Posted on 04/02/2014 7:16:14 PM PDT by fso301
Relax, I know what I’m . . .
About a year ago an expert Civil War collector was killed in Virginia.
He was trying to defuse some kind of ordnance, but I can’t recall what kind.
There weren’t that many things that blew up in the Civil War, were there?
A few mortars, a few artillery shells, mines maybe?
Here is a video of bomb squad guy in Thailand using an old truck tire to contain the explosion as he pokes the bomb with a long pole!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRWVAXf0rhs
LOL! Get er done Dumrong.
EOD was called and, after much consultation, carefully neutralized the solution that was nearly three feet deep on the bunker's floor. Heat was a major byproduct of the neutralization process. Extra care was taken to prevent a fire from starting as result of the neutralization process.
Had a fire started, the smoke would have been contaminated with liquid mustard gas compounds and the casualty threat to the local population dramatically increased. Neutralization was completed, but what to do about all that liquid in the bottom of the bunker? The decision was to reseal the bunker and permanently cordon off the site (including the bunker itself). This contaminated area (and its bunker) remain a 'no go' zone to this day.
They have rednecks in Bangkok? Whodathunkit!
Wow! I expected the video would end with them discovering that the package was harmless and contained a nice present that had been ruined. Wasn't expecting a real bomb.
I remember that. There were a few FR threads about it.
I wasn’t expecting him to Chuck it. Why didn’t he poke it some more?
He wasn’t drunk enough, but it still blowed up real good.
Wanna bet they hammered on it a while before Bubba suggest he use his blow torch on it? Here, hold my sake.
His name was Sam White. I knew him for years.
Part of his CW relic business was deactivating (defusing is not an accurate term for what he did) excavated Civil War ordnance. He probably had deactivated thousands of shells over the years without incident.
Nobody knows for sure exactly what happened on the day he was killed but I surmise that he may have been drilling a shell that possibly was an experimental type (two powder cavities instead of one) and after drilling one hole successfully and supposedly neutralizing the black powder, he drilled the second hole (normally the safe one) with a hand drill and broke through into a dry intact second charge, detonating it.
There are still huge numbers of unexplored shells in Flanders. Occasionally some poor farmer hits one
Civil war artillery shells were actually fused bombs in many cases. Firing the cannon also lit the fuse which if timed right caused the round to explode on or near the target
Naturally there were many duds and the guy in Virginia tinkered with one
“You drew the short straw, Kwon! YOU use the torch, while we stand safely six feet away and watch.”
He actually claimed, on his web page, to have defused more than 500 pieces of Civil War ordnance.
Either he was boasting, or his luck ran out.
reclaiming the metal and filler from the ‘American War’leftovers is a way of life for some folks.
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