[TheForge] Kaboom

[Peter Fels & Phoebe Palmer]

Most every of the old welding supply shops had stories of run-away pressure tanks
that flew 2 blocks and leveled a block wall.
I knew some guys who swore that as kids they'd sneak into construction sites
and take a sledge to the valves to watch them fly or spin around furiously.
One guy said that if you sit on them before they can gain momentum,
they could be controlled...I didn't ask if he'd suffered frost bite of the ass.

On Feb 24, 2014, at 3:48 PM, Mike Spencer wrote:


> Wondered...thanks Jim.
> Perhaps we can get them to try again ,
> and do it right this time!

When I was in high school, late 50s, it was reported that several
unsecured oxy tanks fell off a truck in the edge of downtown, (at
least) one of them snapping off the valve.  The resulting rocket(s)
demolished a store front and damaged parked cars. No report of people
hurt or killed.

I didn't see it so it's just a yarn now but I did later see the
boarded-up store front for what that's worth.

And a friend who used to work on the arctic oil rigs off Alaska circa
1970 had an oxy yarn, too.  Having sighted (what they were sure was) a
Russian submarine lurking nearby, they rigged up a piece of well pipe
as a barrel, inserted an oxy tank valve down, did some WAG
calculations of mass and thrust.  Then one guy tooled up in whatever
they could come up with in full body protective gear and whacked the
valve off the tank with a sledgehammer.  Claimed to have hit the sub,
resulting in a great and clearly audible BONGing noise, after which
the sub quietly slunk away, persaumably in embarassment.

I have no idea if this is true, a lie or a lie so well know in the oil
rig trade that it's part of The Lore.

FWIW,
- Mike

-- 
Michael Spencer                  Nova Scotia, Canada       .~. 
                                                          /V\ 
mspencer at tallships.ca                                     /( )\
http://home.tallships.ca/mspencer/                        ^^-^^

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