Maybe I should do that next time I have to deal with an angry propane customer. I know that I'm still trying to figure out how to be assertive enough with customers that they don't try to walk all over me without also sounding argumentative and losing business. The saying "the customer is always right" doesn't apply when you're working with hazardous/explosive materials (not that I imagine that anyone would want it to if they think about it for a moment). When I was going through my propane training, I learned that propane is very safe when it's handled properly...the operative words here being handled properly. Outside of that, you're screwed. Every time that I go out to fill a tank, I have to make sure that they sign an acknowledgement that they know propane can burn or blow up if they're not taking care of it and hand them a pamphlet detailing propane usage and safety, and when I have to reject a tank, I try to explain why it is that I can't fill it and how I am determining that. Also, I know that most every propane cylinder is required to have an OPD (Overfill Prevention Device) installed, which is a very good thing to have. I think every tank manufactured these days has one, but there are some older tanks that don't. Those tanks we will not fill. I looked up acetylene tanks after you mentioned them. My goodness, I would not want to work with those.
One friend of mine disposed of a bunch of old propane tanks when the required valves changed and it was cheaper to buy new tanks than replace the valves, probably 20 years ago now. Lit a bigass bonfire and sat back about 300m with a big rifle, shot the tanks when they had swelled up like balloons. Biiiiiiig kaboom. BLEVE times fuel-air explosion. New tanks straight from Norco or whoever are fine. A tank in the back of a farmer's truck, hell no, give that back to Norco and let them refill it (or destroy it, whichever). But leaky pressure regulators will be the death of me, I about had a heart attack when a friend of mine invited me into his art metals lab. Lots of small oxy-acetylene rigs there, and one bottle was showing over 15psi on the regulator (when it should be showing 0psi not in use). Pucker factor was over 9000, and the three other people in the room were amazed that I'd noticed the pressure, not to mention freaked out about it. Shouldn't have been a large explosion even if it did go up, but I like my explosions at least 100yards away and/or contained inside a firearm pointed away from me, thankyouverymuch. "Oh, yeah, that regulator leaks past..." totally unconcerned :facepalm:
Possibly, but I don't know what you mean by "bastard gas." Can you elaborate please? EDIT: After a quick search on butane vs. propane, I would say yes, simply because propane is easier to work with and can be used for more things.
That reminds me of an event during my brief stint as a biology student. We had autoclaves in that were supposed to be automatic. Well, the first time we used them one of them went to the 1,5 Bar (20 sth. PSI) it should have and then simply kept going. I noticed when it was at 3 Bar, pulled the plug and stood behind something solid. A few months later one of these autoclaves was apparently mishandled and showered a group of students with agar medium. Other assorted lab/biology wtfs: - When built, the fans for the lab were placed the wrong way blowing in dirt from outside and leading to weird marks on the ceiling - chemistry department had a surprising amount of stuff labelled "Made in West Germany" and the occasional "Made in East Germany" - I will never understand the fascination microbiologists have with fermentation devices
At work we have a test site for doing (amongst many other things) gas explosions ... That is not a big kaboom... We have done BLEVEs of the road tankers that take gas to your gas station... I would not want to be 300m from those ;) (occasionally these are bigger than expected and we have the neighbours (several miles away) call the fire brigade causing all the firetrucks from 5 nearby villages to turn up at site.)
In April of 1990, a small explosion made the news here. I was a few suburbs away from it (maybe 5-6km). There was an earth-shattering kaboom (similar to that of a Q-36 illudium space modulator) that "split the night" and rattled the brick walls AND the windows and a glow that lit up the sky near the airport. (We lived under the main landing and approach path for that airport). Ordinarily, during that time of night, we'd have 4-5 big jets an hour flying overhead. It was remarkably silent (ish) for the rest of that night. Boral didn't run a night shift at that time. Liquid petroleum gas explosion outside Sydney ONE OF the largest non-atomic explosions ever experienced in Australia rocked a liquid petroleum gas storage depot not far from Sydney’s Mascot International Airport in the early hours of Monday morning. A series of explosions in the depot, owned by Boral Industries, triggered an enormous blast in a 60 000-litre gas container, throwing it more than 150 metres into a nearby canal. The intense heat from the explosions and fires charred adjacent containers of equal size, but safety valves vented vaporising gas to burn safely in the atmosphere. Emergency personnel evacuated residents within a 3-kilometre radius of the depot before the main explosion. The depot, directly beneath the flight path to Australia’s busiest airport, was severely damaged but no one was killed or injured because the facility was deserted at the time. - New Scientist, April 1990 The blast didn't just throw the tank 150m into the nearby canal, but it put it THROUGH the fence first.
