9 ms·

A bad day at the office

369 points by freediver 3y ago

chris_wot 3y ago
350 feet up… and they climbed it, then lowered the pilot with a really long rope… wowsers!
- a2tech 3y ago
  I would imagine they'd lower him down a bit and then while someone held him, the others would descend. Managing 300 feet of rope up that high (and especially as the guy got lowered more) would be really difficult.
  - sandworm101 3y ago
    A modern rope for rock climbing is 50 to 60m, about 160 feet. Some climbers use thinner double/twin ropes that are twice that length. It can be a pain but isn't unmanageable if you take your time. I could see them doing it all at once using whatever reasonable rope they had at the time.
- whoisthemachine 3y ago
  Not only that, one climbed onto and then into the cockpit to secure the pilot. > ...a seaman of the Naval Reserve named Rath climbed up the inside of the mast until he reached the machine, and then crawled out to the plane to hold the pilot until help came.
  - DowagerDave 3y ago
    I assume all that experience climbing the rigging up to the crowsnest paid off even on land, working with a different service!
    - sandworm101 3y ago
      Part of me wants to say that British ships did not have "crows nests" rather "fighting tops", flat platforms for multiple people rather than the barrel-shaped crows nest. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Top_(sailing_ship) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Top_(sailing_ship)
    - deleted 3y ago
      [deleted]
- devsda 3y ago
  To make it even better, for one of them(from ground crew) it was their first time climbing 360ft on that mast. Before that day, they never climbed beyond 73ft [1]. Because of this reason he (Rath) was awarded a gold medal while the other two received different (silver I presume) medals. [1]. Link at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39512332#39513137 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39512332#39513137
  - lmm 3y ago
    > Because of this reason he (Rath) was awarded a gold medal while the other two received different (silver I presume) medals. Apparently the standard one was bronze. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Medal_for_Lifesaving https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Medal_for_Lifesaving
    - flir 3y ago
      2nd class was bronze, apparently (source: https://www.naval-history.net/WW1MedalsBr-AM.htm https://www.naval-history.net/WW1MedalsBr-AM.htm)
n4r9 3y ago
Interestingly the second time I've seen mention of Portsmouth (UK) on HN in a month. Previous time here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38988389 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38988389
sandworm101 3y ago
Such things happen more often than people like to think. The image from this 2019 incident is almost unbelievable. https://www.ctvnews.ca/world/pilot-uninjured-after-plane-gets-tangled-in-power-lines-1.4700201 https://www.ctvnews.ca/world/pilot-uninjured-after-plane-get... And Florida 2021: https://www.clickorlando.com/news/local/2021/09/24/florida-pilot-left-dangling-for-hours-when-plane-gets-caught-in-power-lines/ https://www.clickorlando.com/news/local/2021/09/24/florida-p... Ontario 1986: https://tessa2.lapl.org/digital/collection/photos/id/32617 https://tessa2.lapl.org/digital/collection/photos/id/32617 Power lines seem surprisingly good at catching small aircraft without shattering them.
- hammock 3y ago
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arresting_gear https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arresting_gear
- hypertexthero 3y ago
  Also trees: https://abc7news.com/plane-crash-connecticut-small-plainville/2408546/ https://abc7news.com/plane-crash-connecticut-small-plainvill...
- zoogeny 3y ago
  It reminds me of flies being caught in spiderwebs.
- monitron 3y ago
  It happened in my neck of the woods (Maryland) a few years ago: https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/11/27/plane-crash-power-lines-montgomery/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/11/27/plane-cra...
  - iamtheworstdev 3y ago
    it happened by a guy who had literally previously done it and i think at that same airport. i hope they took his license after that last one.
- dpedu 3y ago
Waterluvian 3y ago
So many wires that are likely less visible, more present, and less survivable. Amazing he hit and became affixed to the main tower.
gnfargbl 3y ago
I found a little more on the incident at https://www.royalnavy.mod.uk/-/media/royal-navy-responsive/images/navynews/archivepdfs/2000s/2007/navy-news-september-2007-issue-638.pdf https://www.royalnavy.mod.uk/-/media/royal-navy-responsive/i... (page 14).
- eszed 3y ago
  Thanks! Great additions to the story. My favorite is that one of the rescuers was a groundsman who had never been higher than 75ft up the mast! It reminds me of the Mr Rogers line about "look for the helpers" - the folks who run towards trouble. Nicholas Rath, RNR. His name deserves to be remembered. The writer also includes a nifty contemporary simile. Good stuff.
