What is the Cope with NOS and How Does It Truly Work in Automobiles and People?

So far as profitable movie franchises go, few are as balls-to-the-wall insane as The Quick and the Livid. Finest described as Mission: Unimaginable soaked in Axe Physique Spray, the collection is about in an alternate universe the place few issues can’t be solved by driving muscle automobiles at it. Over its ten installments, the franchise has seen its band – sorry, household – of avenue racers-turned-international-crime-fighters drag financial institution vaults by means of the streets of Rio, race a Russian submarine throughout polar ice, and even fly a rocket-powered Pontiac Fiero into outer area, as a result of positive, why not? Unusual to suppose, then, that the entire saga started all the best way again in 2001 with a low-budget Level Break ripoff about unlawful avenue racers robbing DVD gamers off the again of vehicles. However humble because it was in comparison with what got here later, the primary movie established the cinematic language of drag racing that may turn into a staple for the collection: the steely gazes of the 2 opponents as they pull as much as the road. The scantily-clad woman dropping her arms to kick off the race. Tight, rapidly-edited photographs of drugs shifting. Shut-ups of the NOS button being pressed and the exhaust pipe belching blue flame because the automobiles speed up to seemingly supersonic speeds. If these movies are your solely reference level for auto racing, you may have in all probability puzzled: what is NOS – AKA Nitrous Oxide – anyway? How does it enhance a automobile’s efficiency, and is it actually the automotive warp drive that Vin Diesel and household would have you ever imagine? Properly, throw in your tank prime and silver crucifix necklace as we dive into the high-octane science and historical past of nitrous oxide.

The invention of Nitrous Oxide – chemical formulation N₂O – is often credited to English theologian and chemist Joseph Priestley. In 1767, Priestley moved to Leeds, the place he lived subsequent door to the native brewery. He quickly grew to become fascinated with the gases or “airs” produced by the fermentation vats, and launched into a collection of detailed experiments to review these mysterious substances. In the midst of these investigations, Priestley found that the gasoline given off by the vats was “mounted air” – AKA carbon dioxide – and discovered dissolve this substance in water. This discovery, revealed in 1772, led on to the institution of the highly-lucrative carbonated water and later smooth drink trade. In one other experiment, Priestley heated iron filings soaked in nitric acid to provide a brand new gasoline that made flames burn brighter however was unbreathable by mice and different animals. He referred to as this substance “dephlogisticated nitrous air”, in reference to the now-defunct phlogiston principle first proposed by German alchemist Johan Becher in 1667. This principle held that flamable supplies contained a fire-like aspect referred to as phlogiston that was launched by burning and absorbed by the encircling air. As soon as all of the phlogiston was launched and the air saturated, combustion stopped and couldn’t be supported till the air was dephlogisticated. As we speak, in fact, we all know that dephlogisticated air is actually the aspect oxygen, which is absorbed by burning substances and transformed into carbon dioxide and different combustion merchandise. This continues till the oxygen within the ambiance is depleted and combustion stops, with the ensuing “phlogisticated air” really being a combination of carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and different combustion merchandise in addition to nitrogen and different inert gases from the air.

However whereas Priestley is historically credited with discovering nitrous oxide, it’s now believed that he was crushed by over a decade by Scottish chemist Joseph Black, who in 1766 produced the gasoline by heating ammonium nitrate – the identical course of used right this moment. Equally, Priestley’s declare to have found oxygen is now sometimes credited to Swedish chemist Carl Wilhelm Scheele – although Priestley revealed his findings first.

