RE: Re: Speculative Trade

From:   IN%"[email removed]"  "Traveller Mailing List" 21-M
AR
   -1989 18:17
To:     [email removed]
Subj:   Re: Speculative Trade

In Archive-Message-Number 246, [email removed] ("MARK A. POWER")
writes the following about shipping grain:
> Explosive: Air in hold must be filtered to remove grain dust, or any spark
> or flame will cause an explosion.

> Maybe it's just me, but wouldn't shipping grain in hard vacuum be almost
> ideal??  Keep the pesties down, as well as reduce the explosion hazard...  I
> know it was just an example -- I was mostly curious if I'm missing
> something...  (e.g. popping corn probably should be kept pressurized, although
> using an inert gas would still seem to be easier than filtering :-)

Better to use inert gas.  My thoughts come straight from Robert Heinlein in
_The_Moon_Is_A_Harsh_Mistress_ he mentioned something about shipping grain in
pressurized containers.  Something like all the moisture sublimated out and
ruined the grain.  Now where _he_ got it, I don't know.  Nor do I know if it's
true, but better safe than sorry.  Anyone know if it's true?

Nitrogen would be ok, I think, but better to use Helium.  Not as cheap, I
agree, but even more inert and unbreathable.  Of course Helium does tend to
escape from the interstices between molecules, but I would think a 2 or 3 week
voyage wouldn't produce much of a difference.

On the other hand, maybe I'm mis-remembering the story...anyone know for sure?
I'll look it up tonight and report back.

- -------
Paul Baughman
  AKA Unka Paul
     AKA Captain Sir Michael Talmoth  UPP:  BA5A8B

"You see me now a veteran, of a thousand psychic wars,
I've been living on the edge so long, where the winds of limbo roar,
And I'm young enough to look at, but far too old to see,
All the scars are on the inside, I don't know if there's anything left of me"
        -- BOC