DowagerDave 3y ago
There's a similar scenario described in "How To" by Randall Munroe, where he asks astronaut Chris Hadfield if you "could land a plane by rolling it on it's side and catching the arrest hook on the cable hanging from a crane?" Chris is skeptical it would work, but answers seriously and references the frequency of small planes getting caught in powerlines & towers.
- imoverclocked 3y ago
  This particular plane has a top-speed of 100mph. It might be flyable down to 30mph… which would make such stunts far more possible than with faster aircraft today. Of course, you can do anything once; The real question is, “can you do it multiple times?”
  - mattpallissard 3y ago
    A good landing is one you walk away from. A great one is where you can fly the plane again.
    - tejtm 3y ago
      quote attributed to Chuck Yeager.
  - TylerE 3y ago
    30mph is unrealistically low, more like 45-50, which is already more than doubling the impact force. On top of that, they can only fly that slow straight and level. Banking increases the amount of lift you need to generate to maintain altude, as the lift is now pointing to the side instead of straight up. Maintaining flight in a 90 degree bank is something aerobatics aircraft can do, but it's hard, requires a specific aircraft setup, and you're not doing it at approach speed. More like 100-150mph. Very easy spin an aircraft when attempting to maneuver at low speeds, and that will invariably result in a crash as you need several thousand feet of altitude to recover. Such crashes are 99.9% fatal. Usually looks something like this (Warning: It's a crash, there's a fireball, but it isn't overly graphic): https://youtube.com/shorts/urTs-y7MiJE?si=ovfiC3ZvCgcFr5Nu https://youtube.com/shorts/urTs-y7MiJE?si=ovfiC3ZvCgcFr5Nu Rather than just rolling out the pilot pulled back sharply right around when when he got fully inverted, you see the nose quickly start to come around, and then a split second later the left wing stalls deeper at which point it enters a counterclockwise spin and impacts the ground after approximately a quarter rotation.
AnotherGoodName 3y ago
Slightly related but a fun thing to learn about was the flashing lights on powerlines (i'm nerdy so love hearing about stuff like this from people in the know). You know those balls they have on powerlines that flash? Easy right? It's just a flashing light. That's what i always thought at least. Until someone pointed out to me that they sit on one line at a time with no earth and no battery, just a capacitor to store charge between blinks. So how do they create a circuit? There's only one wire! Well since there's current flowing through the wire there's induction and you can wrap that wire in what is essentially half an AC transformer and create a whole new circuit at much lower voltage. In fact the blinking lights on powerlines internally just have two metal plates either side of the slot that goes over the line and clips in. From induction they leach power from the power lines despite there only being one wire and no earth in the whole system. Which i find really cool and simple. You can take any high voltage power line and a metal plate and power a blinking light just by getting close to it!
- KMag 3y ago
  > You can take any high voltage power line and a metal plate and power a blinking light just by getting close to it! Well, for high-voltage DC transmission lines (typically used for longer distances to minimize induction loss), you'd presumably need to try to power them via current leaking to the air instead of induction. I'm not sure how feasible that is.
- samatman 3y ago
  It gets weirder than that, if you bring a fluorescent bulb close enough to high-voltage transmission lines, it will just glow. https://www.farmanddairy.com/top-stories/how-to-make-a-fluorescent-bulb-glow-under-transmission-power-lines/623730.html https://www.farmanddairy.com/top-stories/how-to-make-a-fluor... Induction is a fact about the physical world which I accept but have never truly understood.
  - Izkata 3y ago
    I remember reading about an experiment years ago where computer chips that could be reconfigured programmatically (FGPAs? Not sure) were put through a genetic algorithm to see if it could come up with a circuit to do a task on its own. In one of the results, the circuit wasn't actually connected end to end so it took them a while to figure out how it worked - turned out the two halves were communicating through induction. I think that same experiment had a configuration that would only work on one chip and not others it was copied to, because it accidentally relied on impurities in one of the components.
maerF0x0 3y ago
I used to bjj in the mornings before work because my mentality was "If i've already been choked out, beat up, and tapped out then there's nothing worse that the day (or my boss) can throw at me." (ie, it's all easier from 8am on)
- earthwalker99 3y ago
  It must feel nice to forget that your boss can fire you. The bliss of ignorance.
  - parthianshotgun 3y ago
