absorb some dermally.
2) If you raise the vapor pressure of the solution. By increasing the evaporation rate, heat is removed more quickly from your skin with the safety caveats above. Adding alcohols would work. Ammonia would work, but would be nasty and unsafe at any effective concentration. I'm reminded of SE US industrial workers who'd cool themselves off by ladling trichloroethylene (TCE) onto their backs. Very high vapor pressure (highly volatile) and it cooled them very quickly. It is one of sources of human LD50 data we have, the lethal dose to 50% of the population. Usually I have to extrapolate from rat LD50 data.
OK wise guys, I found it. Looks like I just had to use some advance features on the googleBelow is Quoted from the internets " Ammonia Water has been a traditional "refresher" used by softball, baseball and football coaches during hot weather games. Ammonia can be poisonous if used improperly. This helpful information was provided by Jim Early with Dixie Girls Softball. If you have any questions please contact Jim at jimearly@msn.com
Ingredients for ammonia water and use:2oz. bottle of "Spirits of Ammonia" (local drugstore)
Actually it's Aromatic Ammonia Spirit U.S.P.
This time of the year, it's scarce.
3 bottles make 4 gallons
1 gal. plastic bucket (some use a playmate type cooler).
About 4-7 washcloths.Fill bucket 1/2 full of ice, pour 3/4 bottle of "spirits of ammonia" into bucket for each gallon, fill the rest of bucket with water and mix. Place washcloths into bucket and stir around a couple of times. When player comes off field and into dugout area, pick up washcloth, wring out excess and wipe down arms, face (DON'T suck on washcloth), neck (front and back), shoulders, chest, etc. It really is effective while held on back of neck, especially "catchers" and "pitchers". And please don't inhale to a great degree, only mildly. Do this between innings. Next day, team will be asking for it.If players are young, coaches should help them.
Please don't let them DRINK it!!!! This is an "instant" relief and feels similar to just getting out of a shower. We have been using this mixture for 20 yrs. and it has pulled us thru some very hot daytime tournaments. It is also excellent for people working outside such as yard work, etc. The only problem we've had was one Debs team used household ammonia
which started to burn their skin. If you need more information, call me at 444-5441 or send me your #.Thanks,
Jim
DSI"from
http://www.decatursports.com/drills/soft/ammonia_water.htm
Dang, what great stuff! You shouldn't breath, definitely can't drink it, and it if you make it wrong, it burns your skin!
I want someone to make up a batch and a batch of ice water. Then pinch your nose and someone adminster a blind test. At that low concentration, I can't see it making much a difference in evaporation rate. There could very well be a mental effect along the lines of, "anything that smells this bad must work." That and ice water, all be itself is cold.
Better yet, try the blind test also with an ice/brine mix. To really get a good freezing point depression, start half full with water. And a 1/3 (yes, a 1/3!) that volume of salt - 3 gallons water and 1 gallon salt. Stir well. Fill the rest of the way with ice. Not only can you cool quarterbacks with that, but you can make ice cream!David Thomas Overlooking Cook Inlet in Kenai, Alaska
Wouldn't that give you an ice cream headache?
Dave,
This Saturday I am running an iron casting workshop in College Park. About thirty folks wearing heavy leather safety gear doing strenous work around a 3,ooo Degree cupola. I will mix three seperate batches (super-saturated brine, ice water, florida water) in unmarked 5 gallon pails and have a few folks leave comments on a clipboard attached to each pail throughout the day. Will report back to this messege list on Monday or Tuesday and give you the unbiased results.Pail "A" 3/4 ice, rest water
"B" 3 gallons H2O 1 gallon rocksalt fill with ice
"C" 6 ounces Spirits of Ammoinia, 1/2 ice/ 1/2 H2OThe weather, which was a muggy 92 degree earlier this week, should be down to the low 70's by Saturday. Kind of throws a wrench in the idea, but still worth it.
Cool. Love the hear the results. A room full of the theorists aren't worth one good experimentialist, IMO.We're you around for the never-ending discussion on if hot water or cold water makes ice cubes faster? That was about 6 or 7 years ago. Everyone had a theory (as did I), then I did the experiment.David Thomas Overlooking Cook Inlet in Kenai, Alaska
Everyone had a theory (as did I), then I did the experiment.
So.....which is it?
I put hot (120F) and cold (38F) water water in identical ice cube trays and set them on the porch (-10F that day) in the same orientation and position. And them watched every minute or two for the next 1/2 hour.
Makes no difference. The 120F water cooled so fast to the 30s that there was no discernable difference in the time or the amount of the first bits of ice on the surface of each ice cube tray. There was more difference between ice cubes in each tray than between trays.
The scientists, engineers and technical folks were mostly coming down on the side of, "Of course the cold water will freeze first".
And a few were postulating some thermal momentum, for lack of a better term, would carry the quickly cooling hot water over the edge into the solid state. And others thought that greater dissolved solids in the hot water would provide more nucleation sites for ice crystals to form on.
Alas, everybody was wrong. Nobody had predicted a tie. Although Joe Fusco and I got into a ripping argument about the meaning of "nucleation". So I guess I learned two things that day.David Thomas Overlooking Cook Inlet in Kenai, Alaska
Florida Water
I was looking for this recipe too. My husband is in construction in Florida... and I don't need to tell you how bad it is in the summer. I heard the Atlanta Braves broadcast crew mention Florida water last year when one of the coaches had a towel dipped in it around the neck of a player. Thanks for the recipe.
So, this is a little late (just saw the original post was 2005) but Florida Water is also actually a product sold by a company called Murray & Lanman. It's basically cologne water and was first produced around 1808. Some people use it as a tonic refresher or body splash by adding it to their bath water. Also, I've read that it was used by baseball teams, etc to cool down their playersin the summer by filling a cooler with water, ice, and some Florida Water, then soaking towels or rags in the mixture and using the soaked towels to wipe off with.
Here's what the bottle looks like:
View Image
Florida water is available at Walgreens. Just pour a couple of capfuls into a small Igloo ice chest and you're good to go. When my son played baseball in Louisiana, this is what we carted to the games every time. The coaches also had it on hand. It really works at keeping the boys cool.