The Cellar - Want to see what Pam sees every day?

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- - Want to see what Pam sees every day? (http://cellar.org/showthread.php?t=31079)

First thing I notice is that this is not a fixed CCTV camera. Someone's operating it, zooming, tracking the action. There must be a team that monitors the motorway cameras and waits for something unusual to go down, so they can capture anything that happens in detail.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Undertoad (Post 975231)

The Highways Agency is responsible for the motorway cameras which are operated from a number of control centres.

They are primarily used in connection with traffic accidents, breakdowns and congestion management.

I did try to copy and paste the relevant paragraph from the Agency website but, for some unknown reason, random asterisks appeared in the middle of most of the words. LINK.

Public access to the cameras is permitted, but you have to create an account. LINK.

ETA It is possible to see still images from the HA cameras on the travel section of the BBC website.
Not perfect, but it will give you an idea. Click the traffic camera symbol as it's disabled by default.

Here's something Pam doesn't see every day... at least not yet.

Fuel's included, nice. I wonder if a broom is standard equipment as well.

Attachment 58725

Quote:

The technology was developed by John C. Stennis Space Center to visually assess the presence, location, and extent of hydrogen fires. The need for such equipment was generated by the center's use of more than one million gallons of liquid hydrogen per month in its rocket engine test programs. Indeed, hydrogen fires are a significant risk.
Previously, firefighters responding to a hydrogen fire had to give the suspect area "the broom test" by carefully probing the suspect area with a corn straw broom to determine the presence and location of a fire. This technique has significant safety and accuracy shortfalls, particularly in windy outdoor conditions where flames can easily change direction.

I've heard of these coming. I kind of like the appearance. It reminds me of a bullet train locomotive. It looks like it's fast, even parked.

I don't know that I would be comfortable with hydrogen as fuel though. A fuel leak would be....disastrous... to say the least. Natural gas trucks exist now, but are not living up to expectations and are probably going to quietly disappear pretty soon, or will be relegated to local runs only, or to buses and other such vehicles.

I don't know if it's a forced perspective thing caused by the people in the background or what, but, that thing looks ginormous.:3_eyes:

I mean even more so than a regular semi.

Hydrogen fuel is safer than gasoline.

In a nutshell, hydrogen is more likely to leak than gasoline because it has to be transported under high pressure and the atoms are very small and easily able to escape through smaller holes.

But unlike gasoline, if it does leak, it doesn't hang around or pool on the ground. It disperses faster than most other gasses. It is the least dense gas and will just float right up to the top layers of the atmosphere.

This is a good report on the topic.

Quote:

In many actual leak situations the key parameter that determines if a leak would ignite is the lower flammability limit, and hydrogen’s lower flammability limit is 4 times higher than that of gasoline, 1.9 times higher than that of propane and slightly lower than that of natural as.
...

The conclusion of this study is that in a collision in open spaces, a safety-engineered hydrogen fuel cell car should have less potential hazard than either natural gas or a gasoline vehicle. In a tunnel collision, a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle should be nearly as safe as a natural gas vehicle, and both should be potentially less hazardous than a gasoline or propane vehicle, based on computer simulations comparing substantial post collision release of gasoline and natural gas in a tunnel. The greatest potential risk to the public appears to be a slow leak in an enclosed home garage, where an accumulation of hydrogen could lead to fire or explosion if no hydrogen detection or risk mitigation devices or measures are applied (such as passive or active ventilation).

Great, won't that further destroy the ozone?

I didn't know the answer to this, but looking in to it, it seems that it won't be a problem. The ozone hole was created mainly by CFCs and they have been regulated out of existence for the most part. So the ozone layer is expected to bounce back. Hydrogen also causes ozone depletion, but not as bad as CFCs so the net result is the ozone situation will continue to improve.

I'm no expert though.

Sounds good anyway, thanks.

There's hydrogen already up there anyway. Not nearly as much as other gasses, but...

It's not the hydrogen, it's what comes out of the tailpipe that's the concern. I guess the exhaust from hydrogen burning is better than diesel.

Quote:

The combustion of hydrogen with oxygen produces water as its only product:

2H2 + O2 → 2H2O

~Wikipedia

Does that apply to our truck's situation. I'm too lazy to find out.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gravdigr (Post 975536)

There's hydrogen already up there anyway. Not nearly as much as other gasses, but...

Quote:

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce (Post 975541)

It's not the hydrogen, it's what comes out of the tailpipe that's the concern. I guess the exhaust from hydrogen burning is better than diesel.

I was more referring to Glatt's and Classic's situation up there around post #202.

Yup, just water vapor coming out.