exploding petrol tank

[68vitesse]

3 hours ago, Anglefire said:

 

Got in that night and my dad says, don’t fall off it and you could cut yourself and that will mean a trip to the hospital.
Next day what did I do?  Yes. Fall off it and cut my leg. Trip to the hospital and ended up with a tetanus jab and butterfly stitches. Which turned out to be a waste of time as they broke and now I have an inch long scar about 1/4” wide just north of my knee.  

Often thought that a lot off accidents occur when the person gets distracted by someone telling them to be careful.

Regards

Paul

[Anglefire]

Yeah, but he warned me the day before............. Think it was mostly stupidity and being cocky.

I did also jump off the roof of the old derelict pavilion - about 12' I'd guess and smacked my chin into my knee on landing. 

[Unkel Kunkel]

5 minutes ago, 68vitesse said:

Often thought that a lot off accidents occur when the person gets distracted by someone telling them to be careful.

Regards

Paul

I think you’ve got something there.

I have never once slipped on a wet floor but have tripped over and gone full length over those  blasted yellow “ caution -wet floor “ things  loads of times.

[poppyman]

4 hours ago, Anglefire said:

Not explosions or anything of that nature, but when I was about 9 or 10 our house backed on to a large field. (Now a housing estate - another story)

 In said field was an oil drum which me and my mate spent a happy day standing on and rolling it around the field. 
Got in that night and my dad says, don’t fall off it and you could cut yourself and that will mean a trip to the hospital.
Next day what did I do?  Yes. Fall off it and cut my leg. Trip to the hospital and ended up with a tetanus jab and butterfly stitches. Which turned out to be a waste of time as they broke and now I have an inch long scar about 1/4” wide just north of my knee.  

The dreaded oil drum, i had forgotten about that. As early teens four of were doing the same one bonfire night when said oil drum rolled  onto the remains of a very large bonfire. We tried to get it off with sticks ect, When we herd "dong" and dent popped out.... One of us shouted run so we did. Next minute massive explosion which knocked us all flat and we saw the 45gln drum heading skywards at an angle. We were up and running within seconds and a few minutes later increased our pace as we heard sirens......We were scared stiff for a couple of weeks, but despite looking at the local papers we never found out where the  drum had landed or if it had damaged anything. We never went near an oil drum again god knows what had been in it as it was empty when we found it.

Tony.

[JohnD]

Where I used to go sailing was a boat yard.   While I wasn't there (Honest, officer!) it caught fire and exploded an acetylene welding cylinder.

I heard later about the fire and explosion and went to gawp.    The cylinder was still there - it could have landed in the next county - but had split from top to bottom, precisely along the top side, so the reaction had collapsed the trolley it was on and pushed it into the ground!

[PeterH]

We blew up a lead acid battery at work once - by accident. It was on charge on an electric sack-truck when one of our guys using an angle grinder sent sparks over it. That made quite a bang and wrecked the battery.

 

On the subject of school pranks my father used to tell of the one they did in the chemistry lab. All the Bunsen burners were fed by a pipe running the length of the bench. If you were the first in line and blew into your unlit burner your breath would put all the others out. 

[PeteH]

Had a short tenure as a Millwright in Hull , The driver delivering us some weld gas inadvertantly dropped the cylinder off the truck. it fell and ruptured the Valve neck. Went off like a rocket, through the wall of the workshop, just missed the turner working on the Lathe, buried itself in the wall of the Boiler house next door!.  Brown trousers all round!.

In later life, I examined pressure vessels. On my “induction” one of the sessions focused on dangerous occurrences (and the why). One that focused the mind, a bit, was an explosion in one of the Locomotive workshops. A long building where all the fitters benches where ranged down the one wall. At the end of which was a cage having an antiquated old air compressor in it. This particular failure was quite spectacular, the relief valve having jambed the pressure switch had welded closed, so the old compressor just kept pumping!. Something had to give!. When the end of the cylinder ruptured the remaining cylinder carried torpedo like, taking out all the benches and half way through the wall at the other end of the Engine shed.

On examination of the cylinder it was “discovered” that it had originally been vertically mounted, for many years, but had been laid horizontal as being more convenient. The rupture had occurred where the corrosion band at the “base” was from it's years of vertical use, the weakest spot.

Pete

[NonMember]

49 minutes ago, PeteH said:

On examination of the cylinder it was “discovered” that it had originally been vertically mounted, for many years, but had been laid horizontal as being more convenient. The rupture had occurred where the corrosion band at the “base” was from it's years of vertical use, the weakest spot.