Regardless of the case, for almost three a long time Nitrous Oxide remained little greater than a scientific footnote, till the good English chemist Sir Humphrey Davy – then working as a surgeon’s apprentice – started investigating the substance within the Nineties. To his astonishment and delight, Davy found that nitrous oxide, when inhaled, induced a robust sense of euphoria and uncontrollable guffawing. He had found laughing gasoline. Ever the consummate scientist, Davy had his shut associates and had them report their experiences. J.W. Tobin reported that:

“When the [bladders of nitrous oxide] had been exhausted and brought from me, I continued respiratory with the identical violence, then out of the blue ranging from the chair, and vociferating with pleasure, I made in the direction of those who had been current, as I needed they need to take part in my feeling. I struck gently at Mr. Davy and a stranger coming into the room in the intervening time, I made in the direction of him, and gave him a number of blows, however extra within the spirit of fine humor than of anger. I then ran by means of totally different rooms of the home, and ultimately returned to the laboratory considerably extra composed; my spirits continued a lot elevated for some hours after the experiment…”

Whereas poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge, creator of The Rime of the Historic Mariner, wrote:

“Then I first impressed the nitrous oxide, I felt a extremely pleasurable sensation of heat over my complete body, resembling that which I bear in mind as soon as to have skilled after getting back from a stroll within the snow right into a heat room. The one movement which I felt inclined to make, was that of laughing at those that had been taking a look at me.”

Davy revealed his ends in an 1800 with the unwieldy title of Researches, Chemical and Philosophical; Mainly Regarding Nitrous Oxide or Dephlogisticated Nitrous Air, and its Respiration. Quickly after, laughing gasoline events grew to become all the trend among the many higher lessons, with revellers inhaling the gasoline from pigs’ bladders and stumbling about for their very own – and every others’ – amusement. One in all these events, held in Hartford, Connecticut in 1844, grew to become the positioning of a discovery that without end adjustments the historical past of drugs. One of many attendees, dentist Horace Wells, witnessed one reveller gash open his leg but keep on partying as if he had felt nothing. Certainly, Humphry Davy had famous the painkilling results of nitrous oxide forty years earlier, even utilizing it throughout a knowledge tooth extraction, however didn’t pursue this discovery. The day after the social gathering, Wells experimented on himself by inhaling nitrous oxide and having fellow dentist John Riggs extract one among his tooth. The experiment was a hit, with Wells excitedly declaring:

“It’s the best discovery ever made! I didn’t really feel as a lot because the prick of a pin!”

Wells proceeded to check the process on 12 sufferers, with equally constructive outcomes. As Hartford didn’t have a hospital, Wells organized to offer a public demonstration on the Massachusetts Common Hospital in Boston, which occurred on January 20, 1845. Surrounded by an viewers of medical doctors, Wells administered nitrous oxide to his affected person and proceeded to extract a tooth – just for the affected person to cry out in ache. The viewers instantly broke out into boos and cries of “humbug!” forcing Wells to slink out in shame. It was later decided that the gasoline had been improperly administered, and that the affected person’s weight problems and alcoholism had made his physique insensitive to the anaesthetic. Moreover, regardless of having cried out, the affected person didn’t recall feeling any ache. Sadly, nevertheless, the botched demonstration successfully ended Wells’s profession. He quickly fell sick, closed his dental apply, grew to become hooked on ether and chloroform, and was imprisoned on January 21, 1848 for throwing sulphuric acid on two prostitutes in a drug-fuelled rage. Three days later, aghast at what he had finished, he dedicated suicide in his cell.

However this was not the tip of the story, for current at Wells’s 1845 demonstration was fellow dentist and former colleague William Morton. Satisfied that nitrous oxide was an unreliable surgical anaesthetic, on October 16, 1846 Morton made medical historical past by eradicating a tumour from the neck of printer Edward Gilbert after knocking him out utilizing diethyl ether. The landmark surgical procedure occurred in the identical theatre as Wells’s ill-fated demonstration, which right this moment is usually often called the “Ether Dome.” Ether, together with chloroform, shortly grew to become the surgical anaesthetic of alternative, permitting ever longer and extra complicated surgical procedures to be carried out with out the affected person thrashing about in agony. However whereas these had been finally changed by safer and simpler normal anaesthetics like desflurane and sevoflurane, nitrous oxide continues for use to today, primarily in dentistry and obstetrics. In these functions the gasoline is often diluted to 30-40% with oxygen, as nitrous oxide can’t be breathed in pure kind with out asphyxiating the affected person. Paradoxically, using nitrous oxide was popularized after Horace Wells’s dying by Gardner Colton, host of the laughing gasoline social gathering the place Wells made his fateful remark.

