Bad Youtube info: medieval weaponry.

[Scott NC]

  At the old bean plant I worked at, everytime the plant would break down (it didn't run very well...) the boiler would blast a huge cloud of steam at the front office with a horrendous roar.  It was a grandfathered in dangerous piece of junk.  They tried to update it with electronics but you still had to stand there and cycle it manually until the mill was up.  For hours and hours...  

[ThomasPowers]

So how many #2 cans did it take for the steamed Office Staff?

[Scott NC]

  They were hardened to it I think.  The whole operation relied on hexane and its vapors.  A boiler explosion would have been small potato's compared to the hole in the ground a spark in the wrong place would produce. Of course a boiler "problem" probably would produce a spark.

[ThomasPowers]

Columbus OH used to have a hydrogenation plant fairly close to downtown, (It actually was at one of the old anvil makers sites in Columbus!)  I guess somebody finally noticed what size crater it would make if it ever went up and it got "moved" outside the heavily populated area...

[SinDoc]

Just outside Marysville is the Scotts Lawn plant. I am not too sure what exactly they produce in that plant, but I know one thing is fertilizer, which means lots of ammonium nitrate. Train loads of it.

When the plant in Texas exploded I think around 6-8 years ago, they had a fraction of the amount of material the Scotts plant has. My father in law works there and said after that plant went boom, their entire plant was shutdown for a mandatory safety meeting. 

I am told by my father in law and others that the plant has enough ammonium nitrate to turn that side of Marysville into a crater and the shockwave would likely shatter windows in Dublin/Hillard which is roughly 10 some miles away.

When I worked in Delaware, I dealt with PPG a lot and at that plant they made paint for cars. I never went into the plant proper because I was told they have chemicals that would kill you before you even realized you were breathing them. One of the main engineers I worked with said if that plant would explode, it would take the entirety of the city of Delaware with it.

Terrifying stuff.

For comparison, the more recent explosion that happened last year oversees at that port (India I think?) was caused by ammonium nitrate, and they did not have close to the same quantities that a fertilizer plant has on hand.

[JHCC]

Beirut. 

[Scott NC]

Those places will make you think about giving up smoking.  At least at work. 

[Frosty]

Or give up work. How about Texas City Texas? (1947 IIRC)

Frosty The Lucky.

[ThomasPowers]

Of course there was the Halifax explosion in 1917...

[George N. M.]

Or the Bombay explosion of 1944.

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

[Daswulf]

Aside from explosions, how bad would it be to go in a molasses flood that happened in 1919. 

[Scott NC]

  Probably no worse than getting hit by the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs in the Yucatán Peninsula.  

[Frosty]

Sweeter fate than being poisoned in the blue green algae extinction. Darned oxygen breathers, there goes the planet!

Frosty The Lucky.

[M.J.Lampert]

11 hours ago, SinDoc said:

Being in my line of work, I have a love/hate relationship with architects/engineers. Mostly hate at this point 

haha that's how I feel when I need to cut stuff in the fab shop I'm at. 58* and 32*, why cant people make them 60 and 30???

I myself don't know maybe someone can tell me ? please??

M.J.Lampert

[SLAG]

Two very notable ammonia nitrate explosions, in the past,   were,

1)  Opau explosion at a BASF plant in Opau, Germany, September 21, 1921That blast killed 561 people.

And,

2) Texas City, April, 16, 1947  which killed 581 people.

After the latter blast ,   ANFO*  was seriously studied as a 'safe' cheap industrial explosive. The cost was so low that nitrated explosives, were quickly eclipsed, and mostly driven out of the blasting market.

Accidental ANFO  explosions are unfortunately fairly common.

Try,

List of ammonium nitrate disasters - Wikipedia

For a list of many of them.

Regards to all the Iron banger fraternity,

SLAG.

*ammonium nitrate fuel oil.

[Frosty]

That makes me happy I don't have a lawn to fertilize. 

I was impressed by the disasters caused when experts used explosives to break up ammonium nitrate that had become solidified into a many ton blocks. Usually successfully!

Frosty The Lucky.

[JHCC]

I don’t use fertilizer on the lawn. Rather than try to imitate monoculture grass-only golf courses (which take a huge amount of fertilizer and weed killer), I just overseeded with white clover. It’s a lovely green and fixes nitrogen for the grass to use. No risk of explosion, either. 

[SinDoc]

One of my neighbors takes great pride in his lawn. He seeds it every year to make sure it keeps a nice full look and he treats/fertilizes it several times a year and mows it twice a week to prevent build up. I will give him that his grass is a very nice dark green and soft, but that is too much work lol.

[JHCC]

If it grows, I mows. 

[SinDoc]

I don't mind mowing and such. What I hate is maintaining flower beds.

[Frosty]

Goats.

Frosty The Lucky.

[ThomasPowers]

I remember a coworker explaining to me *why* you *had* to have the perfect monoculture lawn after I told him about the "mountain meadow" lawns I had seen in Switzerland.  It basically came down to "because".  Same employer, different coworker; built a large house on 7 acres that the covenants specified had to be mown every week during the summer.  So every Saturday all summer long....

[JHCC]

Any neighborhood with a lawnmowing covenant probably wouldn't appreciate blacksmithing....

[M.J.Lampert]

4 hours ago, Frosty said:

Goats.

Frosty The Lucky.

sheep, horses they are easier to keep

[Scott NC]

2 hours ago, ThomasPowers said:

 So every Saturday all summer long....

  Yes, and it comes with all the maintenance.  Everytime you jump on a piece of equipment, something is sure to break.  It's a money pit.  I used to mow 5 acres with every obstacle you could dream up.  If it was not mowed it would have become a bindweed, thistle patch, overtaking the grass.