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I Forge Iron

Wreck Wrought Iron?


ThomasPowers

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So how many of you saw that video clip of the 1918 wreck above Niagara Falls and started to wonder how much real wrought iron might be in it?

Note how much of it is left  after 101 years of exposure to a lot of moisture. 

I was trying to dig up when it was built; but all they mention was when it was wrecked. One article kept mentioning that it was "steel" but I don't think the author even knows the difference... I do know that real wrought iron was once preferentially used for ship/boat construction due to it's resistance to corrosion. Just like the water tank at the old Ohio State Penitentiary in Columbus was wrought iron  and the structure holding it was steel when it was built in 1929.

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The wrecked scow is near the Canadian falls.

You may have luck contacting Parks Canada, Transport Canada (Federal), or the Niagara Parks Commission, etc. etc.   for some information.

Also,  maybe, the Canadian "Receiver of wreck". (federal).

I think the Niagara Falls Commission just allows the derelict scow to remain,  as a  tourist, curiosity,  an added attraction. 

The Canadian armed forces could have easily reduced it to pieces, using demolition charges, ages ago.

There is no danger to navigation as the lower Niagara river is not navigable for several miles downstream of the,  aforesaid, falls.

(with the sole exception of the "maid of the mist" tourist boat).

SLAG

I,  the SLAG,  just had a thought, namely,  some insurance company may still have a valid proprietary,  (property),  interest in the wreck. Finding that interest could be challenging.

p.s.  Mr. R. Griffin, you have my vote,  too.

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But Slag; I was going to ask you to disguise yourself as the Loch  Ness monster and swim out to it towing a cutting torch...And before you get riled up; may I point out to you that *nobody* disguised as the Loch Ness Monster has ever been swept over the falls!

I was wondering what they were going to do with the stuff if it does get washed over the falls.  Probably they won't want a navigational danger for the Maid of the Mist.

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Mr. T. Powers,

It is rumored on good authority that the said Loch Ness Monster is a distant sept of the SLAG clan, (a stellar member in good standing, no less).

Indeed, many clan members are certified P.A.D.I. scuba divers,  ( a few more distant stalwarts are NAUI certified), and underwater demolition trained.

As John,  the JHCC savant,  has cogently pointed out,  the Horseshoe fall's plunge pool is deep and replete with Lockport dolomite, and Vishnu Schist detritus.

Not a propitious environment for a salvage operation.

SLAG Industries PLC. is not presently, interested in conducting such a salvage operation for the wrought iron of the said barge wreck.

Should you,  Mr. Powers, and your esteemed colleagues wish to undertake such an operation,  we wish you the greatest success and good fortune.

You may be able to carry out such a salvage operation before the barge takes the plunge.

Regards,

SLAG

p.s. your outing of Nessie was telling.

 

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Most people don't know that SCUBA actually dates to the American Revolution: Some Colonists Undermined British Authority.

Although there are scholars who maintain that it documents developments in early Mesopotamian writing: Somehow, Cuneiform Underwent Babylonian Adaptations.

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Verne envisioned hydrogen as a power source in The Mysterious Island almost a century and a half ago: 

Quote

Yes, my friends, I believe that water will one day be employed as fuel, that hydrogen and oxygen which constitute it, used singly or together, will furnish an inexhaustible source of heat and light, of an intensity of which coal is not capable. Some day the coalrooms of steamers and the tenders of locomotives will, instead of coal, be stored with these two condensed gases, which will burn in the furnaces with enormous calorific power. There is, therefore, nothing to fear. As long as the earth is inhabited it will supply the wants of its inhabitants, and there will be no want of either light or heat as long as the productions of the vegetable, mineral or animal kingdoms do not fail us. I believe, then, that when the deposits of coal are exhausted we shall heat and warm ourselves with water. Water will be the coal of the future!

Anyone interested in experimenting with a hydrogen-powered forge? Someone Could Underwrite Blacksmithing's Apotheosis!

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T.P.,

It is true that Jacques Cousteau invented SCUBA equipment during the middle of the French occupation during the second world war. (I,e., the development of the demand valve).

He devised it right under the noses of the Nazis, who were feverously trying to invent such a device for underwater sabotage. They failed.

But all of his inventions had been devised, patented, published, and disclosed during the middle of the eighteen sixties. For some reason they were forgotten, allowing Monsieur Cousteau to reinvent same.

Mr. JHCC, a hydrogen forge sounds like a capital idea.  But there is potentially one possible difficulty. When hydrogen burns it results in water. But that difficulty should not prove insurmountable.

Let us,  all, citizens return to blacksmithing. 

Methinks Mr. Glenn may be getting a might testy.

SLAG.

 

 

 

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Hydrocarbon fuels such as gasoline, methane and propane all produce water as a byproduct. We concentrate on carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide but that’s only 1/2 of the molecule. The hydrogen combines with oxygen and forms water. Now as to internal combustion it’s a good thing as water vapor expands more than the carbon molecules with heat making higher pressures. This is why water injection works. 

In free air hydrogen burns about a 1/3 the temp of propane  it burns about 1/3 hotter at the best air fuel mixture tho. 

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Actually I believe that a hydrogen gas fueled forge has one major disadvantage and that is not being able to see the flame, (search on: hydrogen leaks and the broom method).

I was looking into a hydrogen fusion powered forge; but decided we had too many days of strong winds to make a cheap system that would work well. I do use hydrogen fusion for preheating stock and heating my house though.

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14 minutes ago, ThomasPowers said:

a hydrogen gas fueled forge has one major disadvantage and that is not being able to see the flame, 

Yes that would be very problematic.

But the savants at SLAG Industries LLC. have contrived*  a ready answer for this problem.

Use more food coloring.

SLAG.

* very contrived?

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