    We must accept everything and resolve inequity internally, within our souls no less! I fully support this mentality (and I need to, because I may someday be a boss, and I certainly wouldn't want my unders to realize material issues, it's better for me in the long run to let people 'self actualize' and ensure my totality)
  - Damogran6 3y ago
    Once it's happened a few times, you'll find you get much more pragmatic.
  - rcbdev 3y ago
    It genuinely feels nice to live in a society where getting fired is not a big deal.
    - earthwalker99 3y ago
      Which society is that????
      - rcbdev 3y ago
        Vienna, Austria.
  - maerF0x0 3y ago
    It's not that he can't fire me. It's that facing (mocked) death gives perspective to the actual threat of being fired. At least in my life and circumstances being fired is not an existential threat. Sure my comforts may be threatened, but at the very worst case I can have a bed in a shelter and food from a kitchen. It's not what I want, but it's also not as dire as others make it out to be. The fear of being fired gives them more power over you. Remove the fear and take your power back.
flir 3y ago
Commemorative event and additional context, 2017: https://www.royalnavy.mod.uk/news-and-latest-activity/news/2017/september/21/170921-commemorative-centenary-event-at-horsea-island https://www.royalnavy.mod.uk/news-and-latest-activity/news/2... More photos of the wireless station: https://www.commsmuseum.co.uk/CoursesNonCHC/horsea.htm https://www.commsmuseum.co.uk/CoursesNonCHC/horsea.htm Archaeological report, 2018: https://maritimearchaeologytrust.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/FWFWW_SiteReport_Wireless_Stations.pdf https://maritimearchaeologytrust.org/wp-content/uploads/2020...
Damogran6 3y ago
Ordinary Seaman Knoulton My feelings for his job title are...complicated. (Webmaster Miller, Network Intrusion Specialist, Red Team...)
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
sophacles 3y ago
Tangential - from the article referenced by the article: > The pilot owes his preservation to the intrepid gallentry of these three men, who, while aline to the risks they ran, performed the rescue without hesitation for personal safety. Aline means (according to a brief search): a cut of garment consisting basically of two A-shaped panels for the front and back, designed to give increasing fullness toward the hemline. Is this a typo/transcription error or some out of date usage I'm unable to find a definition for? If it's a typo of aligned, it makes sense but that's a strange (to me phrasing).
- parkererway 3y ago
  Bad OCR of “blind”, maybe?
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
- CrazyStat 3y ago
  I read it as a typo/mistranscription for “alive”—to be alive to the risk means they are aware of it.
- shepherdjerred 3y ago
  From the context I believe it means "to be aware of". It's possible to do something incredibly dangerous because you aren't aware of the risks -- that isn't courage or bravery, that's just plain ignorance. There's a comment on the article: > While aline to the risks? No. > While cognizant of the risks.
- Izkata 3y ago
  https://www.dictionary.com/browse/Aline https://www.dictionary.com/browse/Aline Down the page: British dictionary - a rare spelling of "align". The garment is apparently A-line, not aline.
nonethewiser 3y ago
I'm just amazed at how tall and skinny that structure is. Must be some strong steel. I guess the latticing provides a lot of strength as well.
- pvg 3y ago
  It's also cabled (guy-wired, I guess) to the ground. A mast like that was once the tallest human structure https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warsaw_radio_mast https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warsaw_radio_mast
- extr0pian 3y ago
  There's also probably around a dozen guyed wires holding it up.
- flir 3y ago
  It was timber, believe it or not. Metal guy ropes.
  - EnigmaFlare 3y ago
    ? TFA says it was "was composed of latticed steel girders".
    - flir 3y ago
      I think it's wrong. Although I'm starting to doubt myself. "Horsea Island at the time was a long-range radio transmission station with four 446-foot tall masts, made from huge timbers, spread around the area." - https://www.royalnavy.mod.uk/news-and-latest-activity/news/2017/september/21/170921-commemorative-centenary-event-at-horsea-island https://www.royalnavy.mod.uk/news-and-latest-activity/news/2... "From 1909 onwards the island also became used as one of the Admiralty’s first high powered shore wireless telegraphy stations [...] Four wooden aerial ‘Marconi’ masts in eight foot tabernacles were erected, each standing 150 foot tall and held fast with wire stays." - https://maritimearchaeologytrust.