Continuing our week of interesting video clips involving dynamite - things I encountered while researching that substance for my new Western novel - here's a piece of history.
The video of a dead whale being blown up on an Oregon beach has been described as the most-viewed in history (or the fifth most viewed, depending on whose statistics you believe). However, many of the copies of it online have been edited or 'enhanced', which spoils the fun, IMHO.
A few years ago, on the fiftieth anniversary of the television station that originally broadcast that footage, a presenter interviewed the reporter who'd covered the story, and played the original report exactly as it was shown at the time.
I still want to know who calculated that they needed twenty cases (!!!) of dynamite. How on earth did someone come up with that figure? That's a hell of a bang! (Yes, yes, I know - it was probably some anonymous of-fish-ial somewhere!)
Peter
5 comments:
Peter. Look up "things I will not work with"
It's a series of chemistry posts on the very nasty properties of various chemicals. Key phrases in some articles include lines like "what this here obviously needs is more oxidizer"
http://nightlandsredoubt.blogspot.com/2016/10/more-boom-or-things-i-will-not-work-with.html
I think they had the right idea, but failing to mound sand, place steel plate, and shaping the explosion towards the ocean led to the debris going everywhere, instead of into the water.
"..who calculated that they needed twenty cases (!!!) of dynamite."
Easy, because they didn't have twenty one cases of dynamite.
Gerry
There's a rumor on the street that a Federal warrant has been issued for an unknown naturalized South African immigrant for using very, very bad puns. Hopefully he isn't in Texas as that's a capital crime down there.
My Mom - and Uncles, and assorted other family - lived in that town at the time of this incident. Grandma told me once, while we were visiting that very beach, that when the bits of whale came down, one very large piece landed on a local's car just over the dunes from the beach. Ultimately, the unfortunate man was awarded his insurance money... they ruled it an 'act of God'!
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