fire warning

[Gordon WParticipant @gordonw]

When I was at school a lad had a box of matches in his trouser pocket, got hit by cricket ball and the box exploded. He was badly injured and needed a lot of treatment. Not really an " accident" tho'.

When smoking was all the go the oil rig firms had many safety checks, plastic gas lighters were dodgy. One test a welder struck an arc and jammed the rod into the lighter, it just popped and the gas got lost, no flames. BTW I was present at both events.

[SillyOldDufferModerator @sillyoldduffer]

Posted by Hopper on 10/07/2018 09:15:47:

Blimey, that English sun must be something vicious. I'm glad we don't have anything like it over here in Australia. Never heard of any of these types of incidents happening here. Good thing too, or there would be fires and burnt carpets and exploding shaving cream tubes everywhere. I guess you guys will all be happy to see the rain return and you can all stand down from fire watch.

It's well known that we British are sensitive intellectuals as well as being better at sport, trade and war than all other nationalities. Unfortunately we have an Achilles' Heel – a few days sunshine warms our enormous brains and we all go cafard. The sand, the flies, the heat, mirages, having to prop our dead up on the battlements to discourage the dreaded Rif from attacking and finishing off the survivors. Will it never end?  Send money, booze and food parcels.  Help is needed urgently.

 

Edited By SillyOldDuffer on 10/07/2018 13:23:21

[Robert Atkinson 2Participant @robertatkinson2]

Posted by Hopper on 10/07/2018 11:38:30:

Posted by pgk pgk on 10/07/2018 09:39:31:

Posted by Hopper on 10/07/2018 09:15:47:

Blimey, that English sun must be something vicious. I'm glad we don't have anything like it over here in Australia. Never heard of any of these types of incidents happening here. Good thing too, or there would be fires and burnt carpets and exploding shaving cream tubes everywhere. I guess you guys will all be happy to see the rain return and you can all stand down from fire watch.

There's a big difference .. you only get the sun at night.

Ahh, of course. And it's upside-down too, putting the cool side of the sun towards us, as heat rises toward you guys' side.

Edited By Hopper on 10/07/2018 11:44:22

Not heat related but many years ago a new employee from "down under" asked if I could look at his, then very expensive, 21" computer monitor which had "funny colours" I ased if he had brought it with hm and being told yes, told him to turn it upside down. He thought I was pulling his leg so I made a bet for a 6 pack of the "amber nectar". I won the bet. Electrons (in the CRT ) are affected by magnetic fields. A perfect CRT does not mind which way up it is, but many have small magets stuck to the neck for correction of errors. If setup in the southern hemisphere they can be the wrong way around magntically in the northern . Can also affect the adjusable convergence magnets but not so mus as they are a stronger field. I ended up turning the CRT through 180 degrees and reversing the scan coil connections. Even the EHT lead reached.

Robert G8RPI.

[RevStewParticipant @revstew]

Posted by SillyOldDuffer on 10/07/2018 13:11:47:

Posted by Hopper on 10/07/2018 09:15:47:

Blimey, that English sun must be something vicious. I'm glad we don't have anything like it over here in Australia. Never heard of any of these types of incidents happening here. Good thing too, or there would be fires and burnt carpets and exploding shaving cream tubes everywhere. I guess you guys will all be happy to see the rain return and you can all stand down from fire watch.

It's well known that we British are sensitive intellectuals as well as being better at sport, trade and war than all other nationalities. Unfortunately we have an Achilles' Heel – a few days sunshine warms our enormous brains and we all go cafard. The sand, the flies, the heat, mirages, having to prop our dead up on the battlements to discourage the dreaded Rif from attacking and finishing off the survivors. Will it never end? Send money, booze and food parcels. Help is needed urgently.

Break out the gin!

Edited By SillyOldDuffer on 10/07/2018 13:23:21

[not done it yetParticipant @notdoneityet]

Posted by RevStew on 11/09/2018 22:23:31:

Posted by SillyOldDuffer on 10/07/2018 13:11:47:

Posted by Hopper on 10/07/2018 09:15:47:

Blimey, that English sun must be something vicious. I'm glad we don't have anything like it over here in Australia. Never heard of any of these types of incidents happening here. Good thing too, or there would be fires and burnt carpets and exploding shaving cream tubes everywhere. I guess you guys will all be happy to see the rain return and you can all stand down from fire watch.

