Tuesday, January 16, 2007

Steven Jones is Experimenting

Former BYU professor Steven Jones, who apparently has more time on his hands now that he is retired, has finally started to experiment with recreating his theoretical thermite demolition device. This has been a major criticism of him for a while, so I have to give him credit for at least trying. He claims this device was shown to be able to cut through structural steel, and provides a photograph of his "proof of concept".
















OK, I know this is just a "proof of concept", but I think the steel beams in the World Trade Center were a little bigger than that....

Jones later goes on to quote the NFPA 921 Guide for Fire and Explosion Investigations:

"Unusual residues might remain from the initial fuel. Those residues could arise from thermite, magnesium, or other pyrotechnic materials."
This is standard for fire and explosion investigations -- Why was the standard not applied to the WTC "crime scene"? I'm saying it should be. And as with other crime-scene investigations, once a pyrotechnic material's presence has been established, then the next step is a criminal investigation to determine who planted the pyrotechnic (such as thermate).

Uhh, Dr. Jones, that is for cases of arson, not airplane crashes. Even you aren't claiming the fires at the World Trade Center were started with thermite. Notice that thermite is used as an incendiary, not an explosive.

10 Comments:

At 16 January, 2007 10:17, Anonymous Anonymous said...

James,

I acknowledge and respect the points you are making here.

 
At 16 January, 2007 10:22, Blogger Alex said...

Hah! Look at the thickness of the metal he uses. Now imagine that thing ramped up to a large enough size to cut through a steel column. The walls of his device would have to be thicker than the column itself! A safe bet would be that each such device would weigh a good 250 lbs or more. Meanwhile, assuming that they even work, you could achieve the same effect with a 2lbs of c4.

Ah well, at least he's trying. Gotta give him credit for that.

 
At 16 January, 2007 17:44, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Has Dr. Emmett Brown been peer-reviewed?

 
At 17 January, 2007 06:42, Blogger The Masked Writer said...

Now imagine that thing ramped up to a large enough size to cut through a steel column. The walls of his device would have to be thicker than the column itself.

Alex, amazingly I was thinking just that same thing. Then I realized I was thinking like you and decided...

that you could use two smaller devices and place them on each side. Or perhaps four even smaller devices on place them on all four sides. Or hell for that matter you could use any number of smaller devices to achieve the goal.

But I do finally agree with you on something...he is at least trying.

James In all fairness it is the manual for fire and explosives.

 
At 17 January, 2007 09:37, Blogger Unknown said...

I love the pik of the core girder that was cut with torches. The whaks say it was done with thermite as part of the CD. If you look at the girder, it would have had to of had charges on bothsides and a hole in the middle to weaken as is done on all large girders. There were something like 47 in the core. How could this be done and nobody notice? Were the core girders exposed or covered up? Why were these socalled explosives placed on different levels? How did the planes hit the exact spot where they were suposidly planted?

 
At 17 January, 2007 16:14, Blogger Unknown said...

that you could use two smaller devices and place them on each side. Or perhaps four even smaller devices on place them on all four sides. Or hell for that matter you could use any number of smaller devices to achieve the goal.

Umm, not really. Thermite burns in the direction of gravity. Thermite can not cut a verticle column from the side. Hmm, maybe that's why they don't use it for controlled demolitions......

 
At 17 January, 2007 18:10, Blogger The Reverend Schmitt., FCD. said...

Swing Dangler said...
that you could use two smaller devices and place them on each side. Or perhaps four even smaller devices on place them on all four sides. Or hell for that matter you could use any number of smaller devices to achieve the goal.


Yeah it's not like space or time is an issue.

 
At 18 January, 2007 06:39, Blogger Unknown said...

There has never been thermite used in any building demolition, the charges are hi explosives. The force and heat are directed to the girder and disapate quickly. Now they say it was thermite but never say how or when it was planted or why it is never used in building demolition. Thermite burns hot and would have had little effect on the colapse because explosive demolition happens very fast. Thermite is just a buzzword for the whaks because they think it sounds impressive. Thermite leaves a trace and cools off quickly. It would've been found at day 1.

 
At 26 December, 2009 16:48, Blogger Procurando a Verdade said...

Thermite can be used in shaped charge and detonate against any direction you choose.

The use of C4 shaped charge Krakatoa like combined with thermite can easily cut those beans and put he building in powder

 
At 26 December, 2009 16:49, Blogger Procurando a Verdade said...

Thermite can be used in shaped charge and detonate against any direction you choose.

The use of C4 shaped charge Krakatoa like combined with thermite can easily cut those beans and put he building in powder

 

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