16 October 2011
Quote of the Day: Cracked
From 5 Unintentionally Hilarious Soviet Versions of Good Ideas:
The Soviet's first nuclear-powered submarine was ironically not named the Red October but the November Class. Apart from sounding like something Realtors have to attend when their licenses are about to expire, they did have some cool features. Like the [US Navy submarine] Nautilus, they could stay under water for months at a time. At least until they decided to spontaneously combust, that is.
But if you can believe it, that wasn't the real problem. The Soviets, knowing that fires kill people, installed a nice fire suppression system for the crew. The fire suppression system on the November-class submarine was largely carbon dioxide, or CO2. Since fires, like people, have to breathe oxygen, CO2 kills fires very effectively. Now guess what it does to the people.
On September 8, 1967, submarine K-3 caught fire. Swinging into action, the fire suppression system promptly activated and proceeded to kill everyone in the first two compartments, no matter how close the crew was to the actual fire. Later when the remaining crew opened up the hatch to the first two compartments, the CO2 gas spread even more, creating more problems.
Naturally the Soviets realized that a fire-safety system that killed people wasn't very effective. So they did the sensible thing: They covered it all up and pretended nothing ever happened. Then on April 8, 1970, the K-8 caught fire and sank entirely. The entire crew was lost. And the vast majority of deaths were not due to the fire or the flooding of the submarine. It was -- you guessed it -- CO2 poisoning.
The Soviet's first nuclear-powered submarine was ironically not named the Red October but the November Class. Apart from sounding like something Realtors have to attend when their licenses are about to expire, they did have some cool features. Like the [US Navy submarine] Nautilus, they could stay under water for months at a time. At least until they decided to spontaneously combust, that is.
But if you can believe it, that wasn't the real problem. The Soviets, knowing that fires kill people, installed a nice fire suppression system for the crew. The fire suppression system on the November-class submarine was largely carbon dioxide, or CO2. Since fires, like people, have to breathe oxygen, CO2 kills fires very effectively. Now guess what it does to the people.
On September 8, 1967, submarine K-3 caught fire. Swinging into action, the fire suppression system promptly activated and proceeded to kill everyone in the first two compartments, no matter how close the crew was to the actual fire. Later when the remaining crew opened up the hatch to the first two compartments, the CO2 gas spread even more, creating more problems.
Naturally the Soviets realized that a fire-safety system that killed people wasn't very effective. So they did the sensible thing: They covered it all up and pretended nothing ever happened. Then on April 8, 1970, the K-8 caught fire and sank entirely. The entire crew was lost. And the vast majority of deaths were not due to the fire or the flooding of the submarine. It was -- you guessed it -- CO2 poisoning.
Labels: random silliness
# posted by mamurd @ 7:50 PM 
