Carol Beigel wrote: > I once saw at the arboretum the way they kept blossoms from freezing. They > used a sprinkler to spray a fine mist on the blossoms as the temperature > dropped below freezing. Something about the very act of ice making created > enough heat to protect them - even under all the ice that formed. Strange > thing, this property of thermal dynamics. > Yes, the act of freezing does give off heat at 0 Celsius. The benefit lasts until all the water has frozen. Then the temperature can go lower. Fortunately for the arboretum, the cold snap must have been brief so that this temporary protection lasted long enough. > So I was wondering about anti-freeze. The same stuff in my car keeps > the engine from overheating in the summer, and freezing up in the winter. Anti-freeze does not keep the engine from freezing. It just keeps itself from freezing up by having a very low freezing point. The actual temperature in the engine goes just as low as if there were no anti-freeze. If you want to use a styrofoam container to keep your glue from freezing, then put as much thermal mass inside with the glue as you can. This thermal mass can be containers of water - if the containers are the type that can take an accidental freezing in case you leave them in the cold too long. Rocks can be used for thermal mass, although they don't have as much thermal mass as water for the same weight. At least they won't crack if they do accidentally freeze. -Robert Scott Detroit-Windsor Chapter
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