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1948 Mayor To MIT: Use Flamethrowers To Melt Snow?
An anonymous reader writes "In 1948 Boston mayor James Curley freaked out because of the record amounts of snow. He wrote to MIT and begged for help, even suggested using flamethrowers to melt it. (Check out the original type-written letter.)"
I'd like to head out there and just use some brush burners to get rid of the snow on my driveway.
don't cities like this have steam plants with steam pipes through significant portions of the city? divert some steam to melt some snow
When the snow melts, the contaminants are going to go into the river anyway, so why does it make sense to ban dumping the snow in the river?
Anyway, in my thermodynamics class back in college, one problem we were given was to calculate how much energy it would take to melt all the snow across the campus. The thermodynamics does not work to the advantage of economically getting rid of the snow using flamethrowers.
Tell him we need a giant version, STAT.
MG
The Sun is ineffective at melting the snow.
Higher air temperatures melt the snow.
If you've ever lived somewhere that gets snow cover and then arctic high pressure fronts you'd know that snow and clear sunny days equal record low temperatures.
WE dont, the only reason we have these problems are cheap bastards against spending taxes.
IT is trivial to make roadways heated to keep ice and snow buildup down. Many large corporations and rich people have this already. Problem is a bunch of idiots whine like babies if we spend tax dollars heating sidewalks and roads in the cities.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Step 1: build pier into the ocean
Step 2: push snow off pier into ocean
Step 3: ????
Step 4: PROFIT!!!!!!
-Runz
Doesn't the Secret Service have a supply of flame throwers they've used in the past to clear out streets when the president is suddenly snowed in somewhere? I remember reading about that, but I don't remember which president it was for...
Many cities use snow melters to deal with snow; that's basically the same thing. I really wonder why environmentalists aren't up in arms about it; the snow melters can burn hundreds of gallons of fuel an hour, which is more fuel than it takes to a heat a house for a month.
Please help metamoderate.
Simple... The snow melts, the water flows a few feet out of the path of the heater, and freezes solid, exposing you to potential liability if someone slips and breaks their hip.
The reason sun doesn't melt snow too fast is it's white. Sprinkle a little black ash on it and watch it just sink. Dirty snow always melts faster.
They could just be sprinkling ash around on the snowbanks and huge snowpiles to get things melting faster. Such a simple idea, I don't know why they're not doing it. Ash isn't too environmentally unfriendly... certainly better than all the salt they're using.
I work for the Department of Redundancy Department.
But it's DIRTY and I don't want it in my neighborhood! That's why I just pour my automotive antifreeze on my driveway. Clean and good-smelling!
+1 Disagree
CT Homes have 4-5ft deep piles.
I'm not sure what we will do if another 12" falls.
As someone who grew up in an area that managed not to call 2 feet of snow a national emergency (which is about all it takes to create 5' piles), you take the new snow and throw it on top of the pile. Or, if necessary, you make the base of the pile bigger. If really and absolutely necessary, you pile the new snow into a sled and pull the sled into the middle of the lawn and dump it there. Sometimes the answer to a difficult problem really is just to work a bit harder. Sad but true.
I first watched this film in German ... and then I watched it later in English ... some guy (with a brilliant Texan accent) traded some guns with flame throwers and nets to some creepy crawler alien folks for stones which they didn't have. It's a hoot and a half!
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
Tell you what, I'll tell them to go ahead---- And send the bill to you.
Cute - you want a public service, but payment should be provided only by those who admit that it's necessary. Just pretending you don't need it - but happily benefiting from it - means you get to leach of other people who are more honest. Is that the idea?
My south facing house gets plenty of sun and the snow on my lawn melts even without the temperature getting very high. My neighbors house across the street (north facing) doesn't.
And it clears up the pesky stray pet population.
So, they can't dump it into the river because of contaminants, but instead they'll wait for it to melt and wash into the river?
Am I missing something here?
the russians don't mess around when it comes to snow removal. they take a klimov vk-1 jet engine from a mig-15 and strap it on a truck, amongst other eyebrow raising configurations:
http://www.darkroastedblend.com/2009/08/jet-engines-on-trucks-for-fun-and.html
i think i would step a little livelier if i saw a snow plow like that coming at me down the street
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Something about letters from that era that are just so simply elegant. I love reading letters from that time.
Weaselmancer
rediculous.
I think the idea is that you melt the snow near the storm drains, first.
There's an extremely long history of people considering that actions that lead to a bad result are bad, while inaction that leads to the same bad result is much less bad. I'm not saying it's a logical mindset, but it is very definitely how humans think. A common example, when ethics and economics people talk about this, is: if you push someone in front of a train you're a murderer, but if you don't pull someone who is on the tracks off, or signal the train to stop, you're merely a selfish bastard.
Nostalgia's not what it used to be.
The night before John F. Kennedy's inauguration in 1961, a snowstorm dumped 8 inches of snow on Washington DC. The Army Corps of Engineers worked franticly, using flamethrowers to clear the streets. Click here for the full story.
To make laws that man cannot, and will not obey, serves to bring all law into contempt.
--E.C. Stanton
Coal ash is the residue from burning coal. Were coal actually just chunks of carbon, it would be largely inoffensive(and a gas). Trouble is, coal tends to contain a number of interesting trace elements, sulfur, heavy metals, and similar fun. Thus, in quantity, the stuff left over that either doesn't burn, or burns into a solid compound of some kind, can kill its way quite merrily through a watershed.
Other than posing some dust irritant/inhalation hazard when airborne, reasonably pure carbon black could be sprinkled on top of snow to accelerate its melting without serious issues...
You do realize that heating up a road surface requires an ungodly amount of energy, right? That's why only rich bastards and megacorporations can afford such things. To say such astronomical costs could be covered by taxes is like saying we could all be chauffeured around in Bentleys on taxes.
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
While it sounds funny, when I actually read it my thought was "he seems like a reasonable man."
He saw something happening, used his past observations to predict a likely outcome if no action was taken, realized this outcome would be dangerous to the people he was sworn to protect, and then asked people who are smarter than he is what he should do to prevent or reduce the bad outcome.
He gave them some ideas that he had come up with and asked if they were worth investigating. While they may have been silly ideas, at least he had the common sense to ask smarter people for help figuring out what to do instead of just pursuing whatever boneheaded idea he came up with. Does anyone remember the recent "possums released into NYC to deal with rats" story?
I think we could use more public officials like this guy.
This a new low, even for slashdot. I know stories are late here, but 1948???
Next on slashdot, an article about how scientists are developing this interesting electronic device called a "computer" and how it will revolutionize the world.
Similar to the upcoming US election results