Implosions 'R Us
September 13, 2005 2:50 AM   Subscribe

KABOOM!
posted by grouse (44 comments total)
 
see also
posted by grouse at 2:51 AM on September 13, 2005


I used to think it was a precision job to make a skyscraper collapse vertically, but the WTC attacks didn't make it seem so. At least on TV, the towers seemed to fall just as if they'd been imploded on purpose. Anyone knows if they plan for that when constructing a new building, or if it just comes naturally with the high moment of inertia?
posted by springload at 3:20 AM on September 13, 2005


I don't know much, but I've been told they were too heavy to go anywhere but straight down.
posted by Acey at 3:38 AM on September 13, 2005


If you look at some of those videos, you'll see buildings collapsing inwards (not just straight down) rather than outwards. Surely that takes a little skill to do safely.
posted by grouse at 3:55 AM on September 13, 2005


Great stuff - thanks. These links reminded me of the UK's - now sadly departed - famous imploder Fred Dibnah. Watching him implode stuff on TV and rave about steam powered machinery was a real treat, and he's sorely missed.
posted by DrDoberman at 4:31 AM on September 13, 2005


Yes, it's difficult to see with all the dust, but maybe there isn't as much loose stuff flying sideways when they do it properly.
posted by springload at 4:34 AM on September 13, 2005


If you want spectacular demolition, see also Koyaanisqatsi...
posted by Zurishaddai at 4:52 AM on September 13, 2005


i thought you were leading up to the levees....
posted by TechnoLustLuddite at 4:53 AM on September 13, 2005


ATARI Kaboom.
posted by tomplus2 at 5:05 AM on September 13, 2005


Not long before the WTC attacks I was thinking about how hard it would be to tear down big skyscrapers. When you see pile of debris once some buildings are imploded, it's hard to imagine how they'd demo the Sears Tower or the Trump Tower.

They are permanent.
posted by tomplus2 at 5:14 AM on September 13, 2005


These links reminded me of the UK's - now sadly departed - famous imploder Fred Dibnah.

He didn't really implode things though, not with explosives at any rate. He chipped away at the strength of the structure, usually a mill chimney, replacing the strength with wooden blocks. He then burnt the blocks. The technique involved aiming for a gap rather than just dropping it. There's a picture here.

FWIW, I remember going to see him do this in Bradford in the mid 80's. We got the day off school to see it. The fire went out, the chimney stayed up and we all went home disappointed. I gather they had to get someone else in to finish the job.

Not that I'm having a go. Anyone who digs their own coal mine in their garden has to be a national treasure.
posted by vbfg at 5:17 AM on September 13, 2005


A few years ago a hospital in Dublin hired a group of demolition experts to safely demolish one of the old buildings. However they miscalculated the charge required and rather than falling the building just sagged.
posted by aidanf at 5:21 AM on September 13, 2005


You know, nothing helps you forget your troubles like blowing shit up.
posted by Pollomacho at 5:22 AM on September 13, 2005


This post rules.
posted by sciurus at 5:38 AM on September 13, 2005


Sad isn't it?

My first thought after seeing the title of the post was of terrorism.

I'll now take my place in line with the rest of the sheeple.
posted by Decypher at 5:46 AM on September 13, 2005


See this thread too.
posted by grouse at 5:51 AM on September 13, 2005


He means !MOOBAK
posted by Pretty_Generic at 5:58 AM on September 13, 2005


A few years ago a hospital in Dublin hired a group of demolition experts to safely demolish one of the old buildings. However they miscalculated the charge required and rather than falling the building just sagged.

A few years ago a hospital in Canberra hired someone to do the same thing.

The demolition had been planned for some time, and the ACT Government decided to turn it into a spectator event. Over 100,000 people, one of Canberra's largest ever crowds, came out to bid farewell to the birthplace of many Canberra residents.

Some poor lass died when the thing EXploded.

Katie Bender’s death was instantaneous. Katie Bender’s scalp and skullcap were severed from her head by the impact of the steel fragment which was in effect a high velocity missile. It was a massive penetrating wound to the head. Katie Bender weighed 47.5kg and was 160cm in height.

There's some pretty amazing video footage of crowds at the foreshore of the nearby lake and people sitting in canoes getting peppered with large bits of concrete. I'm surprised more people didn't die.

But don't worry folks - a number of official enquiries were held.
posted by uncanny hengeman at 6:00 AM on September 13, 2005


Wow, sheeple is now my least favorite word thanks to its overuse.
posted by Pollomacho at 6:02 AM on September 13, 2005


maybe the strait fall has a lot to do with starting the process high in the structure, instead of the base... Technically, if you would take out the supports on 1 side of the building at the base, you would get a toppling structure...

Otherwise I'd imagine they'd always tend to fall flat. I'm no engineer though... Just someone who likes this stuff.

Good post btw.

