Quote:
Originally Posted by geekmaster
Natural gas has no natural odor of its own. That "sweet aroma of dinosaur farts" you have is "skunk juice" (i.e. a "mercaptan" thiol most easily detected by the human nose) ADDED to natural gas so that potentially dangerous gas leaks can be easily detected. Sadly, floral scents were added originally, but houses became well-distributed across local neighborhoods when folks left the oven knob cracked to make their houses smell like flowers, and somebody foolishly decided to light their pipe. Dinosaur farts indeed... 
Like cattle ranchers (or worse, pig farmers) calling their favorite stench "the smell of money", eh?  |
Geekmaster,
I wasn't talking natural gas. I was talking about the rigs that drill the oil to make all the petroleum products.
But if you want to talk natural gas explosions, the "mercaptan" thiol was not originally added to natural gas. Some companies did but it was optional.
In Texas, it became law that companies had to add it in May of 1937. The bill to add it had sat through at least two congressional sessions.
Note on March 18, 1937, the richest school in Texas exploded. It was an unscented natural gas explosion.
437 children killed. The only reason I am here today is because my grandfather skipped school to work in the east Texas oil fields.
He went back to help pull out his classmates when everyone across that part of East Texas heard the explosion.
In later years, I have met at least 2 people that heard the explosion, the nephew of the man that was holding the saw that sparked and caused the explosion and my history professor in college was the son of the first doctor on the scene.
Tyler Hospital was supposed to open their new trauma center on March 19, 1937. Needless to say the opening got pushed up a few hours.
Oh and in an odd turn of events, I am highly sensitive to "mercaptan" thiol.
That has come in very handy twice.