For almost a century and a half after its discovery, nitrous oxide had few functions exterior of drugs and as a leisure drug. In 1949, nevertheless, Austrian engineer Eduard Haas found use laughing gasoline to provide one other joy-inducing substance: whipped cream. When saved in a pressurized container, nitrous oxide, which is lipophilic or fat-binding, dissolves in cream; it additionally inhibits bacterial progress, extending the lifetime of the combination. When the strain is launched, nevertheless, the gasoline comes out of resolution and froths the cream, creating that oh-so-delicious confection all of us like to squirt immediately into our mouths – er, I imply, spray onto desserts in affordable quantities. Whereas shopper whipped cream cans come pre-charged and are single-use, business refillable whipped cream dispensers use pre-charged nitrous oxide cartridges generally often called chargers or ‘whippits.’ Sadly, nevertheless, the prepared availability and legality of whippits makes them a well-liked supply of nitrous oxide for leisure customers, who eat the gasoline by breaking the seal on the charger with a particular software referred to as a cracker and meting out it right into a balloon. Inhaling immediately from the charger is harmful, because the increasing gasoline is extraordinarily chilly and might inflict extreme frostbite to the person’s mouth and respiratory tract. Whereas nitrous oxide’s mechanism of motion shouldn’t be totally understood, it’s believed that, like benzodiazepine medication and opiates like morphine, the molecule binds to Gamma-Aminobutyric Acid or GABA and endogenous opioid receptors within the mind. That is evidenced by the truth that addicts who develop a tolerance to those medication additionally develop a tolerance to nitrous oxide – and vice versa. Lengthy-term nitrous oxide abuse can even result in habit, in addition to extreme vitamin B12 deficiency and related neurological injury. Which means Devo was fallacious: if an issue comes alongside, you should not whip it.

And at last, we get to essentially the most dramatic use of nitrous oxide: making issues go vroom. The primary nitrous oxide injection system for inner combustion engines was developed by the Germans throughout the Second World Warfare. Often called Göring Mischung Eins or “Göring Combination 1” after head of the Luftwaffe Hermann Göring – however nicknamed the Ha-Ha-Gerät or “Ha Ha Gadget” – the system was invented in 1940 by engineer Otto Lutz to unravel a significant issue plaguing high-altitude German bombers and fighters. As plane flew greater, the air grew progressively thinner, making it tougher to produce the engine with oxygen and inflicting efficiency to drop quickly. The standard resolution to this downside was to suit the engine with a supercharger or turbocharger, high-speed pumps which might compress and feed extra air into the engine than pure induction alone. Nevertheless, Germany lacked the metallurgical expertise and manufacturing capability to construct these gadgets in adequate numbers. GM-1 was a sensible workaround that allowed engine efficiency to be boosted at excessive altitudes – at the very least for transient intervals. The system labored in two methods. First, when nitrous oxide is heated above 300ºC, it decomposes into nitrogen and oxygen. This combination accommodates 37% oxygen by mass in comparison with solely 21% for normal air, that means extra gas could possibly be fed into the engine and extra energy obtained. Injecting nitrous oxide into the consumption manifold additionally cooled the air, rising its density and permitting much more oxygen to be fed into the cylinders. Lastly the decomposition of nitrous oxide is exothermic, rising the temperature contained in the cylinders and enhancing the thermodynamic effectivity of the engine.

