By Richard T. Cartwright, PE, CHMM, (IHMM, AHMP and APICS) Fellow
The saying, “Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it” is more than a cliché. It is a reminder that we must constantly be learning from the past. Here’s a look back at major historical events that happened today in the world of hazardous materials.
December 6, 1999
Airline Maintenance Company was cleared of conspiracy charges in the crash of a plane belonging to ValuJet, which killed 110 people. The company was convicted on a series of less serious charges, including improper packaging of oxygen canisters thought to be responsible for the crash. The case involved 144 oxygen generators removed from other ValuJet planes and delivered to the ill-fated flight without required safety caps or any markings indicating the canisters were hazardous. Investigators blamed generators for starting the 2,200-degree cargo fire that brought down the plane on May 11, 1996.
December 6, 1947
President Truman dedicated Everglades National Park in Florida. In Truman’s words, “Here are no lofty peaks seeking the sky, no mighty glaciers or rushing streams wearing away the uplifted land. Here is land, tranquil in its quiet beauty, serving not as the source of water, but as the last receiver of it. To its natural abundance we owe the spectacular plant and animal life that distinguishes this place from all others in our country.”
December 6, 1917
Two ships fully loaded with ammunition exploded in Canada’s Halifax Harbor, where 1,600 people died. It was the most devastating man-made explosion in the pre-atomic age. The 8 million tons of TNT was intended for use in World War I. The ships were gathering in Halifax, a meeting point for convoys to begin dangerous Atlantic crossing, during which they were threatened by German U-boat submarines. Due to the foggy conditions, two ships collided. A fire resulted and both ships were abandoned immediately. At the same time, the French freighter Mont Blanc, its cargo hold packed with highly explosive munitions — 2,300 tons of picric acid, 200 tons of TNT, 35 tons of high-octane gasoline, and 10 tons of gun cotton — was forging through the harbor’s narrows to join a military convoy that would escort it across the Atlantic. The explosion sent burning debris throughout Halifax. It also caused a large wave to form that pushed ships at the pier up out of the harbor. A 2.5-mile radius was completely demolished. The explosion was felt 125 miles away.
December 6, 1907
An explosion occurred in a network of mines in Monongah, West Virginia, where 361 coal miners died. The explosion was caused by methane (also called “firedamp”) ignition, which ignited the coal dust in the mines. It was the worst mining disaster in American history.
December 6, 1863
Charles Martin Hall, an American chemist, was born. He invented an inexpensive electrolytic method of extracting aluminum from its ore, enabling wide commercial use of this metal. Hall realized that he needed a non-aqueous solvent for the aluminum oxide during electrolysis. Hall found that molten cryolyte (mineral sodium aluminum fluoride) was a suitable solvent. Using carbon electrodes with home-made batteries, he produced his first small globules of aluminum. Hall’s process brought the cost of aluminum, once a precious metal used for fine jewelry, down to 18 cents a pound.
December 6, 1778
Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac, a French chemist best known for his work on gases, was born. By exploding together given volumes of hydrogen and oxygen, Gay-Lussac discovered they combined in ratio 2:1 by volume to form water. His famous law of combining volumes states: that when gases combine their relative volumes bear a simple numerical relation to each other (e.g., 1:1, 2:1) and to their gaseous product (under constant pressure and temperature). He developed techniques of quantitative chemical analysis, confirmed that iodine was an element, discovered cyanogens, and improved the process for manufacturing sulfuric acid, prepared potassium and boron.
December 6, 1742
Nicolas Leblanc, French surgeon and chemist, was born. He developed a process for making soda ash (sodium carbonate) from common salt (sodium chloride). In the Leblanc process, salt was treated with sulfuric acid to obtain salt cake (sodium sulfate). This was then roasted with limestone or chalk and coal to produce black ash, which consisted primarily of sodium carbonate and calcium sulfide. The sodium carbonate was separated by first being dissolved in water and then crystallized.
Historical hazardous materials management events are posted 365 days a year at this LinkedIn discussion group.
