Credit:
FCD/NIST
Several centuries ago, scientists discovered oxygen while experimenting with combustion and flames. One scientist called it “fire air.” Today, at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), we continue to measure oxygen to study the behavior of fires. The NIST National Fire Research Laboratory (NFRL) has four progressively larger canopy hoods that are used to research the behavior of fires. The hoods, like massive lungs, suck in fresh air to give life to the fire under our watchful eyes. We carefully document these unique experiments using multiple cameras and up to several hundred measurement sensors. The hoods’ exhaust enters a series of long metal ducts where the gases and particles are carefully measured before they are scrubbed clean and returned to the outside.