What not to feed a nailer 
2003 Reader Submission
Pending Acceptance
Evolutionary pressure failed to eliminate the 57-yearold Finnish man who, together with a group of other men, was contructing a stable in Ylöjärvi. When attaching wall boards to the frame of the construction project, suddenly, the pneumatic nailer that he was using exploded, causing him severe wounds to the head and slight wounds to one of his friends. The man was, however, taken quickly to a hospital, and he survived the incident.
Since pneumatic nailers are not known for their tendency of spontaneous combustion, the police investigating the accident soon found the real culprit. While the nailer was meant to be used with a compressor, providing pressurised air, our candidate had chosen to supply the needed pressure by connecting the hose to a tank of 99.5% oxygen. Though the use of oxygen, or any other pure bottled gas, would propably not occur to most people using a nailer, the operating manual of the device had foreseen the tendency of people to get creative, and explicitly forbidden the use of pure oxygen for driving the nailer. The newspaper reporting the incident didn't say what kind of oxygen bottle was used, but it seems possible that it would have been one meant for an acetylene torch. A welder, however, would propably have known that even the o-seals used for pure oxygen must be specially chosen so that they do not contain any grease, or they might ignite in the high-oxygen environment. A nailer, on the other hand, propably has judiciously lubricated internals to keep it working smoothly.
Oh well.
I can think of a number of pneumatic tools that a darwin awards candidate might want to attach an oxygen bottle to, but the nailbomb-like qualities of a nailer must make it an especially alluring choice. Submitted on 11/08/2002
Submitted by:
Anonymous
Reference:
Ilta-Sanomat (finland), 2002
Copyright © 2002 DarwinAwards.com
|