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/FWFWW_SiteReport_Wireless_Stations.pdf https://maritimearchaeologytrust.org/wp-content/uploads/2020... Ok, I've found a primary source (with bonus photo of Knoulton) that says "latticed steel girders" - https://www.alamy.com/1917-daily-sketch-naval-airman-crashes-into-poulsen-radio-mast-image399296916.html https://www.alamy.com/1917-daily-sketch-naval-airman-crashes... So I think what must have happened is that the initial 150-foot wooden masts (1909) were replaced with steel masts at some point before 1917, and the first quote above confused the two stages. Ok, yes, found some supporting text. "The new station at Horsea consisted of 4 wooden aerial masts of overall height 150 feet with 8 'spreader' masts of 60 feet surrounding them. [...] The first station was out of date within 6 years and plans were made for 4 masts of an overall height of 446 feet. The first went up in 1913 to be followed by two more in 1914, the last was not finally being erected until 1921." - https://historicengland.org.uk/research/results/reports/7019/FirstWorldWarWirelessStationsinEngland https://historicengland.org.uk/research/results/reports/7019... For completeness, in this blog post we're back to wood again: "The masts dominated the skyline and were constructed as a triangular wooden lattice 7 feet each side. [...] By 1933 wireless technology no longer depended on the wooden masts and they were replaced by steel towers of 180 and 100 feet in height." - https://manorcourtupdate.blogspot.com/2015_08_01_archive.html?m=1 https://manorcourtupdate.blogspot.com/2015_08_01_archive.htm... but I'm inclined to go with the primary source (the Daily Sketch page). Annoyingly, primary sources are thin on the ground - I don't think the accident made it into the papers at the time. Drifting off the topic of the mast itself, I found that Knoulton died in 1981, and a subtly different account of the rescue: "on 14th September 1917, on Hornsea island a seaplane collided with a Poulsen mast and remained wedged in it; the pilot was unconscious and had been thrown out of his seat on to one of the wings. [Deck Hand ABBOTT Ordinary Seaman KNOWLTON and Seaman RATH], at once climbed up the mast for 100 feet, when one of them [?RATH], making use of the boatswain's chair, was hoisted up by men at the foot of the mast to the place, over 300 feet from the ground, where the seaplane was fixed. He then climbed out onto the plane and held the pilot until the arrival of ABBOTT and KNOWLTON. A gantline was then secured round the pilot who was safely lowered to the ground. All three men were well aware of the damaged and insecure condition of the mast, which was bent to an angle where the seaplane had become wedged. One of the three supports of the mast was fractured, and so far as the men knew, the mast or seaplane might at any time have collapsed." - https://www.greatwarforum.org/topic/77065-dangerous-perch/ https://www.greatwarforum.org/topic/77065-dangerous-perch/
rmason 3y ago
[flagged]
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
lkdfjlkdfjlg 3y ago
[flagged]
benatkin 3y ago
This made me think of literally an office, and The Crimson Permanent Assurance. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Crimson_Permanent_Assurance https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Crimson_Permanent_Assuranc... It is quite a story, though. I struggled to wrap my head around them carrying him off the building. With the detail of the rope, it made more sense.
- 1letterunixname 3y ago
  It's all about improvised office weapons and the scaffolding that moves with the building. CPA should set sail for the pointless megabuildings of Austin.
a3w 3y ago
Whose 350 feet? Instructions for unclear jumped out of the plane.
- a3w 3y ago
  correction: 175 persons have 350 feet, if no handicapable person is included. But how did they fit in a small double decker plane?
DerCommodore 3y ago
I wonder how often this really happens
1letterunixname 3y ago
I'll use this as a meme for when an unhandled edge case causes catastrophic failure.
stevage 3y ago
Impressivetaht they had a 100m rope close at hand to lower him down with.
- fbdab103 3y ago
  I am imagining it was a length of rope they re-used in stretches? 100m of early century rope capable of comfortably supporting a human seems way too unwieldy to have carried that high.
  - flir 3y ago
    I've thrown a bunch of links in elsewhere in the thread, but basically, there was a bosun's chair (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bosun%27s_chair https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bosun%27s_chair) running inside the mast. As far as I can figure it out one man went up in the chair to secure the pilot, waited for the other two to reach him, and the three of them managed to get the pilot into the chair and back down to the ground.
karaterobot 3y ago
I assume that in 1917, this plane wasn't going 300 miles an hour, but I'm surprised the plane didn't just break apart when it hit the tower. It looks like a dart stuck in a dartboard. Is the idea that it was going really slowly, or that the tower has enough sway to slow down the plane on impact, or...?
russellbeattie 3y ago
When a programmer has a bad day at the office, their computer crashes. When a doctor has a bad day, their patient crashes. When a pilot has a bad day, their plane crashes. When a highrise window washer has a bad day, they crash.