It's well known that we British are sensitive intellectuals as well as being better at sport, trade and war than all other nationalities. Unfortunately we have an Achilles' Heel – a few days sunshine warms our enormous brains and we all go cafard. The sand, the flies, the heat, mirages, having to prop our dead up on the battlements to discourage the dreaded Rif from attacking and finishing off the survivors. Will it never end? Send money, booze and food parcels. Help is needed urgently.

Break out the gin!

Edited By SillyOldDuffer on 10/07/2018 13:23:21

Not forgetting the hazards of a few wet leaves causing injury (or preventing trains running), a couple centimetres of snow causing extreme danger to car drivers. I suppose Australian bush fires are so common that they rarely cause injury, but over here the average population is rather more dense (read that in whichever way you please!).

As an aside, this post most certainly highlights the inability of some to reply as a separate posting – there are actually three posts in the quote – and Dave did not suggest breaking out the gin!

[DalboyParticipant @dalboy]

Posted by not done it yet on 10/07/2018 11:07:29:

Not engineering, but I knew someone who went in to bat with a box of Swan Vestas in his pocket. Retired hurt (temporarily, I think), after about three balls, with a singed thigh and burned whites, after the match box was crushed and set him on fire.

This bring back memories of my brother in law moving a cupboard up stairs for my mum and dad, he had a packet of swan vesta matched in his back pocket he slipped and they caught light.

Luckily they were at the bottom of the stairs and he was only three or four treads up. It was funny after the incident as he did the highland fling and him being Scottish.

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

I was washing my hands in a big hotel somewhere near Grantham, above the sink was a page from a Victorian newspaper which incuded a short stroy about a bottle of water in sunshine setting light to the curtains.

[davebParticipant @daveb17630]

Many years ago I was driving home and felt a strange sensation in the front of my jeans. A quick look revealed that they were on fire, not only on fire but the fire had consumedthe entire fly section and was working its way down my legs. I was a smoker at the time, I supposed a spark had ignited the cord jeans which smouldered away until I became aware. An Australian colleague commented that bush fires were common back home. Cord jeans were made of interesting material, biological washing powder caused it to disintegrate and it also made an excellent wick. I believe I narrowly avoided a SHC incident. I no longer smoke, smoulder or wear cord jeans. Daveb.

[Mike PooleParticipant @mikepoole82104]

A friend was using his wife’s mirror to shave while in the bath, when he got out he caught sight of his equipment in the curved side of the mirror, he was well impressed!

Mike

[Clive HartlandParticipant @clivehartland94829]

I used a rather rattly and shaky lawn mower and I did notice that the filler cap on the petrol tank seemed loose! Going along fine and I could see petrol splashing from the cap now and again. Then, suddenly a fire around the petrol cap, the spark plug being in close proximity to the cap had sparked a fire. A couple of quick handfu;ls of loose earth doused the fire and a quickly made sealing gasket for the petrol cap.

[Ian S CParticipant @iansc]

What was that old song, "Mad Dogs and English Men Go Out In the Midday Sun".

One night during my time as a nurse in a small country hospital, an assistant and I were laying out an expired patient, it was cold and silent, when all of a sudden there was an all mighty bang, we decided to go out and see what had happened. Not far away was an old oil drum used for burning rubbish in, and someone had put an aerosol can that had had shaving soap in it, and this had exploded, by the time we got out there were clouds of soap bubbles, but big bangs like that at midnight in a quiet rural area do give you a bit of a shake up.

Ian S C

[Howard LewisParticipant @howardlewis46836]

A while ago, I read of an incident with a bench grinder. The owner's son had used it to grind some wood (No comment!) but when owner used it there was a "whoosh" as the sparks from the metal set off the wood dust.

At school, we were warned of the risk of solvent vapours, such as ether, rolling along the bench from point of use to where there was a naked flame, with predictable consequences.

