The Real Story on Lionel Smoke Pellets (the secret formula is exposed)

Very interesting, thanks for posting.

@Choo Choo Charlie posted:

The following link tells all about Lionel's original and later Smoke pellets. giving the whole story.  The site is The Silicon Underground and it is written and run by David Farquhar.  It has dozens of model train articles, many of which I have found to be of use and interesting and many are on repairing and modifying Marx and Lionel Trains with details and pictures.  It had several articles on trouble shooting, repairing, and modifying Marx eUnits and Marx 1590 switches for example.

https://dfarq.homeip.net/lionel-smoke-pellets/

Enjoy

Charlie

Charlie, Interesting article and a GREAT informative site.

Thanks for sharing it.

Great article and site!  Thanks

Ok I’m going to be a doubting Thomas.  He claims  it’s this and I quote

“It turned out it was meta-terphenyl, a waxy industrial substance manufactured by
Monsanto, used as an insulator and a coolant inside high voltage transformers.”

Please correct me if I’m wrong but no where in the article does it state how he figured this out or what his sources are.

One item Dave didn't mention the danger to kids with the original dimple bulb and 196 pellets. With the SP pellets the molten pellet is absorbed by the liner in the bottom of the bowl. If it is tipped upside down while still hot, it will not spill out. However with the glass bulb the molten 196 pellet stays in a liquid form and if picked up by a child it will spill on his arm. A hot Ammonium Nitrate burn would be serious. Lionel probably realized this right away, but wanted to first with a smoking locomotive. 

Great article.
Alan

I've seen this information in other articles.

I remember an article (with an interview) about the pellets and who made them from that other magazine. It said that the material used was cheap industrial floor wax, poured onto a sheet of metal and left to dry in sunlight. It was then run through a pill-making machine. The Lionel employee who came up with it talked Lionel into allowing him to set himself up as an outside contractor, and made them for the rest of the postwar era.

All you need to confirm that Lionel SP smoke pellets (not the ammonium nitrate ones) are M-terphenyl is a gas chromatograph/mass spec unit.  That is what I used back around 1980.

Monsanto used to manufacture several different items under the Santowax name (they are no longer in this business).  They were different blends of terphenyls and used generally as heat transfer agents in transformers and even nuclear reactors.  The terphenyls (ortho, meta, and para) all have different and distinct melting points.  Ortho melts at about 20 degrees lower than meta and was the major component of the santowaxes.  Not to difficult to separate the isomers by melting point and purify the M-terphenyl.

Liquid smoke is different from different manufacturers because they are different cuts of mineral oil, which is a mixture of various molecular weight hydrocarbons cut from petroleum.  The different blends will perform slightly differently in the liquid smoke units.  I strongly recommend that you do not use any other type of store bought mineral oil except the products that are sold specifically as smoke fluids.  Also, although mineral oils are related to the oils used to lubricate your trains, I recommend only using lubricating oils designed particularly for that use.

LionelFlyer

Great story!

FWIW...

@superwarp1 posted:

Ok I’m going to be a doubting Thomas.  He claims  it’s this and I quote

“It turned out it was meta-terphenyl, a waxy industrial substance manufactured by
Monsanto, used as an insulator and a coolant inside high voltage transformers.”

Please correct me if I’m wrong but no where in the article does it state how he figured this out or what his sources are.

The guy was primarily correct as its in the same family of derivatives of tetramethylbenzene, whic is part of the Lionel formula/spec mixed with the Santo branded waxes by Monsanto

... I see Bruce posted it while I was typing this