369 points by freediver 3y ago

chris_wot 3y ago

350 feet up… and they climbed it, then lowered the pilot with a really long rope… wowsers!

a2tech 3y ago
I would imagine they'd lower him down a bit and then while someone held him, the others would descend. Managing 300 feet of rope up that high (and especially as the guy got lowered more) would be really difficult.
- sandworm101 3y ago
  A modern rope for rock climbing is 50 to 60m, about 160 feet. Some climbers use thinner double/twin ropes that are twice that length. It can be a pain but isn't unmanageable if you take your time. I could see them doing it all at once using whatever reasonable rope they had at the time.
whoisthemachine 3y ago
Not only that, one climbed onto and then into the cockpit to secure the pilot. > ...a seaman of the Naval Reserve named Rath climbed up the inside of the mast until he reached the machine, and then crawled out to the plane to hold the pilot until help came.
- DowagerDave 3y ago
  I assume all that experience climbing the rigging up to the crowsnest paid off even on land, working with a different service!
  - sandworm101 3y ago
    Part of me wants to say that British ships did not have "crows nests" rather "fighting tops", flat platforms for multiple people rather than the barrel-shaped crows nest. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Top_(sailing_ship) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Top_(sailing_ship)
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
devsda 3y ago
To make it even better, for one of them(from ground crew) it was their first time climbing 360ft on that mast. Before that day, they never climbed beyond 73ft [1]. Because of this reason he (Rath) was awarded a gold medal while the other two received different (silver I presume) medals. [1]. Link at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39512332#39513137 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39512332#39513137
- lmm 3y ago
  > Because of this reason he (Rath) was awarded a gold medal while the other two received different (silver I presume) medals. Apparently the standard one was bronze. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Medal_for_Lifesaving https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Medal_for_Lifesaving
  - flir 3y ago
    2nd class was bronze, apparently (source: https://www.naval-history.net/WW1MedalsBr-AM.htm https://www.naval-history.net/WW1MedalsBr-AM.htm)

n4r9 3y ago

Interestingly the second time I've seen mention of Portsmouth (UK) on HN in a month. Previous time here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38988389 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38988389

sandworm101 3y ago

Such things happen more often than people like to think. The image from this 2019 incident is almost unbelievable. https://www.ctvnews.ca/world/pilot-uninjured-after-plane-gets-tangled-in-power-lines-1.4700201 https://www.ctvnews.ca/world/pilot-uninjured-after-plane-get... And Florida 2021: https://www.clickorlando.com/news/local/2021/09/24/florida-pilot-left-dangling-for-hours-when-plane-gets-caught-in-power-lines/ https://www.clickorlando.com/news/local/2021/09/24/florida-p... Ontario 1986: https://tessa2.lapl.org/digital/collection/photos/id/32617 https://tessa2.lapl.org/digital/collection/photos/id/32617 Power lines seem surprisingly good at catching small aircraft without shattering them.

hammock 3y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arresting_gear https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arresting_gear
hypertexthero 3y ago
Also trees: https://abc7news.com/plane-crash-connecticut-small-plainville/2408546/ https://abc7news.com/plane-crash-connecticut-small-plainvill...
zoogeny 3y ago
It reminds me of flies being caught in spiderwebs.
monitron 3y ago
It happened in my neck of the woods (Maryland) a few years ago: https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/11/27/plane-crash-power-lines-montgomery/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/11/27/plane-cra...
- iamtheworstdev 3y ago
  it happened by a guy who had literally previously done it and i think at that same airport. i hope they took his license after that last one.
dpedu 3y ago

Waterluvian 3y ago

So many wires that are likely less visible, more present, and less survivable. Amazing he hit and became affixed to the main tower.

gnfargbl 3y ago

I found a little more on the incident at https://www.royalnavy.mod.uk/-/media/royal-navy-responsive/images/navynews/archivepdfs/2000s/2007/navy-news-september-2007-issue-638.pdf https://www.royalnavy.mod.uk/-/media/royal-navy-responsive/i... (page 14).

eszed 3y ago
Thanks! Great additions to the story. My favorite is that one of the rescuers was a groundsman who had never been higher than 75ft up the mast! It reminds me of the Mr Rogers line about "look for the helpers" - the folks who run towards trouble. Nicholas Rath, RNR. His name deserves to be remembered. The writer also includes a nifty contemporary simile. Good stuff.