-Duff
posted by DuffStone at 6:22 AM on September 13, 2005


Awesome! A great way to start the day!
posted by Tullius at 6:42 AM on September 13, 2005


Gravity pulls straight down, hence the way the WTC towers came down. As noted above, the implosion technique looks to collapse buildings inward, but according to the Implosionworld site this is not typically done unless there is no adjoining space for the building to be dropped onto. Toppling them sideways entails blowing away a large sideways-V-shaped piece low on the structure, leaving the rest of the building to pivot downward as a unit-kind of like felling a tree. In a true implosion demolition the center core of the building is blown up first, leaving the sides to pivot inward.
posted by beagle at 7:31 AM on September 13, 2005


Aw man-- I was really hoping kablam had commented on this post. "I wonder what kablam thinks of kaboom," I thought to myself when I saw this on the front page. I hope he drops by later.
posted by Fuzzy Monster at 7:38 AM on September 13, 2005


Surely its more important what kablam thinks of kablam rather than what kablam thinks of kaboom ?
posted by sgt.serenity at 8:38 AM on September 13, 2005


It really isn't technically an IMplosion, is it?
posted by agregoli at 8:39 AM on September 13, 2005


Go on , entertain us all with why its not an implosion.
posted by sgt.serenity at 8:41 AM on September 13, 2005


Sorry , IM plosion
posted by sgt.serenity at 8:42 AM on September 13, 2005


I was watching a show on demolition and they said the word implosion is used a lot - but it's not really an implosion because a series of explosions are used. Looking at the dictionary I see that the second definition of implode might be used:

1 a : to burst inward a blow causing a vacuum tube to implode b : to undergo violent compression -massive stars which implode

2 : to collapse inward as if from external pressure; also : to become greatly reduced as if from collapsing
transitive senses : to cause to implode

But that still doesn't seem correct to me. Shrug. Just a note.
posted by agregoli at 8:55 AM on September 13, 2005


b : to undergo violent compression -massive stars which implode

hmmm maybe its that one , that nearly fits i think.
posted by sgt.serenity at 9:11 AM on September 13, 2005


How does it fit? I don't know much about stars imploding. But the building is collapsing and falling down from explosions placed inside of it. It's not strictly imploding towards a single point inside of it the way I think a star does. It's just falling.
posted by agregoli at 9:16 AM on September 13, 2005


Incomplete Wikipedia article
posted by agregoli at 9:20 AM on September 13, 2005


It's just falling--with style!
posted by MrMoonPie at 9:22 AM on September 13, 2005


"Where's the kaboom? There was supposed to be an earth-shattering kaboom!" - Marvin the Martian
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 9:31 AM on September 13, 2005




Aye , he pushes them doon with his fluffy grey beard.
posted by sgt.serenity at 11:49 AM on September 13, 2005


... I was thinking about how hard it would be to tear down big skyscrapers ... it's hard to imagine how they'd demo the Sears Tower or the Trump Tower. They are permanent.

How do you demolish a skyscraper? They had to do it this year in Madrid because of the Windsor Tower fire. Too dangerous for workers to enter, it was dismantled by crane. Demolition was completed about three weeks ago.

People may enjoy my account of an observatory demolition at Northwestern University -- oddly enough, ten years ago today.

I feel old.
posted by dhartung at 11:55 AM on September 13, 2005


"Things fall not because they are acted upon by some gravitational force, but because a higher intelligence, 'God' if you will, is pushing them down," said Gabriel Burdett, who holds degrees in education, applied Scripture, and physics from Oral Roberts University

Well Gravity is just a theory I suppose
posted by fullerine at 12:06 PM on September 13, 2005


Oral Roberts ?
posted by sgt.serenity at 1:22 PM on September 13, 2005


It's a real university. I had a friend who went there. She was a devout Christian when she started, but the sheer quantity of batshitinsane believers she was surrounded with led her to reevaluate her own beliefs.
posted by grouse at 1:28 PM on September 13, 2005


Gravity pulls straight down, hence the way the WTC towers came down.

Oh, do tell. This is the most brilliant thing I've read today. If the metal substructure had been heated to the point of losing its temper on only one side it would have fallen like a tree (upon which, you may recall, gravity is also at play).
posted by spock at 7:59 PM on September 13, 2005


I was on my way to the Canberra hopital im^H^Hexplosion, but missed the bus to Civc (I was going to jump off at Albert Hall). I heard the KABOOM in Curtin. Two minutes later I was wondering what all the sirens were about.
posted by obiwanwasabi at 11:19 PM on September 13, 2005


So you're telling me thats somebodys real name ?
posted by sgt.serenity at 12:44 AM on September 14, 2005




sgt.serenity: Oral Roberts
posted by grouse at 12:00 PM on September 14, 2005


« Older TOOL   |   The Coldest War Newer »


This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments