4 ms·

You'd think that but the Toledo fondue flood of 1973 says otherwise. I can't find the wiki link, but Ronald O'Sullivan, who'd just taken over his father's chee

by cduzz 3y ago

You'd think that but the Toledo fondue flood of 1973 says otherwise. I can't find the wiki link, but Ronald O'Sullivan, who'd just taken over his father's cheese shop, was attempting to make a single block of swiss after a long week of selling the first 80% of several blocks to different restaurants. He took those cheese tails and stacked them up, not realizing the dangers he was putting everyone else in. It was later found that there were several other contributing factors; he hadn't used a properly certified cheese cutting blade (baloney!) and had reused the wax liner to store the off-cuts prior to reassembling the cheese that ultimately failed. Some say you can still smell the swiss on hot august days.

lazystar 3y ago
Need a source on this, please. It sounds real at first look, but I cant find any links and it's very similar to the boston molasses flood of 1918 story, especially that last bit - "The event entered local folklore and residents reported for decades afterwards that the area still smelled of molasses on hot summer days." https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Molasses_Flood https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Molasses_Flood
- cduzz 3y ago
  It's 100% made up. It's an attempt to make fun of people who would consider it unlikely that anyone would ever stack cheese as a way to mitigate safety risks.
  - unbalancedevh 3y ago
    'I can't find the wiki link" was a good clue. I'll have to remember that line next time I'm kidding someone!
- throwup238 3y ago
  Fondue can't cause a flood like the Great Molasses Flood because it's not capable of truly fully laminar flows. Fondue is a colloidal suspension of cheese solids in a mixture of wine and melting agents and it shows complex rheological behavior. Unlike Newtonian fluids, where viscosity remains constant regardless of the applied shear rate, fondue demonstrates non-Newtonian features, especially shear-thinning. As the shear rate increases, its viscosity decreases, a phenomenon attributed to the alignment of colloidal particles in the direction of flow, interfering with the fluid and preventing it from filling every nook and cranny like a flood would. Fondue's inability to achieve truly laminar flow is rooted in its viscoelastic properties. When subjected to stress, fondue exhibits both viscous and elastic characteristics, a behavior modeled by the Maxwell model in rheology. This model combines a viscous damper and an elastic spring to describe the material's response to applied stress. As fondue is subjected to shear stress, its structure becomes disrupted, leading to a breakdown in its ability to maintain a cohesive flow front. This disruption manifests as a turbulent flow, preventing the formation of a flood-like scenario similar to that caused by molasses.

by cduzz 3y ago

lazystar 3y ago

Need a source on this, please. It sounds real at first look, but I cant find any links and it's very similar to the boston molasses flood of 1918 story, especially that last bit - "The event entered local folklore and residents reported for decades afterwards that the area still smelled of molasses on hot summer days." https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Molasses_Flood https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Molasses_Flood

cduzz 3y ago
It's 100% made up. It's an attempt to make fun of people who would consider it unlikely that anyone would ever stack cheese as a way to mitigate safety risks.
- unbalancedevh 3y ago
  'I can't find the wiki link" was a good clue. I'll have to remember that line next time I'm kidding someone!
throwup238 3y ago
Fondue can't cause a flood like the Great Molasses Flood because it's not capable of truly fully laminar flows. Fondue is a colloidal suspension of cheese solids in a mixture of wine and melting agents and it shows complex rheological behavior. Unlike Newtonian fluids, where viscosity remains constant regardless of the applied shear rate, fondue demonstrates non-Newtonian features, especially shear-thinning. As the shear rate increases, its viscosity decreases, a phenomenon attributed to the alignment of colloidal particles in the direction of flow, interfering with the fluid and preventing it from filling every nook and cranny like a flood would. Fondue's inability to achieve truly laminar flow is rooted in its viscoelastic properties. When subjected to stress, fondue exhibits both viscous and elastic characteristics, a behavior modeled by the Maxwell model in rheology. This model combines a viscous damper and an elastic spring to describe the material's response to applied stress. As fondue is subjected to shear stress, its structure becomes disrupted, leading to a breakdown in its ability to maintain a cohesive flow front. This disruption manifests as a turbulent flow, preventing the formation of a flood-like scenario similar to that caused by molasses.