Quote:
Originally Posted by orbsycli
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Quote:
Originally Posted by orbsycli
Rolling papers.
…
Sometimes the paper is bleached white. (And that can't be good!)
But now they've got these papers that are SEE THRU...?
Can anybody tell me what's up with that? Why are they see thru? What are they made out of?
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Pretty wild. Thanks, orby, for you ever diligent field research.
I’ve never seen transparent papers, but was aware that
cellophane (of which apparently these weird clear papers are made), ordinary paper, and the synthetic fabric fiber
rayon were essentially the same molecule,
cellulose, (C
6H
10O
5)
n. In cellophane, they’re arranged into more regular crystals, making it transparent instead of opaque.
As people who lived when rayon was a popular clothing fabric can attest, or, further back (ca. 1920), when cellophane was popular for making, thin-skinned, translucent decorations, unless treated with fire-retardants, all three of these materials burn. My grandparents had a little (about 20 cm) Santa Claus made of a thin, translucent cellulose shell, riveted to metal skis which they constantly warned my young self about getting near an ignition source. I got the impression they’d seen at least one such ornament go up in flames.
An analogy is carbon. In its regular crystal forms, diamond, it’s transparent. Less regular forms, like graphite, are opaque (and not really 3-d crystals). As the ever-helpful wikipedia article describes, cellophane is made by dissolving plant pulp in a series of chemicals, eventually producing a solid with the cellulose molecules lined up so neatly you can see through them. The article doesn’t go into as much detail about why cellophane is transparent as I wish it would – guess that’s why the internet needs hypography
(and for folk to add good content to wikipedia)
Quote:
Originally Posted by orbsycli
Rolling papers.
I don't trust them.
…
Sometimes the paper is bleached white. (And that can't be good!)
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This concern is echoed in
the wikipedia article. I think it’s bizarre in the extreme that there’s so much concern about the presence of a bit of stray bleach or other stuff in a wrapping intended to allow its user to inhale the smoke of oily plant matter full of known carcinogens, sometimes (in the case of tobacco) treated with ammonia (see
1996 Pulitzer Prizes-NATIONAL REPORTING, Works or
Ammonia Treatment of Tobacco) or even worse (in the case of very nasty concoctions of marijuana), with formaldehyde.
It’s a bit like someone who intends to self-inflict themselves with a gunshot wound being worried that the bullet isn’t clean.
As millions of print and TV
PSAs say, smoking is unhealthy, no matter how it’s done.
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Moderator: Computers and Technology; Medical Science; Science Projects and Homework; Philosophy of Science; Physics and Mathematics; Environmental Studies
) 
Amazing used of cellulose, the amazing weirdness of smokers