Had it still been vertically mounted when the failure occurred, it would have launched skyward and come down with a crash some distance away. Plenty of scope for "collateral damage"!

[JohnD]

There's a scene in one of the"TRansporter" films, where Jason Statham escapes a situation by riding a gas cylinder, whose neck he has chopped off!

Can't find the scene online, anyone?

John

[Anglefire]

One of my dads friends (both school teachers ) had his schools workshops burn down. - was arson by a disgruntled ex pupil - he got called out by the fire brigade. On arrival he asked if they had got the gas bottles out - they hadnt - but went in to pull them out.  They sat in water for several days cooling down apparently. 
 

Another result of the fire - was the brass locks in some of the doors melted as did the aluminium windows. 
 

one positive result was that he designed the replacement exactly how he wanted it 😂

[mark powell]

I have been watching a re-run of Fred Dibnahs jaunt around Yorkshire with his traction engine. He visited another owner where they had suffered a devastating workshop fire. The showmans engine that had been inside was reduced to it's steel components, all the brass had melted.  They were a few years into a rebuild.

[Qu1ckn1ck]

De-greasing an engine block with petrol on a cold day in the garage with a small fan heater on.  Found myself on the wrong end of a flame-thrower !

Nearly proved Darwin's Theory .....

 

[JohnD]

16 hours ago, Anglefire said:

One positive result was that he designed the replacement exactly how he wanted it 😂

That must have been a LONG time ago!

I joined my old hospital Department at the beginning of the 80s.     The new surgical block was being planned and was completed at the end of the decade(!).     At the invitation of the builders, we had spent hours, planning the layout of the anaesthesia rooms, next to each operating theatre, avoiding all the hold ups and glitches that the standard plan had left.   Which side of the room for cupboards, worksurfaces power points and pipeline outlets.  Eventually we were invited to don hard hats and se the interior of the new building - the rooms were exactly as on the original plans.    No changes at all.

John

[Pete Lewis]

while some miles  down Pendine beach the kids dug up a bomb

  ( there is a testing site alongside the beach )

  sort of Mum weve found a bomb,  go and play im making lunch    ....but   look Dad 

 OMG  a 5" Mortar shiney  and new 

so drive 3 miles back to the phone , after an hour along comes Captain Chaos and a Civvy

looks at tyre tracks and says that guy was luck ...they were mine  missed it by a few inches 

heck say's Chaos  thats a new one  and carefully pairs away the sand , my son says its ok wever pulled it out 

now that wasnt the best answer,

anyway cleared the beach for a mile , lovers extracated from the sand dunes and lots of people watching  ...whats going on     BANG as they blew it up     well that cleared the beach

i got 2s   (10p) for the phone call 

i still have the large tail fin which we retrieved  from a ruddy big hole 

 

[JohnD]

I used to go and medic for a local stage rally, held on Army land.      As usual, I pulled onto the grass alongside the first marshall post and got out the coffee things.  Always share with the marshaals - they have better homemade biscuits!    

Having had the coffee, I needed to, er, unload, so strolled out onto the grass area where a small copse provided camoflage.   On returning, I found shiny metal cylinder, with fins, a foot ahead of my right front tyre!   I hadn't seen it in the grass!     "Medic to Control!    Whats the routine for a bomb?"      The stage was halted so the Range Warden could come in - he peered at it cautiously from around my car, walked up to take a closer look and then kicked it away!    "Used smoke round, Doc!  Carry on!"   Phew!

[Steve P]

When i was sixteen i  had a fried a couple of years older who was into Mini`s,he built his own engines.

He had a 45 gallon drum in the workshop which he sat Mini engines on to wash with thinners,said thinners collected in the drum.

One day his dad and him were in the garage welding something,the drum of thinners went up killing both of them,the father was blown in half.

Only daft thing i remember growing up was me and my older brother and a couple of mates playing war games with .22 air pistols in mums back garden.I still have both eyes.

S

[Pete Lewis]

I found an old rusty small starting /blank firing pistol in my grandads old garage 

i  knew my dad had a box of air gun pellets ( no idea why) and there were some old blanks in there  well as kids ..they fit 

we cut the smoke holes off the barrel and loaded a few bicycle ball bearings 

put gun in  friends a bench vice  in a garage and tied string to the trigger hide outside and  BANG 

the give away was a big hole in the asbestos sheet wall panel 

mates dad was again not impressed 

(we are not amused seemed to follow us about ) 

Pete

 

[Anglefire]

4 hours ago, JohnD said:

That must have been a LONG time ago!

