1. Sally on March 10, 2010 9:42 AM writes...

I scrolled down carefully with a sense of shock, awe and tense anticipation... it's absolutely amazing that no one was killed during that escapade!

*speechless*

2. HelicalZz on March 10, 2010 9:46 AM writes...

Certainly nothing like this, but I once had the pressure release on a scuba tank go shortly after having it filled at a local shop. I was 16 at the time, driving on learners permit, had put the tank in the trunk and had just pulled onto the highway when the release let go and emptied the tank very very quickly.

Everything performed as it should have, and there were no problems, but needless to say I don't have those underwear anymore. So much respect for anything under pressure, whether inert or as scary as O2.

Zz

3. Hap on March 10, 2010 10:23 AM writes...

Does renters' insurance cover having your apartment shredded by a flying gas cylinder?

4. Anonymous on March 10, 2010 10:24 AM writes...

Haha #2. I had the same thing happen with a small CO2 tank (paintball) in the back seat of a car I was driving. Not quite the same pressure level as a scuba tank, but sufficiently loud to necessitate an underwear change for me as well.

5. ANON2 on March 10, 2010 10:44 AM writes...

When I was much younger I was at a welding shop and witnessed the result of someone handrolling a compressed gas cylinder without the cap. They broke the valve off and like the missile the cylinder went through a 12 inch block wall and embedded itself fully inside the cab of a pickup. Quite a sight and noise. No one was injured but the truck was totaled. Needless to say that made quite and impression and later when I became a lab manager I would go "ballistic" whenever I found an unrestrained cylinder or someone moving them without the cap.

6. stuff on March 10, 2010 11:19 AM writes...

While I was doing my PhD there was a fire in one of the other labs.

The firemen would not enter the lab because there was a hydrogen cylinder in there and instead fought the fire through the window. Everyone was evacuated to a very safe distance and from some adjacent buildings.

After the fire was out and things had cooled down, the inspectors entered the lab to find the hydrogen cylinder intact - it had been saved by the fire melting the lead that welded the waterpipes in the roof and water had run onto the cylinder continuously - keeping it cool.

Amazingly lucky.

7. RandDChemist on March 10, 2010 11:22 AM writes...

Thanks for the laughs in well-written and amusing summary of the incident.

These people should be expected to appear in a upcoming Darwin Award. Problem is with these sorts is that they usually take someone else with them. Hopefully they have not procreated.

The guardian angels worked overtime on this one. Wow.

8. RandDChemist on March 10, 2010 11:24 AM writes...

@ANON2

The Mythbusters covered a cylinder taking off pretty well.

9. Wavefunction on March 10, 2010 11:44 AM writes...

I think I just found proof that God exists.

10. milkshake on March 10, 2010 12:15 PM writes...

The likely reason why the Dewar was in junkyard was that the jacket could not hold vacuum. Their Dewar had no real insulation so it blew up promptly on the way back. A good Dewar that is welded shut usually blows up only after a day or two...

Two university chemists in Prague in 70s went to Neratovice chemical plant to get some vinyl chloride - they could not buy the stuff from West. So their friends opened a valve for them and they condensed the stuff into a household-sized thin-wall steel tank that was designed for storing butane - it had no safety release valve. On the way back, driving the tiny Skoda car, the guy on the passenger seat who was holding that thing between his legs observed: "Say, this tank is getting awfully warm - did they have their vinylchloride stabilized? Oh shit,its polymerizing!" By the time he managed to roll down the window the the tank was already so hot he could not hold it in his hands so he opened the door and kicked it out and that thing blew behind them as soon as it hit the pavement. It happened as they were driving through a small town, and sure enough there was a patrol car and it was on April 30 - the day before first May. The guys spent night in jail and were investigated by State security on suspicion of throwing the bomb to disrupt the May 1 communist parade.

11. Sili on March 10, 2010 1:28 PM writes...

Thanks, milkshake. I understand the calls for you to be co-author.