DowagerDave 3y ago

There's a similar scenario described in "How To" by Randall Munroe, where he asks astronaut Chris Hadfield if you "could land a plane by rolling it on it's side and catching the arrest hook on the cable hanging from a crane?" Chris is skeptical it would work, but answers seriously and references the frequency of small planes getting caught in powerlines & towers.

imoverclocked 3y ago
This particular plane has a top-speed of 100mph. It might be flyable down to 30mph… which would make such stunts far more possible than with faster aircraft today. Of course, you can do anything once; The real question is, “can you do it multiple times?”
- mattpallissard 3y ago
  A good landing is one you walk away from. A great one is where you can fly the plane again.
  - tejtm 3y ago
    quote attributed to Chuck Yeager.
- TylerE 3y ago
  30mph is unrealistically low, more like 45-50, which is already more than doubling the impact force. On top of that, they can only fly that slow straight and level. Banking increases the amount of lift you need to generate to maintain altude, as the lift is now pointing to the side instead of straight up. Maintaining flight in a 90 degree bank is something aerobatics aircraft can do, but it's hard, requires a specific aircraft setup, and you're not doing it at approach speed. More like 100-150mph. Very easy spin an aircraft when attempting to maneuver at low speeds, and that will invariably result in a crash as you need several thousand feet of altitude to recover. Such crashes are 99.9% fatal. Usually looks something like this (Warning: It's a crash, there's a fireball, but it isn't overly graphic): https://youtube.com/shorts/urTs-y7MiJE?si=ovfiC3ZvCgcFr5Nu https://youtube.com/shorts/urTs-y7MiJE?si=ovfiC3ZvCgcFr5Nu Rather than just rolling out the pilot pulled back sharply right around when when he got fully inverted, you see the nose quickly start to come around, and then a split second later the left wing stalls deeper at which point it enters a counterclockwise spin and impacts the ground after approximately a quarter rotation.

AnotherGoodName 3y ago

Slightly related but a fun thing to learn about was the flashing lights on powerlines (i'm nerdy so love hearing about stuff like this from people in the know). You know those balls they have on powerlines that flash? Easy right? It's just a flashing light. That's what i always thought at least. Until someone pointed out to me that they sit on one line at a time with no earth and no battery, just a capacitor to store charge between blinks. So how do they create a circuit? There's only one wire! Well since there's current flowing through the wire there's induction and you can wrap that wire in what is essentially half an AC transformer and create a whole new circuit at much lower voltage. In fact the blinking lights on powerlines internally just have two metal plates either side of the slot that goes over the line and clips in. From induction they leach power from the power lines despite there only being one wire and no earth in the whole system. Which i find really cool and simple. You can take any high voltage power line and a metal plate and power a blinking light just by getting close to it!

KMag 3y ago
> You can take any high voltage power line and a metal plate and power a blinking light just by getting close to it! Well, for high-voltage DC transmission lines (typically used for longer distances to minimize induction loss), you'd presumably need to try to power them via current leaking to the air instead of induction. I'm not sure how feasible that is.
samatman 3y ago
It gets weirder than that, if you bring a fluorescent bulb close enough to high-voltage transmission lines, it will just glow. https://www.farmanddairy.com/top-stories/how-to-make-a-fluorescent-bulb-glow-under-transmission-power-lines/623730.html https://www.farmanddairy.com/top-stories/how-to-make-a-fluor... Induction is a fact about the physical world which I accept but have never truly understood.
- Izkata 3y ago
  I remember reading about an experiment years ago where computer chips that could be reconfigured programmatically (FGPAs? Not sure) were put through a genetic algorithm to see if it could come up with a circuit to do a task on its own. In one of the results, the circuit wasn't actually connected end to end so it took them a while to figure out how it worked - turned out the two halves were communicating through induction. I think that same experiment had a configuration that would only work on one chip and not others it was copied to, because it accidentally relied on impurities in one of the components.