GM-1 was typically utilized in tandem with one other system referred to as MW 50, which injected a 50:50 combination of water and methanol into the consumption manifold. In addition to rising the density of the inducted air, this combination cooled the cylinders and helped forestall pre-detonation or knocking – the untimely ignition of the fuel-air combination brought on by compression from the pistons. This, in flip, allowed the engine to attain greater compression ratios and produce extra energy – and to be taught extra about engine knocking and the way it impacts what sort of gas you set in your automobile, please try our earlier video What Does the “Octane Score” of Gasoline Actually Imply? And in case you might be questioning, the methanol within the combination was to stop the water from freezing at excessive altitudes.

Collectively, GM-1 and MW 50 might enhance an engine’s efficiency by as much as 500 horsepower and permit plane to function at altitudes as much as 20,000 toes – particularly if utilized in tandem with a supercharger. Certainly, one of many few plane to have each programs fitted, the Focke-Wulf Ta 152 interceptor, was able to reaching speeds of as much as 756 kilometres per hour. However this blistering efficiency got here at a value. For one factor, these programs had been very heavy and hulking, decreasing the plane’s efficiency and taking over weight and area that would in any other case be used for further gas and ordnance. They had been additionally very thirsty, with the typical plane solely carrying sufficient water and nitrous oxide for round 10 minutes of steady operation at full energy. Pilots thus solely used engine enhance for transient intervals equivalent to the ultimate climb earlier than interception or when taking evasive motion. Nevertheless, by the point these programs had been launched in massive numbers, Germany had already misplaced air superiority over Europe and high-altitude missions had turn into much less related, that means they had been seldom used earlier than the conflict ended. In the meantime, the Allies additionally made restricted use of nitrous oxide and water injection programs, particularly in high-altitude reconnaissance plane.

With the rise of jet-powered plane after the Second World Warfare, nitrous oxide injection grew to become out of date and handed into the annals of army aviation. It could be almost twenty years earlier than the expertise was rediscovered by a pioneer of the fledgling sport of excessive efficiency drag racing. In 1958, drag racer Richard Flynn of Spokane, Washington was combing his native library for potential high-energy fuels to feed into his subsequent automobile. Flynn had beforehand tried injecting pure oxygen into his engine, however this made the fuel-air-mixture dangerously unstable – a truth he found when his dragster proceeded to endure a fast unscheduled disassembly. In the midst of his analysis, Flynn stumbled upon the wartime strategy of nitrous oxide injection, which he realized might produce the specified efficiency enhance with out the danger of catastrophic explosions. It was additionally rather more handy to deal with. At room temperature, gaseous oxygen can solely be virtually compressed as much as a density of 279 kilograms per cubic metre at a strain of 20 megapascals; to attain larger density, it should be liquefied at temperatures beneath -196ºC, requiring impractically cumbersome cryogenic gear. Nitrous oxide, in contrast, liquefies to a density of 800 kilograms per cubic metre above 4 megapascals at room temperature, that means bigger quantities might be carried utilizing a lot less complicated gear. Flynn introduced the thought to fellow drag racer Gary Hams, who proceeded to cobble collectively the world’s first automotive nitrous oxide system from a spare oxygen tank and regulator mounted in his automobile’s software tray, a store air hose and blowgun valve held within the driver’s lap, and a nozzle mounted to the bottom of the carburetor. On September 7, 1958, Hams entered his modified dragster within the B/Fuel competitors at Deer Park speedway, Minnesota, and handily gained the race. This was, so far as it’s identified, the first-ever use of nitrous oxide in auto racing. Such boosted automobiles quickly got here to be often called “humorous automobiles” after the well-known psychotropic results of nitrous oxide – although you shouldn’t attempt to breathe automotive nitrous as it’s often blended with sulphur dioxide, corrosion inhibitors, and different highly-toxic substances. Don’t say we didn’t warn you…

