On 6/28/06, Warren Ockrassa <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote
And where are these "molten steel" artifacts you lay claim to?
There is no shortage of pictures of this. And can you show that the "molten steel" wasn't due to the fire's heat? Actually, the fire that burned before the collapse isn't the only source of the heat. A huge pile of hot stuff insulates itself, so I can imagine that it is entirely possible that the heat built up to that temperature long after the collapses. That's how flashovers happen, as any firefighter knows. A sealed-up building burns quickly for a while, using up most of the oxygen. Then it slows down tremendously because only a little oxygen can get in. But the same walls and windows that keep oxygen out are keeping the heat in, so the fire gets hotter and hotter... and the combustion is less and less complete, so the building fills with smoke that is made up of incompletely burned particles. Let oxygen in at the bottom of the fire (rather than venting the heat from the top first) and boom, the air itself explodes because it is superheated and well-fueled -- it just needed the third element for fire, oxygen. I've read that the subway tunnels under the WTC acted as oxygen vents into the rubble pile. In other words, the rubble pile could have been acting like a great big forge. The insulating effect is also it's against the law to have fires on the beaches around here. People cover them with sand, figuring they'll go out. But they smolder and the heat stays trapped... then some poor soul steps on it barefoot and gets a nasty burned sole. The amount of heat (energy) in a building fire is very difficult to comprehend at a gut level, I know, having seen fire trucks badly damaged by radiant heat from a fire a block away... exposed buildings ignite across the street from a burning house... water cannons that evaporate before even hitting the flames of a really big fire. We're so used to dealing with little fires that it is very hard to intuit the scope of a big one. I remember a while ago comparing this to running water. We're so accustomed to ordinary water forces that people do stupid things like driving into a flash flood, thinking "It's only water." Our common sense fails us as the scale rises. Nick -- Nick Arnett [EMAIL PROTECTED] Messages: 408-904-7198 _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
