On the “implosion” in Springdale: What we have here, in the words of Cool Hand Luke’s captain, is “failure to communicate” (“Amid dusty cleanup, Springdale residents remain unsettled in the wake of smokestack implosions,” June 4, TribLIVE). To call what happened in Springdale (and the Hulton Bridge about six years ago) an implosion is an Orwellian misuse of words.
Implosion is an inward force. The dictionary explains it like the collapse of a gas in a glass vessel — the fragments fall inward.
What happened in Springdale was an explosion by any reasoning. To quote the Trib article, “The blast used explosives to bring down the stacks. …” Explosives like TNT don’t cause implosions. They cause what they were designed for: explosions.
The companies that do this work have one goal: to bring the structure down as cheaply as possible. They take pains, but not costly ones. The structure should have been removed mechanically with cranes and such.
The fragments shown in the article are not imaginary. They are real, just as the piece of metal that blew a hole in an Oakmont truck windshield several years ago was.
Whatever you do, don’t be close to one of these “implosions.” You could be hit with an unaccounted-for fragment, and as your mother warned, lose an eye (or two).
Tom Kerek
Oakmont