From these humble beginnings, nitrous oxide boosting steadily grew in recognition among the many racing neighborhood, and enterprising hobbyists started producing and promoting ready-made kits for his or her fellow gear heads. Among the many first such enterprises to search out widespread success was 10,000 RPM Velocity Tools, based in 1964 by Ron Hammel. In 1978, one other racing fanatic, Mike Thermos, was impressed by Hammel’s merchandise to create his personal line of nitrous oxide kits. Along with Dale Vaznaian, Thermos not solely ironed out the assorted technical issues plaguing earlier programs, but additionally positioned larger emphasis on aesthetics to higher enchantment to skilled racers:

“We’d pores and skin pack the equipment. A variety of the fellows had been beginning to do that stuff out of the again of their storage. However we painted ours, had our bottles painted very nice, put chrome valves on them — actually gingerbread every part up.”

However what to name their new firm? As Thermos later recalled:

“We had a buddy that painted the race automobiles. I requested if he could make us a emblem? And he drew N-O-E  for Nitrous Oxide Engineering. I mentioned, nicely, we’re not engineers so do one thing else. So he drew N-O-S like that. I mentioned, yeah, that form of seems to be just like the image for nitrous oxide. We grew to become Nitrous Oxide Methods.”

Nitrous Oxide Methods or NOS would go on to turn into legendary throughout the racing neighborhood – a lot in order that “NOS” has turn into a standard slang time period for nitrous oxide. By the point the corporate was offered to Holley Efficiency Merchandise in 2001, it was valued at greater than $5 million.

However as with all such applied sciences, it wasn’t lengthy earlier than racers started abusing nitrous oxide programs – even in NASCAR, the place such performance-boosting strategies are outlawed. This downside got here to a head in February 1976 on the qualifying stage for the Daytona 500, when the No. 28 Hoss Ellington Chevrolet pushed by A.J. Foyt and the No.88 DiGard Racing Chevy pushed by Darrel Waltrip mysteriously clocked instances one second sooner than throughout apply laps. Suspecting foul play, NASCAR officers ordered Waltrip’s automobile to the inspection space, the place they knowledgeable Waltrip and his crew chief Mario Rossi that they might reduce the automobile into little items till they discovered the nitrous oxide they had been clearly utilizing. Rossi caved and revealed the system hidden inside a chassis tube. Caught red-handed, Waltrip uttered an iconic line which underscored how ludicrously excessive the stakes had turn into in skilled motorsports:

“In the event you don’t cheat, you appear to be an fool. In the event you cheat and don’t get caught, you appear to be a hero. In the event you cheat and get caught, you appear to be a dope. Put me the place I belong.”

As we speak, nitrous oxide programs are produced by dozens of firms in dozens of configurations tailor-made to explicit automobiles or racing types. Nevertheless, broadly talking there are solely two principal forms of programs: dry and moist. Dry programs are the best, comprising a number of nozzles or jets mounted within the engine consumption plenum. The liquid nitrous oxide totally vaporizes earlier than coming into the cylinders, therefore the title. Working such programs requires rising the gas move to the engine to keep away from an overly-lean situation, which might generate dangerously excessive temperatures and probably injury the pistons and cylinders. That is achieved by rising the gas strain utilizing a secondary pump or adjusting the digital management module or ECU to maintain the gas injectors open for longer.

In moist programs, in contrast, liquid nitrous oxide and gas are blended collectively and delivered concurrently into the carburetor or gas injectors. Whereas such programs do make it simpler to regulate the gas/air ratio, they’ll additionally endure from uneven gas distribution, gas pooling, and lean circumstances, probably resulting in detonations and different catastrophic injury. In the meantime, dry programs can be utilized with one among 4 commonplace supply strategies: single nozzle, through which one jet is positioned on the opening of the consumption plenum; direct port, through which a number of jets are mounted near the engine consumption ports above the cylinders, plate, through which a flat spacer drilled with holes is mounted within the consumption plenum to vaporize and distribute the nitrous, and bar, which is analogous to a plate system however makes use of a hole tube drilled with holes to distribute the nitrous. And whereas most nitrous oxide kits are based mostly on a single supply stage, a number of kits might be chained collectively to kind multi-stage programs that ship nitrous extra progressively to make sure smoother acceleration. Totally different jet sizes may also be put in to tweak the oxidizer-fuel ratio.