Yeah I would think so - he has been retired for a good while - and as all technical stuff, like woodwork, metalwork and TD is all computerised - or seems to be - then yes must be many a year - 20 I would think

[PeteH]

6 hours ago, mark powell said:

I have been watching a re-run of Fred Dibnahs jaunt around Yorkshire with his traction engine.

The stories about Fred are "legend". I spent a whole night at a "gentlemans" Dinner, In Didsbury during a Seminar on the (then) upcoming "Pressure Vessel Regulations". Conversing with the Surveyor who had had the (doubtfull?)  job of overseeing the refurbishment of Fred`s Engine. The trick`s the old Bugger tried to get the boiler passed for being Steamed, where head shaking. "No Fred, welding over the Tube Plate to replace wasted steel is not acceptable" , was one of the lesser one`s. "Those tubes should be solid drawn, not rolled/welded" was another. "welding the tube ends to seal leaks?" Err? No! not on this type of boiler.

Pete

[GrahamB]

A little known explosive is pork scratchings.

Many years ago I worked in the HSE laboratories  and were informed of accidents from the factory inspectorate.  The cooked pork skin was dipped in liquid nitrogen to make it brittle before grinding into the small pieces.  Unfortunately on this day, the liquid nitrogen had been left to stand in contact to the air.  As liquid nitrogen is colder than liquid oxygen, this allows oxygen to be condensed out of the air so that the liquified gases becomes enriched with oxygen.  After dipping, the oxygen enriched pork fat, high in calories and hence energy, was into fed into the grinder which subsequently exploded, unfortunately killing one of the operators.

Danger abounds when you deviate from your usual procedures;  "I can weld a repair panel onto a wing so why can I not weld a patch onto a petrol tank?"

We also received frequent reports about gas cylinders flying through walls after being dropped on their valves.

Graham

[Colin Lindsay]

1 hour ago, gbostock said:

We also received frequent reports about gas cylinders flying through walls after being dropped on their valves.

Graham

We used to have them flying through the air, in numerous locations over here... made a huge bang when they came down too which was quite often in the wrong place.

[JohnD]

If we recall Fred Dibnah in a thread about bangs, when he largely managed to avoid them, we should remember Blaster Bates, who caused more than we've had hot dinners!

He acquired his skill with explosives in bomb disposal - "I've got a touch like a bloody midwife!"

If you want more find his eight LPs of reminiscences!

 

[PeteH]

6 hours ago, JohnD said:

If we recall Fred Dibnah in a thread about bangs, when he largely managed to avoid them, we should remember Blaster Bates, who caused more than we've had hot dinners!

He acquired his skill with explosives in bomb disposal - "I've got a touch like a bloody midwife!"

If you want more find his eight LPs of reminiscences!

 

Including the Classic. "shit over several counties". When he was demolishing part of a sewage works?.

Pete

[Peter Truman]

We used to have a Rally driver here in Aus called "Gelignite Jack", his forte was obviously blowing obstacles up.  He used to compete in the Redex Round Australia Rally and if I remember correctly the 68 London to Sydney Marathon! Nowerdays he would end up in clink!

[Unkel Kunkel]

5 hours ago, Peter Truman said:

We used to have a Rally driver here in Aus called "Gelignite Jack", his forte was obviously blowing obstacles up.  He used to compete in the Redex Round Australia Rally and if I remember correctly the 68 London to Sydney Marathon! Nowerdays he would end up in clink!

Some  wild folk associated with racing.

In the 1920-1940s a  volatile  Yorkshireman TT racer  called Freddie Dixon used to regularly have to spend his prize money on the repairs to  any unfortunate hotel that hosted his post race parties.

The “ explosion “ connection..The Belgian Grand Prix of 1923 was sponsored by the  FN manufacturing company, which as you probably know makes  ... guns.

Apart from the prize money, the company gave  podium winners each  FN pistols and a quantity of ammunition...

Clearly not the best thing for Freddie to have.In celebration mood he proceeded to “loose off” many rounds into the hotel bar ceiling and ornaments causing  panic and considerable damage.

In the 1930’s he was stopped by  the police on suspicion of drink driving.

A scuffle broke out. Reinforcements were called.The fight continued until he was eventually subdued.

He got 3 months - with hard labour.