Home made thermos?

Question

Hey,

I need to make water in a water bottle stay cold, using a home made thermos.This is for a science project. Does anyone know any good insulators for it, and better yet , how to use them? I am not allowed to use stuff like ice or ice packs, etc. SO yeah, if anyonw has any ideas, that would be AMAZING! thanks.

Answer 1

OK, regarding the newspaper method,....when I started at a one room school, (in the last century), I discovered that kids were bringing cold milk in glass jars wrapped in newspaper with a rubber jar seal to hold it in place.  We did not know it at the time but we were recycling, reusing, innovating, substituting, and reducing the use of resources.  This all changed when the milkman appeared at schools and kids started to order milk through a milk monitor, (fellow student who collected each week and payed the milkman when he arrived on Fridays).  Then the milk company made choclate milk an option and we said goodbye to the home made thermos.  Later the glass bottles were replaced with cardboard waxy disposable containers and straws appeared.  All of that ended up in the garbage and thus the landfill issues we know today were born.

I guess I was a young baby boomer learning how to become a consumer and made at home solutions were beginning to be frowned upon by a system that favoured large corporations and the wonders of modern scientific research.

Thanks for your question.  Good luck finding a jar seal these days, *(if you are stuck I can ask my mom, she still does her own preserves and has all the bottles, lids and rubber seals she needs).

Answer 2

EASY question so I'll try and get my two cents in first.

1 - Newspaper and tape. Newspaper won't conduct heat and your water bottle will stay cold. Use masking or duct tape to hold the newspaper around the bottle. At least an inch.

2 - Blown foam insulation, from a can. Your father may have some. Put your bottle in a bigger bottle (like a 2 liter cut Coke bottle) and spray some foam insulation around it. Wha la! Instant cooler :))

3 - Fiberglass insulation. Very cheap to buy. Put around water bottle and use tape to hold it in place. Done.