{"id":1921,"date":"2010-12-03T10:45:31","date_gmt":"2010-12-03T17:45:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mikesenese.com\/DOIT\/?p=1921"},"modified":"2026-03-08T22:17:50","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T05:17:50","slug":"whiskey-tricks-proving-alcohol-content-and-preserving-matter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mikesenese.com\/DOIT\/2010\/12\/whiskey-tricks-proving-alcohol-content-and-preserving-matter\/","title":{"rendered":"Whiskey Tricks: Proving Alcohol Content and Preserving Matter"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A few months ago I appeared in a couple episodes of <em>How Stuff Works<\/em> on Discovery channel. One of the episodes, <a href=\"http:\/\/corporate.discovery.com\/blog\/tag\/how-whiskey-made-america\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">&#8220;How Whiskey Made America,&#8221;<\/a> had three segments I shot:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Demonstrating <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Alcohol_proof\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">how the term &#8220;proof&#8221; was developed<\/a> by sailors who would soak gunpowder with their ration of spirits and then ignite it to prove that it hadn&#8217;t been watered down. Spirits over 57.15% alcohol content will burst into a colorful flame.<\/li>\n<li>Showing how organic material (like fruit, or more gruesomely, dead bodies), can be preserved by leaving them submerged in a high-alcohol container.<\/li>\n<li>How the early days of rocket technology initially used ethanol as a fuel, shown by demonstrating a small <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Pulse_jet_engine\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">pulse jet engine<\/a> that was filled with Everclear.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The first two parts were fast and fun, but the last part took a bit longer to shoot \u2013 the small pulse jet we were using didn&#8217;t arrive to the location until late, it took a bit of time to set things up, and we were racing the clock before having to wrap up the shoot. When I got things firing, and pulled the clamp to show the rocket propel itself on the track&#8230; nothing. It just sat there making the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=EEHw9lInIfg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">ungodly throbbing noise that is distinct to pulse jets<\/a>. The segment was cut using stock footage instead. Bummer! <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-1922\" title=\"Mike Proving Whiskey\" src=\"http:\/\/mikesenese.com\/DOIT\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/Mike-Proving-Whiskey-580x387.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"580\" height=\"387\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.mikesenese.com\/DOIT\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/Mike-Proving-Whiskey-580x387.png 580w, https:\/\/www.mikesenese.com\/DOIT\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/Mike-Proving-Whiskey-145x96.png 145w, https:\/\/www.mikesenese.com\/DOIT\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/Mike-Proving-Whiskey-285x190.png 285w, https:\/\/www.mikesenese.com\/DOIT\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/Mike-Proving-Whiskey.png 1067w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 580px) 100vw, 580px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Airing at the same time, I also shot a segment for &#8220;How Summer Changed The World&#8221; where I demonstrated how the tilt of the earth&#8217;s axis helped distribute even eat around the globe, creating an environment much more conducive for life. And there are a few segments for two upcoming episodes as well. Fun stuff.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A few months ago I appeared in a couple episodes of How Stuff Works on Discovery channel. One of the episodes, &#8220;How Whiskey Made America,&#8221; had three segments I shot: Demonstrating how the term &#8220;proof&#8221; was developed by sailors who would soak gunpowder with&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1921","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-diy","category-video"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Whiskey Tricks: Proving Alcohol Content and Preserving Matter &#8212; DO IT: Projects, Plans, and How-tos<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"# Meta Description Learn how to test alcohol content and preserve matter with simple whiskey science experiments perfect for DIY makers and curious experi\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mikesenese.com\/DOIT\/2010\/12\/whiskey-tricks-proving-alcohol-content-and-preserving-matter\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Whiskey Tricks: Proving Alcohol Content and Preserving Matter &#8212; 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