"Pyromancer" <
[email protected]> wrote in message
news:
[email protected]...
> Upon the miasma of midnight, a darkling spirit identified as JLB
> <[email protected]> breathed:
>
> >There has to be some balance. I enjoyed metalwork at school but I've
> >got doubts about the occasion (mid 1970's) when we were making things
> >from cast aluminium; one of my friends dropped a crucible of molten
> >metal on the concrete floor and, propelled by vapourised moisture from
> >the floor, the whole class, assembled to watch, was showered with drops
> >of liquid aluminium. Clothes smouldering, hair burning and an
> >unfortunate few clutching their faces while stumbling about screaming.
> >Nobody was blinded. Perhaps it's not worth trying to prevent such
> >things. If you've got children how would you feel?
>
> That's the problem - people elevate "my child!!!" to a status higher
> than society as a whole. This is bad for society.
The problem is that the H&S Nazis are now going too far. They are trying to
eliminate risk and so are reducing the educational worth of any activity.
Risk is good. We have to learn to handle risk. It is when we cannot -- and
I fear we are breeding a generation unable to evaluate and compensate for
risk -- that accidents happen.
The explosions, bangs and evil stinks that were generated in school's chemi
lab (or outside in the middle of the field) were impressive. Much of this
thread is about people having been impressed by responsible teachers taking
limited risks. They were also relatively safe -- because we had teachers
able to assess the risks and design the bang to engender the right mix of
shock and awe.
Burning a 5 mm length of magnesium ribbon is fine. Setting light to a
significant chunk on the other side of the (large) school field in the
gloaming such that the whole bloody place was lit up for several seconds was
much more impressive. Chucking a bit of potassium or sodium in a bucket is
fine -- doing it across the field such that the bucket blew apart makes sure
no one in their right mind would 'try this at home'.
A late '50's penny (1d) banger would have the H&S Nazis rushing for their
risk assessments and modern kids diving for cover. Yet we carried them
round in our pockets and threw them at each other, cats, old biddies etc..
Acceptable risk -- no. It was dangerous and stupid -- too many got hurt.
It is reasonable to control such activities.
I visited a school recently and the kids had safety glasses, rubber gloves,
almost NBC suits on -- for one of those 'nice' chemical reactions where the
liquid changes colour then precipitates out a white sludge. For goodness
sake.
By the way, a '50's 3d banger would have the H&S Nazis diving for cover.
They would probably class them as 'munitions'. They were much more fun :~)