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Blue Flame

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Blue Flame

The Chevrolet Corvette “Blue Flame” inline 6 was Chevrolet's sole engine from 1929, when it replaced their first 4-cylinder engine, the 171-cubic-inch four, through 1954, and was the base engine for the 1954, 1st generation Corvette. In 1955 they added the small block V8 to the lineup. The “Blue Flame Six” had finally been completely phased out by 1990 in North America.
……But, this tale is not about the Corvette’s engine, it is about a “Blue Flame” of another source and, flavor.
…..When I was in the United States Air Force in the mid 1950’s my job was to disassemble and inspect the electrical components of the war ending weapon known as the “FAT MAN”
…..The FAT MAN was a nuclear weapon that ended WW II in July of 1945. Now, leap forward 12 years to the cold-war era of the late 1950’s and early 1960’s. I was a member of a 5 crew task force that did the necessary maintenance on the FAT MAN class of weapons. It was our job, following intricate step by step manuals, to check the detonators that fired the conventional outer sphere of explosives that when lite off, caused a nuclear chain reaction resulting in an xx kiloton atomic explosion. We checked the electrical resistance of the wires in the fist-sized detonators to make sure they would do their job when called upon.
…..It was during one of these routine tests that one of our crew, a guy called “Lucky”, experienced a major gastronomical implosion and released a large amount of methane gas. This lighter-than-air invisible gaseous cloud drifted over to one of the electrical panels that, in those pre-OSHA days, had open, sparking contacts that not only made a clicking sound as the rectifiers powered up and down, but created visible electrical tiny bolts of sparks.
…..Ultimately, Lucky’s gas, as it was later widely labeled, came in contact with the electrical shorting-sparks and ignited into BLUE FLAME ! This ghostly, translucent blue flame quickly covered the floor of our maintenance bay, the same area where we five young tech’s were removing the detonators that were as delicate as live hand grenades!
…..Holy Crap one of us said; Oh Crapola, Lucky moaned, as he grimaced in pain from rolling into a FAT MAN support beam, now realizing that his Olympian wind breaking had also turned liquid, as happens sometimes.
…..Whoosh! As soon as it happened it was over. Bill, tech # 3 experienced singed eyebrows. My hair smelled like burnt pork, probably a leftover undigested morsel from Lucky’s late night diner, the catalyst that set the whole BLUIE FLAME incident in motion. Our commanding officer, Captain Mann, did his compulsorily write-up resulting in the installation of heavy duty mercury switches that did away with the testy crackling and snapping of the old style electric switches.
…..Our crew applied for a commendation ribbon, having survived a potential nuclear melt-down of the mushroom cloud style. The higher-ups said no.
…..Lucky?, Well he was discharged with a medical disability that resulted with him having to wear camo-intends for the rest of his life.
…..I got the mopping up detail and the other members of our crack-tech-bomb-crew did the counting of detonators that were strewn around the work area like golden oranges. Captain Mann went out and bought a 1st Gen Corvette!