From: smm7e@helga7.acc.Virginia.EDU (Steven Michael Marthouse)
Date: 7 Jan 94 22:49:33 GMT

hey y'all,

Thanks for the feedback from this.  I am aware that lye is cheap.
That's not the idea.  The idea is to take stuff that's supposedly
useless, and do something useful with it.  I like the challenge and
fun of it.  With that cleared up, here's how it's gone:

I put 3/4 cup of ashes in about 1 liter of water in a glass bottle.
I agitated it really good, so that any NaOH that could dissolve, would.
Last night, at about 11:20 pm, I put in a pull-tab from an aluminum
can.  At first, nothing happened, then after about half a minute, I 
noticed all kinds of smokey looking fizz coming up from the Al.  
After a few minutes, the tab sort of "burped".  A lot of the gaseous
product had gotten trapped under the tab, and it released a pea-size
bubble every 3 to 5 minutes.  I watched this for about 5 or six 
bubbles, and then went to bed.  Imagine my surprise when I got
downstairs the next morning, and it was still going!  For all I know,
it is still fizzing away now, at about 5:30 pm the next day!
(it had slowed down some, but it was still "burping").  The
reaction is slow, but it seems to be producing some measurable
product.  I didn't set this up to collect the gas; that's the next
step.  Obviously, I should be able to verify that the gas is
combustible, but how sure can I be that it's really H2, and not
something else?  Hopefully, I will be able to collect enough to float
a balloon.  What is the likelyhood that this could produce anything
dangerous other than H2?  How do I dispose of the waste products?  Is
anything particularly toxic produced?  I'd like to know before I try
scaling this up.

--Steve