Indeed.
Was thinking maybe that in arctic temperatures, liquid butane might have some of the same advantages that liquid gasoline does in more ordinary Earth climates (e.g. can be stored without pressurization, etc.). Maybe a liquid butane internal combustion engine makes sense in sub-zero temps for certain applications?
For all who mentioned the hazards from the fumes of various boiling liquids, the real concern would be the vapors. Fumes are something different. I know this is a nit pick. Fumes, vapors, gasses, mists, and smoke are all different things. The terms are not interchangeable.
Wow, did I read that question wrong … I was going to say boiling steel ought not the be harmed if someone stuck their hand in … but it wouldn’t be very good for the hand I guess …
Such as?
“How high can you drop a raw egg onto a concrete floor without breaking it?”
Leidenfrost protecting your hand?
Your hand is protected from the heat of molten lead for the brief moment it is enveloped in a film of boiling vapor. That’s safe?
“Fumes” is not (so far as I’m aware) a technical term with a restricted meaning, and dictionary definitions for the colloquial meaning are all quite similar, e.g. “gas, smoke or vapor”. Also, for what it’s worth, “nitpick” is usually one word and the correct spelling is “gases”.
If a plane crashes on the US/Canadian border … which side of the line to you bury the survivors?
At sufficiently high altitude you can stick your hand into boiling water without any harm, since it boils at room temperature. Here is an Air Force volunteer holding a beaker of boiling water in his bare hands. He’s in a vacuum chamber at 65,000 ft. He’s not wearing a space suit but a partial pressure suit with no gloves on: Reddit - Dive into anything
On Mt. Everest, water boils at about 160F, but that would still harm human skin if exposed for more than about 1 second.
At high pressure the opposite happens. If a saturation diver in a deep sea habitat at 10 atmospheres spilled boiling water, it would be at 350F. That would do more than just burn you.
But the above link does say at standard atmospheric pressure.
Butane has already been mentioned but R-11 Freon boils at 74.9F, so a brief exposure would probably not hurt human skin. Prolonged exposure is supposedly a skin irritant.
Sorry about the spelling. In safety and industrial hygiene fumes, vapors, gases, mists, and smoke are all different. Sometimes they occur together. In the molten steel and lead examples, you would have fumes in the air. In the heated or evaporating liquid examples, you would have vapors.
So, if (in some parlance) there is a difference, don’t leave us hanging. What is it?
I’d throw out methyl propyl ether. It boils just a bit above room temperature, at 38.8 °C (101.8 °F). Like most of these except for the high-altitude water example, you should be careful about breathing in the vapors. It was once used as a general anesthetic.
(concerning diethyl either “considerations”)
Very volatile, very flammable, forms explosive vapor/air mixtures readily. That was a big problem when the stuff was used as an anesthetic. You may know it today as automotive starting fluid.
In general:
Vapors come from evaporating liquids.
Fumes from heated metal.
Mists contain small particles of airborne liquid.
Dusts contain small particles of airborne solids.
Smoke is the result of burning and contains some combination of gases, dust, and possibly fumes depending on what is burning.
Cecil’s column on the subject: I admit it doesn’t sound like boiling per se, but when someone mentions tempting frozen death, you really need to include tempting boiling death, for balance.
And for the record, none of these seem particularly safe for one reason or another.
Low pressure refrigerants.
R 11 boils at 75 degrees
R 123 boils at 85 degrees
Metal fumes are airborne droplets/particles of metal. Small enough to float around and get into your lungs, so act similar to a gas, but metal is not actually in the gas phase.
Smoke is, I think, pretty clear.
I’m not sure what the distinction between vapors and gases is (unless ‘vapor’ implies that there’s a liquid source somewhere).
I’d assume a mist is airborne droplets of finely-dispersed liquid.
See top two comments here. Given that, it seems to me that “fumes” meaning specifically “gaseous emissions from heated metal” falls under the category of technical jargon.
Dichloromethane, aka Methylene Chloride, is the most common of the liquids they used to put in those Christmas “bubble lights”. It boils (satisfactorily, with bubbles and all) at 103 F = 39.6 C. It is relatively harmless, they say (nobody mentioned the pain [B}asterion** mentions), but is considered possibly carcinogenic.