Chapter 32. I Did Not Know ♦♦♦
The recipe for perpetual ignorance is: be satisfied with your opinions and content with your beliefs.—Elbert Hubbard (1859-1915)
This chapter describes incidents that occurred because some of the properties of the materials and equipment used were unknown to those who handled them.
32.1. … That Metals Can Burn
The use of thin metal packing increased during the 1980s, and this change was followed by an increase in metal fires. Many people did not realize that metals burn readily when they are in the form of powders or thin sheets and can produce higher temperatures than oil fires. Aluminum and iron, not normally considered flammable, as well as titanium and zirconium, can burn when in these forms, and the fires ...
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