The Mythbusters did a cylinder, too? I've only seen the waterheater (as has my plumber brother-in-law).

Where do cowboys buy liquid oxygen? And what did they want it for in the first place? It's discomforting to realise that there are people who'll sell LOX just like that.

12. Sigivald on March 10, 2010 1:42 PM writes...

Sili: It's not like LOX is a *particularly* controlled substance... and from the report, they had direct access to the LOX dealer's filler equipment.

And these guys weren't literally cowboys; they did scrap metal cutting for a living (again according to the report).

I imagine they wanted LOX to boil off to plain ol' pressurized oxygen for running a torch. I'm not a welder, so I'd never heard of using LOX for that, but a search indicates that it's sometimes done.

13. J-bone on March 10, 2010 1:45 PM writes...

Milkshake, you have some of the best stories I've ever heard.

Sili, here's the Youtube of the Mythbusters experiment. They break the regulator off of an oxygen tank to see how good of a torpedo it makes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejEJGNLTo84

14. Sili on March 10, 2010 2:41 PM writes...

I do understand the casual meaning of cowboys. It just sounded a lot nicer than "utter nitwits".

Thanks for the clarification, though.

And thanks for the video, J-bone. Scare stuff.

15. Dave on March 10, 2010 3:53 PM writes...

I had a friend who operated a welding shop decades ago. He used Oxygen cylinders in a Oxy-Acetylene torch. One day, a pair of his employees were carrying a fresh Oxygen cylinder down the concrete steps into the shop, with the safety cap removed. Yep, they dropped it, and it hit the steps just so that the valve was sheared off. It flew across the shop, through a 6 inch reinforced concrete wall, and embedded itself into the soil beyond. After that, you'd never find another Oxygen cylinder being moved without the safety cap in his shop.

Dave

16. CMCguy on March 10, 2010 4:43 PM writes...

Mentions of Torpedo cylinders reminds me of Stanley Pine's presentation of the after affects of 1994(?) Earthquake on the Cal State Northridge Chem department. Lots of devastation from broken glassware and chemical bottles but if correctly recall it was several decapitated cylinder events that caused most damage. One picture showed total punch through a cider-block wall, could have even been two walls, before stopping. The result was massive CAL OSHA regulations in late 90's and early 2000s to earthquake proof labs that required significant effort (and those that saw Pine's lecture had great willingness). Ironically I believe was mandatory for industry to comply but schools/academic labs were not incorporated, although institutions of learning may have been added later/since.

17. joe bleau on March 10, 2010 7:25 PM writes...

I *really* wish someone would show this to the cops. I'm so sick and tired of seeing welders and construction trucks driving around with their oxyacetylene or high pressure inert gas cylinders uncapped, regulators flapping in the breeze at 70+ MPH on the highways. I'm not much for traffic enforcement, but seeing that daily scares me.

18. Jose on March 10, 2010 8:21 PM writes...

I, too, am shocked by how often I see uncapped cylinders rolling around highways. But then again, many people in my lab used to laugh at me for being so diligent about it....

The LOX tank was maybe being used for a thermal lance? That's pretty cowboy, I think. Beater pickup, beater LOX tank, and a thermal lance- yeeehaaa!

19. Bored on March 10, 2010 8:44 PM writes...

I was driving down I-75 in Florida just north of Lake City about 5 years ago. A welding company truck full of cylinders blew a tire in the right lane ahead of me. The truck swerved sharply to the right, causing 7 or 8 cylinders of acetylene to go flying down the interstate. Cars and 18-wheelers were running off the road, trying to avoid the cylinders, most of which were rolling merrily down the highway. After about 30 seconds, everyone and everything had come to a stop.

