My new spitbucket 
2003 Reader Submission
Pending Acceptance
This is only good for an honorable mention, but it came close, and it is funny. I don't think it made the news, although the subject did get hospitalized so there's gotta be a Worker's Comp form filled out. It was back in the 80's at Loraine Crane. One of the products used is naptha, used to clean the oil treatment from steel prior to painting or welding; it comes in 55 gallon drums. One of the less upwardly mobile employees decided to make himself a spittoon out of an empty. Usually this is done by simply removing the top, but this yields a rather tall spittoon which is not particularly user-friendly when you're working on the floor. Therefore our hero decided to take his torch and cut the drum in two, making a half-height spittoon. And he decided to accomplish this whilst sitting astraddle the 55 gallon drum. Well, the drum was empty of liquid naptha, but it was still packing some fumes. When the torch penetrated the thin steel casing, these fumes detonated. The penetration being on the top of the barrel, the force acted mainly downward, but as it was already on the floor the drum slid forward then rose up rapidly. Our hero was lifted about ten or twelve feet into the air before spilling off the drum. The drum itself rose to strike a steel ceiling support hard enough to wrap around it, and there it stayed for several years. The injured man was rushed to hospital with severe testicular bruising and needed a couple of weeks to recover, but suffered no permanent loss of function. Still, rather a stupendous failure of judgement for a man who'd often seen naptha catch fire when welded before it all evaporated.
Submitted on 09/24/2003
Submitted by:
Mike Whitfield
Reference:
none
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