Inviting Disaster
Introduction
On the Machine Frontier:
New Technology and Old Habits
To see what kind of strange new world we are building for ourselves, consider what happened in January 1969 at the Hungarian Carbonic Acid Producing Company, at Répcelak, Hungary. The company was in the business of removing C02 from natural gas and selling it. The liquid was stored in small cylinders as well as in four big storage tanks, cooled by ammonia refrigeration. The gas arrived at the plant with traces of water in it that had to be removed. On occasion this stray water caused gauges, fittings, level indicators, and even safety valves to freeze shut. But the plant kept running.
On December 31, 1968, the plant shut down with the indicators showing at least twenty tons of liquid C02 in each tank. The plant opened again late on the night of January 1. Running short of cylinders to store the liquid C02, operators directed the flow into storage tank C, which was supposed to have plenty of capacity. About a half hour later tank C exploded, and its fragments b ... read full excerpt from Inviting Disaster ebook