maerF0x0 3y ago

I used to bjj in the mornings before work because my mentality was "If i've already been choked out, beat up, and tapped out then there's nothing worse that the day (or my boss) can throw at me." (ie, it's all easier from 8am on)

earthwalker99 3y ago
It must feel nice to forget that your boss can fire you. The bliss of ignorance.
- parthianshotgun 3y ago
  We must accept everything and resolve inequity internally, within our souls no less! I fully support this mentality (and I need to, because I may someday be a boss, and I certainly wouldn't want my unders to realize material issues, it's better for me in the long run to let people 'self actualize' and ensure my totality)
- Damogran6 3y ago
  Once it's happened a few times, you'll find you get much more pragmatic.
- rcbdev 3y ago
  It genuinely feels nice to live in a society where getting fired is not a big deal.
  - earthwalker99 3y ago
    Which society is that????
    - rcbdev 3y ago
      Vienna, Austria.
- maerF0x0 3y ago
  It's not that he can't fire me. It's that facing (mocked) death gives perspective to the actual threat of being fired. At least in my life and circumstances being fired is not an existential threat. Sure my comforts may be threatened, but at the very worst case I can have a bed in a shelter and food from a kitchen. It's not what I want, but it's also not as dire as others make it out to be. The fear of being fired gives them more power over you. Remove the fear and take your power back.

flir 3y ago

Commemorative event and additional context, 2017: https://www.royalnavy.mod.uk/news-and-latest-activity/news/2017/september/21/170921-commemorative-centenary-event-at-horsea-island https://www.royalnavy.mod.uk/news-and-latest-activity/news/2... More photos of the wireless station: https://www.commsmuseum.co.uk/CoursesNonCHC/horsea.htm https://www.commsmuseum.co.uk/CoursesNonCHC/horsea.htm Archaeological report, 2018: https://maritimearchaeologytrust.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/FWFWW_SiteReport_Wireless_Stations.pdf https://maritimearchaeologytrust.org/wp-content/uploads/2020...

Damogran6 3y ago

Ordinary Seaman Knoulton My feelings for his job title are...complicated. (Webmaster Miller, Network Intrusion Specialist, Red Team...)

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sophacles 3y ago

Tangential - from the article referenced by the article: > The pilot owes his preservation to the intrepid gallentry of these three men, who, while aline to the risks they ran, performed the rescue without hesitation for personal safety. Aline means (according to a brief search): a cut of garment consisting basically of two A-shaped panels for the front and back, designed to give increasing fullness toward the hemline. Is this a typo/transcription error or some out of date usage I'm unable to find a definition for? If it's a typo of aligned, it makes sense but that's a strange (to me phrasing).

parkererway 3y ago
Bad OCR of “blind”, maybe?
- deleted 3y ago
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CrazyStat 3y ago
I read it as a typo/mistranscription for “alive”—to be alive to the risk means they are aware of it.
shepherdjerred 3y ago
From the context I believe it means "to be aware of". It's possible to do something incredibly dangerous because you aren't aware of the risks -- that isn't courage or bravery, that's just plain ignorance. There's a comment on the article: > While aline to the risks? No. > While cognizant of the risks.
Izkata 3y ago
https://www.dictionary.com/browse/Aline https://www.dictionary.com/browse/Aline Down the page: British dictionary - a rare spelling of "align". The garment is apparently A-line, not aline.

nonethewiser 3y ago

I'm just amazed at how tall and skinny that structure is. Must be some strong steel. I guess the latticing provides a lot of strength as well.

