How Does a Breathalyzer Work?

The History of the Breathalyzer

How many drinks have you had tonight? This is a question police officers ask motorists every day as license checks are set up across the nation. In addition to catching someone driving illegally, they are also checking for the smell of alcohol. Suspicious behavior or unstable movement can lead to a night in jail and one might find themselves standing on the side of the road blowing into a breathalyzer. When alcohol is consumed, it passes from the stomach to the small intestines, where it is absorbed into the blood stream and goes through the whole body. Alcohol goes through the body so fast that it affects the central nervous system even when it is ingested in small amounts.

History

As far back as 1874, researchers have suspected breath could be used for alcohol testing. They realized that trace amounts of alcohol were excreted in breath. In 1827, W.D. McNalley, a Chicago chemist, invented a breathalyzer in which the breath changed colors when it moved through
chemicals in water. Housewives came up with a useful use of the breathalyzer: to test for alcohol on their husband's breath before they would let
me in the house.

Drunkometer

The drunkometer, invented by Rolla Harger in 1938, was the first roadside breather-tester that was intended for the police to use. The machine collected a sample of the driver's breath directly into a balloon in the machine and pumped through a solution of acidified potassium. If there was
alcohol in the breath, the solution changed colors. The bigger the color change, the more alcohol that was in the sample.
In 1954, A police captain in Indiana, who later became a professor at a university in Indiana, Dr. Robert Borkenstein, is credited as the first person to invent a device that can measure a driver's blood alcohol level based on a sample of their breath. It provided the police with a test that would give them immediate results as to a driver's alcohol concentration in their breath.

How Do They Work?

Since the air in the deepest part in the lungs give the most accurate results, the person issuing the test will tell the driver to blow as hard as they can into the breathalyzer for about two to four seconds. The breath sample bubbles into a vial with potassium chromate. If there is any ethanol present it will react with the potassium chromate and cause the solution to switch to a golden yellow color as a result. This mixture is then compared to another vial that has potassium chromate but not ethanol which will make it a bright orange color. The color difference in these vials will give an the person issuing the test an indication of the amount of ethanol in the person's breath. The device then gives a readout that states the degree of color change and the level of alcohol in their breath.
Breathalyzers are not the only method for determining levels of intoxication. Intoxilyzers, and Alcosensers are two other devises to measure someone's intoxication.

About the Author - Gordon Weber is a guest blogger.  His interest in how Breathalyzers work led him to thesandiegoduiattorneys.com website of Chris P Sohovich.

Stop! Don't Sign That Mobile Contract!

Already chosen the mobile contract that you want? You could be making a big mistake. The wrong mobile contract could end up costing you big time. So before you sign, you might want to read on and find out what you could be doing wrong...

Buy Mobile Phones Yourself, Not on Contract
The major mistake that costs many people on a contract is the signing of what's known as an incentive contract. Mobile operators offer two kinds of contract. A SIM only contract contains a calling plan for service, whilst an incentive contract has a calling plan and a mobile phone. Whether or not you get that phone for free or have to pay a down payment on it you will, over the course of your contract, pay far more than retail price for the phone, meaning it's cheaper to buy mobile phones yourself. These incentive phones are simply phones that are bought on an instalment plan. The monthly bill for an incentive contract is higher than the monthly bill for a SIM only contract, even though both those contracts may have the same calling plan. This extra cost reflects the instalment that you're paying on your phone. Add up all the instalments and you'll see that you're paying more than the value of the phone that you get. Skip signing incentive contracts, sign SIM only instead and buy a mobile phone outright to get better long term savings.



Your Calling Plan is Key
You might think that you're choosing the right calling plan, but are you really sure? The wrong plan will cost you money. A calling plan is made up of three parts. There'll be a limit for the amount of calling minutes you can use, a limit for the amount of text messages that you can send, and a limit for the amount of mobile data that you can use. Estimating these limits wrongly will lead to you paying more than you should. If the limits on your plan are too high for you then you're going to end up paying for services that you're not using. This is because you have to pay the same monthly fee for using all your minutes, texts and data as you do for using half, or even none, of them. Don't thing that that means choosing a small plan is better though. If you exceed the limits of your calling plan you will have to pay your normal monthly payment plus premium rates for any extra minutes, texts and data that you have used. Estimating the size of the calling plan that you need is tough. Try looking at some old mobile bills if you have any, since these should tell you what your average usage is like. Or maybe even get a pay as you go plan for a few weeks and track your usage so that you can choose the appropriate plan. Most operators will let you change your calling plan even after your contract is signed, but you'll probably have to pay a fee in order to do this, so it's a better idea to choose correctly the first time.



