Mark Borgerson wrote:
> In article ,
> drawnai{at}hotmail.com says...
> > I'd give it away for free, just to save lives.
> >
> > In fact they already exist. Stuntmen use them for falling off high
> > buildings.
> >
> Yes, but stunt men get training and have the balls to jump off
> a high building.   People in a burning building certainly have
> incentive, but do they have training and enough courage to
> use the device without panicking?

Are you telling me, that having watched the World Trade Centre live on
TV, and stuck in the same situation, you wouldn't jump off?

> > In the world trade centre bombing, practically everyone on the
upper
> > floors would have got out, had their been a cable harness,
consisting
> > of several hundred feet of free fall and 200 feet (the last bit
> > obviously) of governed decelleration.
>
> How would they have fared (and how would the cables do) going past
> the burning floors?

This is why there's not much speed restriction until the bottom.

>
> Where does the energy go that represents decelerating a 220 pound
> person from   terminal velocity to zero?  Hmmm.  100Kg x 50m/sec
> = 5000Kg M/sec or  about 5000Watts (did I get the right conversion
> factor).  Does that energy go into the cable, or into heating

The cable will no doubt stretch, but a real of sufficient strength
can be easily engineered.

> the device worn by the jumper?  either way that's a lot of
> heat to dissipate?

Yes. The, governor, with it's centrifugal governor, and carbon fibre
clutch is completely fucked once it it used, but that's ok, since the
building's just about to fall down and destroy it anyway.

>
> Who takes the people off the cable that faint on the way down?

The 99% of people who don't faint?

> >
> > In fact, a government could be considered criminally negligent for
not
> > requiring these things to be installed in very building over a
hundred
> > feet high.
> >
> > Compared to the cost of the insurance, at 50 dollars a head for
5000
> > people? That's 250,000 dollars. Just one guy in World trade centre
2,
> > cost Lloyds 25 million.
> >
> > There would have been literally no casualties on the non-hit
floors.
>
> Have you ever seen such a rig used from 90 floors up--on a windy day?
> How much does the cable weigh and how many cables do you need?  One

It's a once only device. Like a bunjy jump that doesn't rebound. You
don the harness, and clip it onto the cable, then smash the window and
jump out. It's a one way trip. The cable allows a maximum speed of say
30 metres per second until 100 metres from the ground, and then
decelerates at the last moment, to something like 1 metre per second,
by ground level.

This way, anyone falling through the flames wouldn't be exposed to them
for more than a second.

> per floor?  One per 5 floors?   How do you keep the cables (and
people)

One per person.

> from higher floors from colliding and tangling with people on lower
> floors?

You don't need to. Everyone's going downwards.


>
> Have you actually tested this idea with a drop of more than 300 feet?
> With more than 10 people using the same cable?
>
> Do you have more than one person on the cable at a time?

No. Check out the breaking strain for plastic coated steel cable.

>
>
> I think the biggest problem would be getting anyone to manufacture
> the system given the potential liabilities involved.   Heck, the
> cost of liability insurance represents about 20% of the cost of
> a simple step ladder?   What would the proportion be for this device?
>

The insurers of the building would pay for the loss. I'm a scientist, I
advocate murder of anyone found guilty of murder, this would reduce the
net loss of innocent life, factoring in recidivism alone. The same is
true here. 3000 people wire jump out of the world trade centre, this
results in 2000 people bruised, 900 with sprains, 90 with broken
legs/arms, 5 crippled, 5 dead. This is a whole lot better than 3000
dead.

> Sounds like an interesting idea---if you have the engineering worked
> out properly.

Yes. I have. A once only device is child's play to make.

>
>
> Mark Borgerson



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