pvg 3y ago
It's also cabled (guy-wired, I guess) to the ground. A mast like that was once the tallest human structure https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warsaw_radio_mast https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warsaw_radio_mast
extr0pian 3y ago
There's also probably around a dozen guyed wires holding it up.
flir 3y ago
It was timber, believe it or not. Metal guy ropes.
- EnigmaFlare 3y ago
  ? TFA says it was "was composed of latticed steel girders".
  - flir 3y ago
    I think it's wrong. Although I'm starting to doubt myself. "Horsea Island at the time was a long-range radio transmission station with four 446-foot tall masts, made from huge timbers, spread around the area." - https://www.royalnavy.mod.uk/news-and-latest-activity/news/2017/september/21/170921-commemorative-centenary-event-at-horsea-island https://www.royalnavy.mod.uk/news-and-latest-activity/news/2... "From 1909 onwards the island also became used as one of the Admiralty’s first high powered shore wireless telegraphy stations [...] Four wooden aerial ‘Marconi’ masts in eight foot tabernacles were erected, each standing 150 foot tall and held fast with wire stays." - https://maritimearchaeologytrust.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/FWFWW_SiteReport_Wireless_Stations.pdf https://maritimearchaeologytrust.org/wp-content/uploads/2020... Ok, I've found a primary source (with bonus photo of Knoulton) that says "latticed steel girders" - https://www.alamy.com/1917-daily-sketch-naval-airman-crashes-into-poulsen-radio-mast-image399296916.html https://www.alamy.com/1917-daily-sketch-naval-airman-crashes... So I think what must have happened is that the initial 150-foot wooden masts (1909) were replaced with steel masts at some point before 1917, and the first quote above confused the two stages. Ok, yes, found some supporting text. "The new station at Horsea consisted of 4 wooden aerial masts of overall height 150 feet with 8 'spreader' masts of 60 feet surrounding them. [...] The first station was out of date within 6 years and plans were made for 4 masts of an overall height of 446 feet. The first went up in 1913 to be followed by two more in 1914, the last was not finally being erected until 1921." - https://historicengland.org.uk/research/results/reports/7019/FirstWorldWarWirelessStationsinEngland https://historicengland.org.uk/research/results/reports/7019... For completeness, in this blog post we're back to wood again: "The masts dominated the skyline and were constructed as a triangular wooden lattice 7 feet each side. [...] By 1933 wireless technology no longer depended on the wooden masts and they were replaced by steel towers of 180 and 100 feet in height." - https://manorcourtupdate.blogspot.com/2015_08_01_archive.html?m=1 https://manorcourtupdate.blogspot.com/2015_08_01_archive.htm... but I'm inclined to go with the primary source (the Daily Sketch page). Annoyingly, primary sources are thin on the ground - I don't think the accident made it into the papers at the time. Drifting off the topic of the mast itself, I found that Knoulton died in 1981, and a subtly different account of the rescue: "on 14th September 1917, on Hornsea island a seaplane collided with a Poulsen mast and remained wedged in it; the pilot was unconscious and had been thrown out of his seat on to one of the wings. [Deck Hand ABBOTT Ordinary Seaman KNOWLTON and Seaman RATH], at once climbed up the mast for 100 feet, when one of them [?RATH], making use of the boatswain's chair, was hoisted up by men at the foot of the mast to the place, over 300 feet from the ground, where the seaplane was fixed. He then climbed out onto the plane and held the pilot until the arrival of ABBOTT and KNOWLTON. A gantline was then secured round the pilot who was safely lowered to the ground. All three men were well aware of the damaged and insecure condition of the mast, which was bent to an angle where the seaplane had become wedged. One of the three supports of the mast was fractured, and so far as the men knew, the mast or seaplane might at any time have collapsed." - https://www.greatwarforum.org/topic/77065-dangerous-perch/ https://www.greatwarforum.org/topic/77065-dangerous-perch/

rmason 3y ago

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lkdfjlkdfjlg 3y ago

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benatkin 3y ago

This made me think of literally an office, and The Crimson Permanent Assurance. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Crimson_Permanent_Assurance https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Crimson_Permanent_Assuranc... It is quite a story, though. I struggled to wrap my head around them carrying him off the building. With the detail of the rope, it made more sense.

1letterunixname 3y ago
It's all about improvised office weapons and the scaffolding that moves with the building. CPA should set sail for the pointless megabuildings of Austin.

a3w 3y ago

Whose 350 feet? Instructions for unclear jumped out of the plane.

a3w 3y ago
correction: 175 persons have 350 feet, if no handicapable person is included. But how did they fit in a small double decker plane?

DerCommodore 3y ago

I wonder how often this really happens

1letterunixname 3y ago

I'll use this as a meme for when an unhandled edge case causes catastrophic failure.

stevage 3y ago

Impressivetaht they had a 100m rope close at hand to lower him down with.

fbdab103 3y ago
I am imagining it was a length of rope they re-used in stretches? 100m of early century rope capable of comfortably supporting a human seems way too unwieldy to have carried that high.
- flir 3y ago
  I've thrown a bunch of links in elsewhere in the thread, but basically, there was a bosun's chair (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bosun%27s_chair https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bosun%27s_chair) running inside the mast. As far as I can figure it out one man went up in the chair to secure the pilot, waited for the other two to reach him, and the three of them managed to get the pilot into the chair and back down to the ground.

karaterobot 3y ago

I assume that in 1917, this plane wasn't going 300 miles an hour, but I'm surprised the plane didn't just break apart when it hit the tower. It looks like a dart stuck in a dartboard. Is the idea that it was going really slowly, or that the tower has enough sway to slow down the plane on impact, or...?

russellbeattie 3y ago

When a programmer has a bad day at the office, their computer crashes. When a doctor has a bad day, their patient crashes. When a pilot has a bad day, their plane crashes. When a highrise window washer has a bad day, they crash.