History lessons on steam

That incident with the steam at that Japanese nuclear plant puts me in mind of a history lesson I once had. My teacher, whose name I forget and whose reasons for recounting the story also slip my mind, got chatting to the class about his time aboard a naval vessel. ”Steam”, he said, ”is a very nasty thing indeed” and he then went on to recount to us an episode from one of his voyages when he was involved in tracking down a high pressure steam leak. The technique employed for doing this involved, basically, a bunch of crew members wandering about with large pieces of cardboard in hand, extended out in front of them as they walked passed various pipes etc.

”Impossible to see, these leaks, and terribly dangerous. Could cut a man in half, hence the cardboard. When it starts to slice, you’ve found the leak” he said, or words to that effect.

I don’t know how much truth there was in what he told us but the cutting in half and the slicing sure held the attention of the class. It was a fascinating lesson in something, though I am not sure what.

Ahh, Mr. Milton, the name just came to me. I thought him a fine teacher until we had a falling out just before exam time. Another story that one, but suffice it to say it was the first time I realised that teachers were capable of a serious lack of judgement.