On Sun, 26 Feb 2006 05:01:32 GMT, "Leo Lichtman"
wrote:


"Tom Gardner" wrote: I sure would like a few feet, can you spare some?
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Yeah, Gunner, can you send it through the mail? Seriously, is there any way
a law-abiding civilian can buy it?

Sure. It's used routinely in quarrying operations. They probably
also use some in seismic oilfield exploration.

A primacord story:

In the early '70s, as a civilian, I was at a remote (civilian) proving
ground testing a sensor concept for instrumenting the jungle. SecDef
MacNamara thought that was a good idea so R&D bux weren't hard to
find.

Another guy, Dr. Snottytwit, was testing his far-from-field-ready
dainty delicate dingus at a site not far away. The chopper that was
part of his test kept flying its return leg over my site, screwing up
my experiments. I got on the field phone, asked him politely if he'd
please have his chopper do his return leg somewhere other than
directly over the site I was using. He basically said, "tough ****."
Ooo- kay. Junior research puke Foreman had been told, roger that.
Movin' right along, I decided if my ground footstep/vehicle
classifying sensor was affected by noise from an overflying chopper
then perhaps I should see how it does with thunder. Both choppers
and thunder do happen in the jungle. Need data to do science, that
was my job.

I reckoned that thunder is essentally a plane pressure wave, so I
decided to create faux thunder with a plane pressure wave rather than
pray for rain. I figured I'd cut some saplings to make posts about
4 feet high, string about 100 feet of primacord 100 meters from my
sensor field with bricks of C4, TNT, PETN or something every little
way along the cord to juice things up a bit. I cranked the phone,
ordered up 100 feet of primacord, a dozen 1/4 lb blocks of whatever
HE they might have handy, a roll of duct tape, a spool of commo wire,
a coupla caps and a blasting machine. The guy asked if I was
checked out to use such materials. I said yes, I was
school-trained with demo and experienced as a combat engineer. "Roger,
the red jeep will be there in five, ring us when you're ready for
fire in the hole -- we don't like surprises. " "Roger, wilco, out."

The red jeep showed up, delivered my supplies. I wished I'd added a
cold Coke to the list but I hadn't thought of it . Oh well.

I strung my d-cord clothesline on the sticks with duct tape, hung
some booster brick laundry between poles with more duct tape,
double-primed it and ran some wire. Cranked the field phone to get
range central. "Ready to fire one shot at site xxx". "Roger, go
ahead." I yelled the obligatory FIRE IN THE HOLE, started my
instruments in the trailer, waited a second and plunked the magic
twanger.

Oh my, that was grand and glorious thunder! Got some excellent
sensor signature data. Science lurches on.

The phone rang. It was Dr. Snottytwit, remember him? He was
apoplectic. Seems the seismic groundwave from my little
thunderclap at some distance done flat shook his dainty delicate
dingus apart so it didn't work anymore. Oopsie.

Having learned provingground protocol from him my esteemed senior, I
cheerfully replied "tough ****."

I collected some flak for that back at the office, since Dr.
Snottytwit outranked me by a bunch. I expected that, didn't care. I
figured it would be well worth whatever it cost me. Life is far too
short to suffer assholes for another buck or two on payday.

I actually didn't get near as much flak as I'd expected. I think my
strong riprimand from El Jefe in mahogany office with thick carpet was
something like "Foreman, your experiment creamed a very expensive
sensor Dr. Snottytwit was testing."

"Not my intent, Sir. Perhaps the sensor that broke isn't yet
nearly ready for field trials if a thunderclap can break it."

"Uh huh. Did your sensor break?" "No." "Did you get any good
data?" "I did indeed." "Will your sensor work?" "Looks like."

"Don't pull another stunt like that on my watch, Foreman."

"Yessir"

I got a promotion shortly after that. Go figure!