From: tkoenig@netcologne.de   
      
   Since we've been discussing Weir, I have some remarks about   
   the grand finale of "Artemis".   
      
   First, just what selectivity towards Chloroform (a.k.a   
   Trichloromethane) does he assume for an uncontrolled reaction?   
      
   In real life, making chloroform is a stepwise reaction leading   
   from Chloromethane to Dichloromethane to Trichloromethane to   
   Tetrachloromethane, and you need distillation to separate them.   
   So, Artemis would have been flooded by a mixture of several of the   
   Choromethanes.  Not good, especially since they are all nasty,   
   and even if no HCl would have been generated in the original   
   reaction, breakdown of the different Chloromethanes with Oxygen   
   yields Hydrogen chloride and Phosgene, resulting in a _huge_   
   corrosion problem all over the place afterwards. Of course,   
   Phosgene is also not the most pleasant of chemicals...   
      
   Second, just what sort of air exchange rate are they assumed to   
   have there, so that everybody loses conciousness at once, and   
   nobody is able to take any measures?  Not reasonable.   
      
   Third, the artifical race against time.  People will react   
   differently to chemicals and the "after one hour everybody will be   
   fine" is remeniscent of the "We have enough Oxygen for twenty-three   
   minutes" lines we often find in not-so-hard SF.   
      
   So, it shows (a bit) that Weir is not a chemical engineer. Maybe   
   he should have consulted with one :-)   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)