Ecnerwal writes:

Never forget that a high-pressure compressed air tank is a
missile waiting for the valve to be broken off, and can punch
right through concrete walls.

You got that right....therein is a tale...I've told this before
elsewhere.....

{as told to me...when I arrived at the Lab..}

There exists {or did..} at NASA-LeRC, a building called the Prop
House. Sure it has some official name, Engine Power Research
Building maybe, but don't ever bother calling it that.

It was built before/during WWII to test engines (and props), for
things like P-51's and P-47's. Since that much umph can make big
messes, it had VERY sturdy walls and doors, vault-type. That way,
when Things Went Wrong, not everyone suffered.

As time went on, there were not many 2000 HP prop engines for
NACA^H^H NASA to test, so other work moved in.

One sunny day, Plant Protection decided it was fire drill time. Now,
in grade school, they pull the alarm, and time your exit. PP was
.....more dedicated.... They showed up in plain clothes, and threw
a few smoke grenades down the hall, and just waited.

So the erstwhile researcher was slaving away in his test
cell when the Evac Alarm went off. You do not ever ignore an
Evac Alarm -- even if you wanted to, you'd soon be deaf; and
fired. OSHA must have turned them down by now, but *^%*^& were
they loud!!

So, being smarter than the average PhD, our hero goes to the
door, feels it carefully [not hot], undogs it and cracks it.
Smoke POURS in. He slams the door, redogs it and goes to the
phone. He dials "17" {the emergency number on the antique
PAX...} only to discover... they can't hear him and he can't
hear them...that damned horn, you see, is mounted near the
phone.

The problem is, there's no other way out. The outside wall was
glass block, solid. He bangs on it with a hammer, no joy.

But the smoke is creeping in under the door. So he takes a
K bottle of CO2 or N2 and sets in on the counter, aimed it at
the block. He figures he'll shear off the valve with a hatchet,
the tank will punch its way out through the block, and he
escapes.

BUT.. he is no fool. He knows that he may well go deaf from the
noise of the 3000+psi gas escaping, and the cylinder can go
any way IT wants... so he delays, and attacks the glass block
with the hammer and screwdriver, as the smoke keeps coming.

He finally manages to punch a small hole through...

The rest of the building staff is standing across the road
waiting for the building to clear of smoke when they see
an arm waving....

When PP entered the cell in Scott Air Packs and saw the cylinder
and the hammer, and listened to what he'd planned.....errr.

Thereafter, PP showed up and pulled the alarm, no more smoke
grenades.

The End.

--
A host is a host from coast to
& no one will talk to a host that's close........[v].(301) 56-LINUX
Unless the host (that isn't close).........................pob 1433
is busy, hung or dead....................................20915-1433