One of the dangers in a Flour Mill, is that of the dust exploding, (flour is a hydrocarbon, cellulose, so if mixed in the right proportions with air, becomes an explosive mixture)

At various times, experiments have been carried out to run a diesel engine on pulverised coal, working on just that premise. (Thought to be possibility for large main propulsion marine engines) Not too long ago, one of the U S A Railroads tried injecting coal slurry instead of gas oil to run the engines in locos. The problem was the abrasion of the parts of the injection system, (pumps, fuel lines and injectors).

And, given the right conditions, an internal combustion engine can suffer a crankcase explosion, with dramatic, if not lethal, results. One of my former bosses told of crankcase doors weighing 50kg or more being thrown across the shop!

Surprising easy to set oneself, or the surroundings alight, unintentionally.

Howard

[Clive HartlandParticipant @clivehartland94829]

I remember that acertain Custard powder maker had an explosion with custard powder in South London. You could see the factory by Southern railway line as you left London.

[Brian GParticipant @briang]

I was told that the demonstration firings of HMS Cavalier's guns are carried out with custard powder (I assume there is an oxidiser as well, but nobody mentioned that).

Timely, as Chatham Dockyard's "Salute to the 40s" continues today.

Brian

[not done it yetParticipant @notdoneityet]

Back in 1973/4, the top sectionof the Maxwell House factory in Banbury was considerably damaged by a corn flour explosion. A hopper at the top of the building was overfilled and the elevator spewed custard powder around. The building footprint was somewhat enlargened at that level!

All horizontal collection points in coal milling facilities used to be covered with piles of inert material, so coal dust would not settle, in large amounts, in the roof space. The idea was that should there be a localised explosion, the shockwave would not release large clouds of coal dust, possibly triggering a more widespread secondary explosion.

Coal mines placed large amounts of limestone dust in the upper sections of tunnels (particularly at both ends of the cutting face) in order that it would be disturbed by any explosion shockwave and fall down, thereby snuffing out the flame front to protect the tunnels and people beyond. That was, of course, in addition to always spraying water on the cutters removing material from the face seam.

[Ian S CParticipant @iansc]

During WW2 Germany experimented with pulverised coal to power gas turbines for aircraft use.

The local sawmill fires it's boilers with pulverised coal.

Ian S C

[john fletcher 1Participant @johnfletcher1]

About 55 years ago I was a visitor to Ollerton Colliery and all the way along the tunnel workings was split open paper sacks of lime dust, on the floor. There was length of wood about a foot wide suspended at right angles to the tunnel filled / stacked up with lime dust. Dangling below the wood was a sort of string curtain thing. On enquiring, I was told if there was an rapid movement of air the planks would tipple over and fill the air with lime dust preventing a serious explosion.It was certainly dusty when walking along, I was impressed when I saw a wall of coal fall onto the conveyor belt and when some of pit props were removed. Not any more though, all gone, just distribution centres.. John

[Fowlers FuryParticipant @fowlersfury]

Howard Lewis' posting "..incident with..bench grinder…..used.to grind..wood…sparks from the metal set off the wood dust."
Maybe a reminder about that other warning re. fire hazards in the workshop with a linisher?
I witnessed a small yet severe fire where aluminum particles were ignited and the burn was hard to extinguish.
If you've used aluminium on your linisher, never use it then for steel before a good clean-up. Thermit process??

[DalboyParticipant @dalboy]

Posted by Fowlers Fury on 16/09/2018 12:40:12:

If you've used aluminium on your linisher, never use it then for steel before a good clean-up. Thermit process??

Not seen this happen but do know of the dangers. I don't put ali near my grinder for this reason, plus I find it clogs up the wheels so easily as well as the fact I sharpen HSS tools on it very often

[davebParticipant @daveb17630]

Posted by Brian G on 16/09/2018 07:48:25:

I was told that the demonstration firings of HMS Cavalier's guns are carried out with custard powder (I assume there is an oxidiser as well, but nobody mentioned that).

Timely, as Chatham Dockyard's "Salute to the 40s" continues today.

Brian

Top it up with jelly and our navy would would give the enemy their just desserts.

[Howard LewisParticipant @howardlewis46836]

daveb

Don't trifle with such matters!

Howard

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