Comments on: Episode 62: Killer Cable Snaps

By: NICK

NICK — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 01:32:41 +0000

cables when they break fray at there ends, and from experence are very sharp what if you were hit by the frayed ends of a broken steel or some other cable i have feeling you would not end up to well.

By: Brian

Brian — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 13:03:34 +0000

The pottery recording in from the X-File’s the Lazarus Bowl

By: Sailor

Sailor — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 17:25:04 +0000

The major concern I have with how they busted this myth is the fact that they used a release to allow the wire to snap back. if the wire had parted under the stresses imposed on it, it would have been because it was stretched past it’s limit. It would have parted and contracted, causing an elastic reaction. The wire hadn’t reached it’s stretch limit because they released it remotely before it got there. In the Navy, as mentioned earlier, we use videos to teach this. I have seen lines part and the results are not pretty. Synthetic line is more dangerous usually but some lines are designed to simply drop in place when they part. (Kevlar is one of them) A training film I once saw shows a mooring line parting and snapping back to COMPLETELY SWEVER THE DECK HOUSE!!! If it can slice off a steel structure I see no reason why it wouldn’t slice through a human.

By: Wes McIntyre

Wes McIntyre — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 07:01:21 +0000

come to Whistler Blackcomb and retest your tests on our winchcats (snowcats in a bog mountain environment on cables)

By: Stan

Stan — Fri, 01 May 2009 04:01:48 +0000

1 1/8 cable used on rig moving trucks in the oil patch make one hell of a mess when they snap.
There is a reason the headache racks on the back of the winch trucks are built so sturdily.
Same with dozers, the heavy 1/2″ wire mesh on the back of the ROPS is there for when the winch cable breaks.
The 4WD poster above is right, stay back at least the length of the cable.

By: Doug

Doug — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 07:05:47 +0000

Id love to see the wire rope myth revisted. Never seen it happen, but im sure the force of a 1 1/4 cable breaking would do a lot more damage than 5/8. As others stated, nylon or synthetics can have even more force.

By: Greg

Greg — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 17:08:51 +0000

I was in the Navy in the late 80’s and have seen training films showing a CDP (cross deck pendant, AKA arresting gear cable) snap and sever a flight deck worker’s body just above the waist. Completely in two pieces, guts hanging and the whole thing. They showed us this film at least 5 times while at A school, and I saw it several more times throughout my 6 year enlistment. I don’t recall the name, but it was always shown with “The man from LOX” and the forrestal flight deck fire film. Surely there are some former ABH’s out there that have seen these films!

By: Ian from Scotland

Ian from Scotland — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 18:19:31 +0000

First of all…LOVE…the show.
Anyhoo…..Many moons ago, early sixties I think, there was an incident that made news in the “Kyles of Bute”, part of the River Clyde estuary. A steamer called “Queen Mary ll” (no…not the big new one)was moored at the pier at “Tighnabruaich”. One of the mooring cables snapped and lashed across the pier, severing a woman`s leg. Nasty!!
So, the myth of the killer cable must be at least plausible….Hmmm?

By: Andrew

Andrew — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 22:10:38 +0000

I agree with Andrew C. After attending the Marine Institute of St. John’s NL. I have learned that using some synthetic rope of any size would have a deadly outcome.

By: bukster

bukster — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 07:15:05 +0000

The pottery recording story got a boost today from the BBC news website. In 1860, an inventor Edouard-Leon Scott de Martinville tried etching sound into soot covered paper using a device he called a phonautograph. There was no way to play the sound back. He was just interested in the patterns the sound made into the paper. However using modern analysis, it is now possible to try to replicate the sound.

Here’s the BBC website link. You can hear the sound. The recording quality is terrible. However, it is now the oldest voice recorded ever.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7318180.stm