King of the Hill reference, the main character Hank Hill sells propane (and propane accessories), and does not have a high opinion of Butane :)
Well, big kaboom if you're doing things on a non-industrial scale, but point taken. Biggest kaboom I have ever seen was a video of someone detonating some 170 tons of explosives in Iraq. It swept the clouds out of the sky. Second biggest kaboom I've seen was also a video, but was decommissioning Trident missile engines. The difference between a solid rocket and high explosive is the amount of stuff burning. A Trident II first stage engine left a crater about 300 feet in diameter and 50 feet deep in desert hardpan. Safe distance was ~1600m, there was a five second delay from seeing the flash as the rocket went up to hearing the boom, you could see the shockwave knocking the dust up across the ground.
Same happened to one of my friends, although occasionally it was spiced with the opposite flavour, when company would not pay for a flight and provide a railroad ticket instead despite the whole trip taking 2+ days more as a result. I think it has eventually ended when he managed to provide a proper justification for his demands of both additional transportation expenses and his time in-travel (which counts towards working days) being covered by the company. Reading stories you post from time to time, I must say you folks really have an interesting way to approach things. Re: gas and stuff. The biggest WTF moment associated with it I remember happened on one of our central pipelines. I'm not sure what caused that initially, but pressure loss (from initial what I believe to be around 60-80 atmospheres, so 900-1100-something psi for those who prefer that) was fast enough to significantly decrease temperatures in the section so that condensate froze stop valves on both adjacent control points solid, resulting in what was probably the most bright and prolonged fireworks seance that location saw. I have no idea why it took so long for next control points in line to register pressure loss and close their valves, or why has dispatcher failed to do the same manually. Frankly, it looks so outrageous now that I'm writing this, I'm starting to ask myself questions. Like, were some of those control points not automated at the time (those that happened to be adjacent ones had to be, otherwise I wouldn't even know this all happened)? Am I misremembering something (a lot)? They said the ground around was basically a solid brick a couple km wide by the time the pipeline was stopped...
Where I live, the weather only has two ways to go right now: either ridiculously hot for Colorado (lately we've been getting highs in the high 90's to low 100's) or stormy and rainy. There is no in between, and I'm not a huge fan of either extreme heat or rain. It reminds me of a schoolmate that I had who says that Colorado weather is bipolar.
Currently 90 Failenheit AND thunderstorms for me. Which means the staff in the annexe are complaining about loss of network, stupid microwave links...
Well, the dude was a Vietnam vet, so he has a pretty good appreciation for 'minimum safe distance'. Not to mention that he was a combat medic, so even if a tank did throw fragments out to reach them, there was a good chance of them surviving it. *Shudder* That's how we lost USS Thresher. The emergency main ballast tank blow valves hold 4500psi (yes, 300bar) air, but if you don't slam them open nearly instantaneously, they will freeze solid. These are 90deg throw ball valves, by the way, not wimpy butterflies. Thresher didn't have grossly overpowered valve actuators. Submarines do, now, after another sub had her EMBT blow valves freeze up at the pier (intentional testing, to figure out what the hell went wrong on Thresher). ~2" diameter pistons, two of them, connected to 4500psi air, and geared to the valve shaft. They're double-action pistons, too, open and shut the valves. Dude, your entire state is bipolar. The ground is either flat in the Eastern half, or anything but flat in the western half.
Very, very true. You should see the differences in the way that Boulder/Denver dwellers live compared to the way rural Coloradans live; it's almost like we're not even from the same country. I have so much trouble understanding why Boulderites act the way they do, even though I had to commute there every day for 5 years and know the culture quite well. I will say, though, in regards to our very not flat western half, that it makes for some of the most stunning scenery in the entire country. Funnily enough, the mountains are a great way to orient yourself when traveling; all you have to do is ask if you need to go towards, parallel to, or away from the mountains to get where you want to go, at least if you live around the Denver-metro area.
It's too hot. Everything's, dying, on fire or melting. https://metro.co.uk/2018/07/06/now-roads-melting-record-heatwave-continues-7687904/
ITT: Brits incapable of survival without constant rain. Just evolve ways to retain moisture in your body like the rest of us.
Or my retired Mum & Dad taking a weekend trip away with their bikes, it'll be cats & dogs the entire time.