However whereas nitrous oxide is most well-known for enhancing race automobiles, maybe its most dramatic utility is boosting payloads into area. On October 4, 2004, pilot Brian Binnie flew the experimental Scaled Composites SpaceShipOne to an altitude of 112 kilometres above the Mojave Desert – crossing the 100km Karman Line that marks the boundary of outer area. This flight, the second carried out in every week, gained Scaled Composites the $10 Million Ansari X-Prize and formally made SpaceShipOne the primary non-public craft to achieve outer area – and for extra on this, please try our earlier video The Surprisingly Attention-grabbing Debate of The place Outer Area Truly Begins.

Propelling SpaceShipOne on its record-breaking flights was an uncommon kind of energy plant often called a hybrid rocket engine – which, because the title suggests, lies midway in design between a conventional liquid rocket engine and strong rocket booster. The gas in a hybrid rocket engine takes the type of an extended cylinder or grain of hydrocarbon materials – within the case of SpaceShipOne, an artificial rubber referred to as HTPB – with a hole channel or port operating down the center. That is contained in a cylindrical combustion chamber with a rocket nozzle at one finish and a tank of liquid or gaseous oxidizer on the different – on this case, our good previous good friend nitrous oxide. To start out the engine, the pilot opens a valve to launch the oxidizer into the gas grain port and units off a pyrotechnic cost to ignite the gas. The gas and oxidizer combine and burn in a slender boundary layer alongside the internal floor of the gas port, with the gas grain being consumed from the within out.

Hybrid rocket engines have quite a few benefits over conventional liquid-fuelled engines and strong motors, significantly within the areas of security and ease. Strong rocket motors mix gas and oxidizer in similar propellant grain, that means that when they’re ignited, they can’t be put out. Liquid-fuelled engines, in the meantime, typically use poisonous, risky, and troublesome to deal with propellants like liquid oxygen or hydrazine, and are liable to exploding violently after they fail. In addition they require complicated and troublesome to fabricate {hardware} like propellant turbo pumps, making them very costly. In contrast, the gas and oxidizer utilized in hybrid engines are, on their very own, largely inert and might be safely dealt with with out particular gear. They’re additionally significantly cheaper than conventional rocket fuels. Moreover, hybrid rocket engines can simply and safely be shut off by merely reducing off the move of oxidizer to the combustion chamber. Alternatively, hybrid rockets typically exhibit poorer efficiency and effectivity in comparison with liquid-fuelled rockets and endure from a constantly-changing oxidizer-fuel ratio because the strong gas grain is consumed. Their use thus includes tradeoffs between efficiency, value, and security.

Nor are hybrid rocket engines 100% secure. Although largely inert and secure to deal with, nitrous oxide can nonetheless violently decompose if heated or uncovered to the fitting catalyst. This lurking hazard was tragically revealed on July 26, 2007 throughout a take a look at of the engine for SpaceShipTwo, the rocket aircraft developed for area tourism agency Virgin Galactic. This was what is named a chilly move take a look at, and easily concerned operating nitrous oxide by means of the engine with out igniting it to make sure that the blooming labored. Nonetheless, the nitrous oxide spontaneously decomposed, leading to an enormous explosion that killed three Scaled Composites engineers. Whereas the reason for the explosion stays a thriller, it’s identified that turbulence may cause nitrous oxide to decompose at excessive move charges. Hopefully the trigger can be decided and the hazard mitigated earlier than Virgin Galactic begins business area tourism operations…

And that, expensive viewers, is the surprisingly fascinating historical past of nitrous oxide, the unassuming molecule answerable for gifting humanity such indispensable scientific wonders as medical anaesthesia, billionaires in area, whipped cream, and hour-long YouTube supercuts of Vin Diesel saying “household”.

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