Not the worst idea I've seen -- who wants to get blown up? Who wants gas rates to go up because the utility is losing the stuff?-- and a pity it's only around Boston so far.
When I was in college someone in one of the chemistry labs accidentally dumped a whole vial of methyl mercaptan (the oderant added to natural gas in onto their tray. Not knowing what to do, they put the whole tray into the fume hood and closed the cover.
This revealed that the HVAC air intakes for about half-a-dozen high-rise office buildings were directly downwind of the fume-hood exhausts of the chemistry department.
For several weeks, I got a whiff of the stuff while mowing the back yard. Eventually it got bad enough to justify summoning the GasCo, and the line had to be replaced. Lost about six or seven dekatherms.
Y'know, I would not want to be finding that while operating a small internal-combustion engine in close proximity to the ground. Could be...surprising. You're a lucky man, Chas.
Could have been ouchy! I wonder if those have hysteresis-synchronous our series-wound motors? The latter have brush contacts, a source of sparks close to the ground; the former do not. That still leaves the on-off control to do a bit of sparking.
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When I was in college someone in one of the chemistry labs accidentally dumped a whole vial of methyl mercaptan (the oderant added to natural gas in onto their tray. Not knowing what to do, they put the whole tray into the fume hood and closed the cover.
ReplyDeleteThis revealed that the HVAC air intakes for about half-a-dozen high-rise office buildings were directly downwind of the fume-hood exhausts of the chemistry department.
For several weeks, I got a whiff of the stuff while mowing the back yard. Eventually it got bad enough to justify summoning the GasCo, and the line had to be replaced. Lost about six or seven dekatherms.
ReplyDeleteY'know, I would not want to be finding that while operating a small internal-combustion engine in close proximity to the ground. Could be...surprising. You're a lucky man, Chas.
ReplyDeleteLuckier than you imagine: it was an electric mower. :)
ReplyDeleteCould have been ouchy! I wonder if those have hysteresis-synchronous our series-wound motors? The latter have brush contacts, a source of sparks close to the ground; the former do not. That still leaves the on-off control to do a bit of sparking.
ReplyDelete