Can combustion occur without oxygen?

Question

I wana make a super soaker flamethrower but will it explode?

I understand that gas needs oxygen to ignite, a super soaker flamethrower has a small barrel with no oxygen in it when its being fired. But I also watch movies...

In movies you see a trail of gas leading to a whole bunch of gas barrels and when the flame reaches the barrels they all explode violently. Wouln't you need oxygen in the barrels in order for the fuel to ignite?

Or does gasoline combust at a certain temperature? If so would and open flame be strong enough to set off a full gas container?

And if gas does combust at a certain temp. then what are the combustion temperatures of other combustibles? Prefferably ones usable in a super soaker flamethrower....

P.S. if you do decide to make a flamethrower too then dont use paint thinner or anthing that dissovles other things like paint. they will melt the inner working of the gun.

Answer 1

you need to have oxygen

maybe you could try olive oil in your supersoaker, that will not melt the gun. but make sure to use the olive oil that is for cooking and sauteeing, and not the one for salad dressings, because the salad dressing one might be too thick. another thing you can try is to get a supersoaker 3500, which has a backpack, you could load that thing up with olive oil, once again, making sure to use the thinner grade, the one for cooking and sauteeing. you could try to add on some kind of lighter attachment, that might come in handy.

you could also try to build some sort of radio flyer based flamethrower wagon, that might help reduce your chance of "collateral damage" to yourself.

another option would be to get a supersoaker that has two different tubes for liquid. you could fill one with some sort of fuel, and the other one with liquid oxygen, so that might solve your oxygen problem.

i have enclosed some pictures from my personal album
http://paulm.com/pix/2004/08/05/suited_soaker.jpg
http://www.poster.net/christo-und-jeanne-claude/christo-und-jeanne-claude-radio-flyer-wagon-1993-2630846.jpg
http://msnbcmedia3.msn.com/j/ap/photos/radio_flyer.hmedium.jpg

Answer 2

Yes, no oxygen, no combustion. But there is oxygen in the air in the water tank and when pumping you will compress that oxygen. End result -- a bomb. A very bad and dangerous project toe build a flame thrower with the super soaker. The flame will be probably be thrown on you when the whole thing explodes. After a very painful convalescence of a year or so, and many skin grafts... You may spend the rest of your life with no body hair, a little stump where your penus used to be, and a face that looks like leftovers from a pizza party. Perhaps you might find a less dangerous hobby?

Answer 3

I dont know about a flamethrower, but I do know that for you to have fire you need three things. Fuel, Oxygen, and Heat.

Answer 4

yes.