Here is a story in an allied vein and deals with gasses and what they are used for.
Many years ago on an USAF fighter base a mechanic sent a compressed gas cylinder to tech supply for filling. The bottle was painted black and gray and was stenciled indicating it was for nitrogen gas only. The bottle although being used for nitrogen gas was stamped on the neck for oxygen service only. In order to allow an oxygen bottle to be used for nitrogen service the technician had to cobble up a bunch of fittings to allow the oxygen bottle that had left hand threads to be able to connect to a nitrogen charging system that had right hand threads. The accompanying paper work requested that the bottle be charged with 2200-psi nitrogen. When the technician at tech supply received the bottle he obviously disregarded the color coding of the bottle and the stencil as well as the accompanying paperwork and zeroed in on the stamping on the bottle neck which stated for oxygen service only. He then cobbled up several fittings, which would allow connecting of the oxygen supply cylinder, which had left hand threads to the bottle, which had right hand threaded fittings. The bottle was charged and returned to the originating technician.
The originating technician attached a charging line and a set of pressure gages and proceeded to inflate a nose gear strut on an F-86. When the oxygen hit the hydraulic fluid it exploded killing the technician and starting a fire that nearly wiped out a whole squadron of F-86 aircraft in the aircraft hangar.
The following question begs answering. Who was wright and who was rong?
[ 18 February 2002: Message edited by: Lu Zuckerman ]
[ 18 February 2002: Message edited by: Lu Zuckerman ]</p>