king of nowhere Posted February 10, 2023 Posted February 10, 2023 does the harmonium/water explosion work like a chemical reaction? it seems so, even though it's more energetic than any actual chemical reaction by a couple orders of magnitude. the various descriptions are consistent with a behavior similar to alkali metals. if the analogy holds, then wayne could have survived the explosion. the thing is, the explosion needs two components: harmonium and water. there was plenty of harmonium, but as long as you put little water in it, the explosion will be small. so wayne could have put a few drops of water in the barrels - enough to make a small explosion that would ruin the mechanism, but that would not blow him up. unless harmonium explodes by itself, and water is just the catalyst that unleashes its explosion. but then, the smallest drop of humidity would set it off.
Frustration Posted February 10, 2023 Posted February 10, 2023 That would probably still be enough force to blow a hole in the ship, and since the Harmonium wouldn't be destroyed it would react with the water as it came in.
alder24 Posted February 10, 2023 Posted February 10, 2023 Harmonium can react even with water vapor in the air, as it was proven during Wax's experiment. And there was also the problem of the ship - it was immobilized and was stuck on the heading straight into Elendel. The ship would strike the docks at high speed, or run ashore, its hull would get breached, allowing water to flood the lower decks, or even sink the ship entirely, causing the Harmonium-water reaction to occur in the city, which would be devastating. Ship had to be sunk far away from the city, and there was no way to change its heading. Wayne didn't have a choice.
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