Thread: Just leaving this one here ...

"The Irresponsible." A much better name than Titan.

Smart people take risks too. It’s easy to get caught up in the excitement of your work. This example has nothing to do with submarines but is an example of people disregarding their own safety and that of others. There’s no doubt the scientists working with radiation on the Manhattan Project were clever people, but boy did they do some dumb things. Louis Slotin was one.

The designer of the sub should have tested it thoroughly. Should have done a lot of things, but sometimes people just get caught up in their own excitement. That's not an excuse. It just happens.

The photo and description are from wiki: Louis Slotin - Wikipedia

Louis Slotin died for his job; his passion. That's him in the left photo. The right shows what he was doing that led to his death - shoving a screwdriver into somewhere it shouldn't be. Though, I have to wonder what all that tape is meant to be doing on the bomb. Really, not a good look. That has to be science at its worst.

bomb.JPG


Slotin grasped the upper 228.6 mm (9-inch) beryllium hemisphere with his left hand through a thumb hole at the top while he maintained the separation of the half-spheres using the blade of a screwdriver with his right hand, having removed the shims normally used. Using a screwdriver was not a normal part of the experimental protocol.

At 3:20 p.m., the screwdriver slipped and the upper beryllium hemisphere fell, causing a "prompt critical" reaction and a burst of hard radiation. At the time, the scientists in the room observed the blue glow of air ionization and felt a heat wave. Slotin experienced a sour taste in his mouth and an intense burning sensation in his left hand. He jerked his left hand upward, lifting the upper beryllium hemisphere, and dropped it to the floor, ending the reaction. He had already been exposed to a lethal dose of neutron radiation.

This set me thinking of (Sir) Clive Sinclair back in the old country. A very clever and innovative inventor, creator of the first digital watches (OK, you had to press a button on the side to make the LED display light up...), and of course the ZX-80 and ZX-81 personal computers - I remember assembling one from a kit as a kid. Lauded by the press as a genius who could do no wrong, unfortunately he started to believe his own publicity........then set his mind to inventing a personal electric transport vehicle. Now, anyone else would have looked at the available battery and motor technology of the day, done a few quick sums on the back of a napkin, and concluded that it wasn't a good idea. Sir Clive, however, wasn't about to let the laws of physics get in his way, the result of which was

Sinclair C5 - Wikipedia

Doomed from the start, and the beginning of a slippery slope from which he never really recovered. In the case of Titan submersible, all the wisdom from other experts was that carbon fibre wasn't a good idea if it was going to be subjected to massive external pressures, never mind the material mismatches between carbon fibre and titanium end caps. I'm not a materials scientist, but even I can see the issues with using a rigid composite layered material in this application. The fact that he had a system of integrated sensors to detect cracking or delamination within the carbon fibre, and believed that this would give sufficient warning of a problem to allow time to surface, just beggars belief. I'm old enough to remember some of the very early applications of the new wonder material, carbon fibre, and also some of the spectacular early failures (yacht masts, rudders) that resulted from a lack of understanding of the material properties.

I recall Sinclair electronics, but I'd never heard of the C5. Having the handlebar under the knees sounds awkward. I had to laugh at the article when it mentioned someone had put a jet engine into one. Quite an elegant-looking thing, for the day.

A more amusing take on the Sinclair C5. History doesn't record how many people were squashed by trucks while using these on public roads !

https://www.theautopian.com/you-can-...oring-failure/

I was quite keen on his early computers, but don't remember ever lusting after a C5.

Originally Posted by Mr Brush

A more amusing take on the Sinclair C5. History doesn't record how many people were squashed by trucks while using these on public roads !

https://www.theautopian.com/you-can-...oring-failure/

I was quite keen on his early computers, but don't remember ever lusting after a C5.

Quite clearly he was just before his time (again). The C5 looks very much like something you might see on the road today. There are a host of small personal transports today, Segways, motorised skateboards, scooters, ebikes, and this would fit right in there.

I see in the news that the submarine, or parts of it, have been recovered. It will be interesting to hear what investigators discover.

A little over 80 years ago a sub went down off the English coast during its maiden voyage. The HMS Thetis. It had been undergoing tests before being put into service. One of the torpedo tube doors was opened and water flooded inside and the sub sank. Most of the crew died.

Investigators later discovered the reason for the sinking. The torpedo tubes have an inner and outer door. The sinking was the result of an inner door being opened before the outer door had been closed. A very basic mistake but some of the responsibility rests with the shipbuilder.

For each tube, there was a pressure gauge. If a tube happened to be filled with water the gauge would register the water pressure, and if the tube had no water inside the gauge would show zero. The pressure was an indicator of whether the outer door was open or not. During the build of the sub, this particular gauge had been fitted upside down. Of all the tubes in the sub only one tube had its gauge positioned upside down. The tube door that had been opened was the one with the incorrectly fitted pressure gauge. Had the crew member been aware of this situation he might have read the pressure on the gauge and understood that there was water inside. It had been assumed by investigators that it was likely he glanced at all the pressure gauges, saw the indicator needles were all pointing in the same direction and assumed they were all safe to open.

The designers included a crude safety device on the inner tube doors. A small hole was drilled through the doors. It was there to provide an indicator of the situation as to whether there was water in the tube or not in the event that the pressure gauge failed. If there was water in the tube with the outer door closed, water would dribble from the hole, but if the outer door was open the added pressure would cause water to spray from the hole. However, on this particular door, there was no hole. When the door had been painted some paint had gone into the hole and dried effectively sealing it.

The Trieste was the first deep-diving vessel to reach the depth of some 10,900m in the Mariana Trench in 1960.
It was designed by Auguste Piccard, as Swiss scientist, and built in Italy. Auguste Piccard's son, Jacques, manned the vessel together with a US Navy lieutenant, Don Walch, in this record dive.

There is an interesting YouTube video telling the story: Rolex presents: The Trieste's Deepest Dive (Extended) - YouTube.

Cheers
Yvan

I had the doubtful pleasure of driving a Sinclair C5 when my local bike shop had one for display. Despite being given the option of taking it on the road, I opted to stay in the shopping centre. I found it underpowered - it didn't have the acceleration or speed of the bike, and was only marginally more comfortable. Worst of all was the lack of visibility to other road users.

Alex - that was the scary thing, the idea that these were road legal and could be taken out to mix it with cars and trucks. Clive's solution to that was a range of little flags and warning reflectors to go on the back of your C5.....

C%mast.jpg

Apologies for turning this into a Sinclair C5 thread - I initially posted as an example of what happens when an inventor, however apparently brilliant, takes it on himself to ignore the limits of the known technology. It's just a great pity in the case of Titan that others had to pay the price too.

Came across this on another forum:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6LcGrLnzYuU