At this point, not one cylinder had gone off. So these two guys from the welding company start collecting the cylinders. One of them TOSSED a cylinder into the back of the truck, and it was at that point that the valve sheered off. There was a tremendous cloud of acetylene and water vapor, and we all witnessed the tank shoot off at a 45 degree angle into the palmetto scrub. Somehow, it didn't ignite. Then the guy who tossed the tank looked at the other guy from the welding company and shrugged his shoulders as if to say "what are you looking at me for?"

Definitely Darwin Award nominees.

20. milkshake on March 10, 2010 9:20 PM writes...

it was not water vapor what you saw - it was actually acetone. As acetylene is so highly endothermic, a tank of compressed pure acetylene would be a massive explosion hazard. Acetylene for welding hence comes stabilized by addition of acetone to make it less shock sensitive.

21. Jose on March 10, 2010 9:45 PM writes...

Somewhere I read a report about a LNG plant in Mexico where repairs were underway on an empty and flushed high pressure line. Sadly, this info was wrong, and a worker cut into a 900 psi pipeline with a cutting torch.

Many scary incidents here, but maybe not the one I was thinking of:

http://www.marshriskconsulting.com/Load/article_452602.pdf

22. wcw on March 11, 2010 1:07 AM writes...

A little off topic, but that is either "gegen die" or, in the original, "mit der" Dummheit.

23. befuddled on March 13, 2010 11:54 AM writes...

As much as I enjoy discussions of drug discovery, science policy, and the job market, it's this kind of thing that keeps me coming back here...

24. Ltw on March 16, 2010 10:13 PM writes...

Ouch. Massive amounts of stored potential energy demand respect whatever the form...I'm an engineer (industrial control) and a colleague of mine once witnessed a ten ton roller in a paper mill operating at a zillion revs come off its supports. It went through the factory like a battering ram, sheared straight through several 12 inch steel I-beams, crashed though a cinder block wall and demolished several cars in the carpark before finally coming to rest. Thankfully no casualties.

25. Ltw on March 16, 2010 10:26 PM writes...

Something else a little more on topic but that I'm so glad I wasn't there for - commissioning of a LOX plant at a zinc and lead smelter. The smelter wasn't ready to take the LOX flow so they were venting to atmosphere during the test runs, and despite the strict rules against smoking the French engineer was apparently chaining Gauloises while watching the run. Now I'm a heavy smoker but I have some sense of self preservation! Lighting up in an oxygen rich environment is a bit too much for me.
I spent a fair bit of time at that smelter subsequently, it was a safety disaster - they had a 10k gallon tank of sulphuric acid built on a wooden scaffold, sure enough one day the supports collapsed and a tidal wave of concentrated acid swept through the place...

26. Ltw on March 16, 2010 10:32 PM writes...

On the way back, driving the tiny Skoda car, the guy on the passenger seat who was holding that thing between his legs observed: "Say, this tank is getting awfully warm - did they have their vinylchloride stabilized? Oh shit,its polymerizing!"

Milkshake - now that makes me shudder - he was holding it between his legs? I have a little more respect for the boys than that...

27. Enrique on June 21, 2010 7:35 AM writes...

Back in the late sixties had a friend that got a job delivering for a local welding supply in Tucson. One day a chain came loose. Bottle fell off of truck broke off safety cap and neck. Result Torpedo that went two city blocks thru a cement block wall and into a swimming pool. Pure luck no one was hurt

28. Anne on July 2, 2010 10:53 PM writes...

Yes, you can just walk into a welding shop and buy LOX. I knew a guy who had a huge Dewar he used for glass-blowing. His torch was propane and (gaseous) oxygen; the only problem with the LOX tank was that if you got too many people working too much you'd run the pressure down and you'd have to wait for more heat to leak in.

In retrospect it's a slightly alarming situation, since by far the prime market for (artistic) glassblowers is bongs and pipes for smoking marijuana, and not too surprisingly, most of the glassblowers I knew were customers as well. Generally pretty harmless, but you really do want to be thinking clearly when working with a big tank of LOX...