08-03-2019, 11:22 AM
I'm certainly not meaning to trivialising your weather, Don, but 115 degrees is nothing compared to digging soaking pit bottoms with jackhammers and the water from the three or four hoses left running to "cool" the bottom is evapourating as it hits.
For a pit to be considered suitable for digging, it had to have been shut down for a minimum of 24 hours, with all gas lines blanked and locked-out, hoses running, pit cover open and combustion air fans running during the 24 hour timeframe - that's mainly to cool the the pit's recuperators, large rooms on either side of the pit, filled with honeycombs of refractory brick through which the hot air and gasses are circulated when the pit is in operation.
There were five thermocouples (temperature sensors) in each pit, one in the pit cover, and the other four near the corners of the pit, and about 1' above the pit's floor. I recall checking the read-out on the control panel, and was shocked (the first time, anyway) to see that a couple of feet below the scale on which we were working, the accumulated material was at almost 500 degrees....I'm pretty sure that at that temperature, the readings were not very accurate, so it was likely less than the figure indicated.
Nevertheless, even a few shifts later (operations went on 24 hours a day) it wasn't uncommon for the jackhammers to reveal red-hot scale or lumps of steel.
This hot, noisy, and dirty job was, fortunately, done to the bottom diggers' own schedule: if you were too hot, thirsty, or tired, come out for a break, and for as long as needed.
Perhaps surprisingly, I have lots of fond memories of the various jobs I held there over the years.
Wayne
For a pit to be considered suitable for digging, it had to have been shut down for a minimum of 24 hours, with all gas lines blanked and locked-out, hoses running, pit cover open and combustion air fans running during the 24 hour timeframe - that's mainly to cool the the pit's recuperators, large rooms on either side of the pit, filled with honeycombs of refractory brick through which the hot air and gasses are circulated when the pit is in operation.
There were five thermocouples (temperature sensors) in each pit, one in the pit cover, and the other four near the corners of the pit, and about 1' above the pit's floor. I recall checking the read-out on the control panel, and was shocked (the first time, anyway) to see that a couple of feet below the scale on which we were working, the accumulated material was at almost 500 degrees....I'm pretty sure that at that temperature, the readings were not very accurate, so it was likely less than the figure indicated.
Nevertheless, even a few shifts later (operations went on 24 hours a day) it wasn't uncommon for the jackhammers to reveal red-hot scale or lumps of steel.
This hot, noisy, and dirty job was, fortunately, done to the bottom diggers' own schedule: if you were too hot, thirsty, or tired, come out for a break, and for as long as needed.
Perhaps surprisingly, I have lots of fond memories of the various jobs I held there over the years.
Wayne