Is Your Contract the Right Length?
You actually have a choice of contract duration with all operators, though the advertised contracts that you see are generally for twenty four months. The law in the UK requires that operators offer a twelve month contract option. Some operators will give you an eighteen month option too, and some SIM only contracts are known as thirty day rolling contracts. That means that the contract is for only thirty days but that it will automatically renew every month until you tell the operator to stop your service. The length of your contract can affect how much you pay. With many operators the longer your contract is the lower your monthly payments are. The operator gives you a discount for a longer contract because they're guaranteed your custom and therefore your payment for a longer period of time. But even though a longer contract is usually cheaper, you still might want to consider a shorter one. When you sign a mobile contract you should be prepared to stick with that contract until it ends, because breaking a mobile contract can be exceptionally expensive. Two years is a long time to agree to use the same service. This will mean that you need to wait longer to take advantage of better deals, either from your operator or from another company. Also, circumstances can change. Things like moving house, having a baby, graduating from university or losing your job can all affect your ability to pay the monthly bill that you've agreed to. Choose the length that suits you
best, but you will get savings by signing longer contracts.



Did You Read the Terms and Conditions?
Everybody knows that you should read the small print on a contract before signing, yet when it comes to mobile contracts, few people bother. Before you sign that contract go to your operator's web page and read their terms and conditions, you might be glad that you did. There are a couple of things that you'll want to look for. The first thing you should look for is under which conditions you can cancel the contract. Some operators will let you cancel contracts for no fee providing you can prove certain circumstances. Other operators will let you cancel a contract for no reason at all and for free within a specified period of signing. You should know what these conditions are just in case you need to use them. The other thing that you should take note of is what you should do if your mobile phone is lost or stolen. Particularly if your phone is stolen you do not want to be responsible for paying charges run up by the thief. Different operators have different procedures surrounding this situation, so make sure that you know what to do should the occasion arise, since this could end up saving you a fortune.


About the Author- When Sam Jones was looking to buy mobile phones he knew he would have to shop around for the best deal. He went online and compared prices using uSwitch and other similar sites and managed to get a really great deal

Samsung Galaxy Note 3 launched - specs

Finally after another seemingly huge wait, the Note 3 has been launched an hour ago at IFA berlin 2013. Incidentally, this is the very event where the first of the Note series was launched. So a pretty nostalgic event for Samsung there. As expected , the Galaxy Note 3 is revved up with upgrades to make it sport everything latest in the tech market. Though yeah the size enhancement is not that significant ( relief for some who have been struggling with the Note 2's size ).

Specifications

Weight - 168g
Display - 5.7 inch Super AMOLED
Resolution - 1920 X 1080
Battery - 3200 mAh
Internal Storage - 32/ 64 GB
MicroSD expansion - upto 64 GB
Rear camera - 13 MP Full HD 60fps, 4K 30fps
Front camera - 2 MP Full HD 30 fps
NFC - Yes
Bluetooth - 4.0
LTE+ - Yes
Processor - Snapdragon 800 2.3 GHz Quad Core/ Exynos Octa core 1.9GHz
RAM - 3GB
OS - Android 4.3

Clearly a nice improvement in terms of hardware from the Note 2, though we still have to find out about the S Pen's sensitivity levels ( I hope that is upgraded as well, though that would be asking too much). But seriously one point I would like to bring your focus is the rear camera!!! If you read it right, it is capable of Full HD recording at 60fps, and 4K recording at 30fps!!!! This is seriously some advantage it flexes here!!!Though yeah the screen doesn't support 4K, but who cares! Ok we do, but still it is AWESOME.



Now that's not all that Note 3 has to offer. Obviously, there are software improvisations to gain an edge over similarly specced Sony Xperia Z Ultra, upcoming LG Optimus G2 , and many more competitors lining up for a showdown ( Oh I forgot to mention IPhone 5S)



The major thing is for the S Pen and the device's optimization for it is the fact that we have a new cover for the Note 3, a cover that is sensitive to the S Pen. So no more exercising your hands to flip open the cover to use the S Pen. Furthermore, S Pen is complimented by the Air Command Feature, a feature that allows the S Pen in Air view to launch a pop up , featuring scrapbook, S search , Action Memo , and an updated S Memo.


Also is the new  My Magazine homescreen, a fresh breath from the previous one featuring in all earlier Galaxy devices, a product of the latest collaboration of Samsung with Flipboard. Apart from that, you will find the other gimmicky features of the S4 as well.

The Multi Window is updated, with the ability to run one apps in 2 windows under different run-situations. Eg. is the fact that you can run two websites simultaneously, a much needed addition , paving way for some actual multitasking.

There is no info on pricing, but the device will roll out globally from 25th September. Stay tuned for latest updates and reviews.

Image Source : Engadget