Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!att!cbnews!military From: munnari!softway.sw.oz.au!thos@uunet.UU.NET (Thomas Cohen) Newsgroups: sci.military Subject: Re: Burning steel Summary: Thermal lance. Message-ID: <1990Jul9.023726.9507@cbnews.att.com> Date: 9 Jul 90 02:37:26 GMT References: <1990Jul6.032737.27677@cbnews.att.com> Sender: military@cbnews.att.com (William B. Thacker) Organization: Softway Pty Ltd, Sydney, Australia Lines: 22 Approved: military@att.att.com From: munnari!softway.sw.oz.au!thos@uunet.UU.NET (Thomas Cohen) In article <1990Jul6.032737.27677@cbnews.att.com> nak@cbsck.att.com (Neil A Kirby) writes: } Steel does burn if you give it enough oxygen. An article in the } Smithsonian on, of all things, safecracking (and vault breaking) } included the latest in that technology: the burning bar. This is known as a thermal lance and has been around at least from 1960-odd. Not really new, but again it doesn't have to be at the temperatures it burns. Also it can be used (like oxy-acetylene) underwater and in non-oxygenated (?) atmospheres. -- thos cohen |Softway Pty Ltd English is a living language, but |ACSnet: thos@softway.oz "Simple illiteracy is no basis for |UUCP: ...!uunet!softway.oz!thos for linguistic evolution" - Dwight MacDonald |Internet: thos@softway.oz.au