Has anyone given any thought to a "Health & Safety" section here in the lounge? We have what seems like a lot of people out there trying to reduce the gene pool and maybe, just maybe it might warn one of these knuckle draggers they are about to commit "indirect suicide"! Just a thought...That youtube entry (now pulled) would wake most people up, but then maybe they think, "were do I go for the right advice?" Right here! Just a thought...
@george It sounds like a very good idea, but it is too little and way to late to do any good. Cheers, Norman
@Norman never to late to learn, my friend. If one individual can be "saved" then I think we have made some progress. Education is the key here. One of the very first non-Coleman pressure lanterns I collected about 30-35 years ago was a European kerosene model. I knew nothing about it and never even thought about using kerosene under pressure. Believe me, after putting gasoline in the lantern and attempting to light it, and singeing my eyebrows off and damn near setting my hair (yeah, I had hair at the time) on fire, I was totally baffled... no where to turn, no internet in those days. If only there was some place I could go to for help. I finally found it... an advert for a Coleman kerosene lantern! I figured that European lantern was kerosene fueled! Ah yes, the idiot found a new village! I figure if we place what we know here on various fuels for pressure it's in one place for everyone to read.
Unfortunately, there seems to be a large percentage of the human population who see no need or have no desire for education. They seem to think that education ended the day they left school - or, more likely, years before that...
Didn't @Mackburner write something like this? I'm sure I have seen some sort of thing about 'staying alive' or 'living longer' ? It was very good reading
That's the one ! Thanks @ROBBO55 Can we vote for this to be put somewhere prominent?.. Or is it there already and I just can't see it for looking?
I wonder if it is possible/desirable to send/include that link as part of the "welcome to the board email" ?
I don't like pointers, and besides many who register as a new member are already "in the business". Better to just simply direct those who obviously need more information to Neil's article. I made it a "Sticky", so it will always be on top in the articles section where it is now, and thus easy to find when needed. However, that's in the subscribers section, so I might duplicate it to an open area (as a sticky in the regular Pressure lamps discussion forum), if Neil doesn't have anything to object. @Mackburner
Its a good idea and well-intended. Just like in many instruction manuals for any product, the Health & Safety section usually comes first. Unfortunately, I notice that the section is more often skipped than not. (Or rather, the entire instruction manual is just put aside or thrown away and with the product being used straight away).
Some people seem to think instructions don't apply to them, and this is where people get into trouble! I guess I'm a hoarder but I never throw away any instructions, lanterns or otherwise.
For some folk, it's a 'man thing' - reading the instructions is a sign of weakness and indicates someone who is not in control. My father was a prime example...
On others, the instructions are read ONLY after one fails to get something working. Many still find reading them to be a chore because its often so detailed and lengthy. Or perhaps the printings are too tiny to be legible. Or they are not available in the language that he or she could understand.
I never saw this article when I joined and it would have been really helpful. Disagree that new members will always have some baseline knowledge when the join the forum. I didn’t and for the most part still don’t have a clue what I’m doing even 6 months and 12 lanterns in. It has been a steep learning curve.
I wrote it to be read by all and it seems reasonable to have it available without subscription as most newcomers will browse before subscribing. In a former life I created many risk assements for the HSE, which as a government body, has a pretty bad press but in most cases actually forces working managers to consider risk carefully and that article doesn't go far enough. I know it wouldn't satisfy the guys in my local HSE office. Still it is a start and I am pleased that it seems have approval here. ::Neil::
I expected that you should approve, but still wanted a confirmation. So it's now duplicated in The Pressure Lamp forum for all to see, and as a sticky so it's always on top and easy to find.
No, definitely not a 'man thing' but to my mind the ultimate learning cycle. That unfortunately even then is hardly taken by most, and usually reason to shy away form these appliances, none the wiser. That would be an expensive lesson wasted. As for making written caution readily available on this site and CCS, no harm in that. But I agree with the general observations about how people can be desinterested in their own development. However, I do miss this most fundamental basis for safety: common sense. I see some snippets of it by those who ask open advice on which fuel to use. Those who assume there is no different world than the one they know stand to get in trouble, and personally, I feel no inclination (anymore) to make that category any wiser.
Yes David, a waning quality it seems. But 'common' should be seen more as 'universal', and as a personal attitude with which one deals with something unfamiliar. I guess I am blessed with an upbringing and schooling in which I was encouraged to think of or formulate a question, then find the answer possibly by myself. But every medal has a reverse side, so in time I also learned to learn from others. Best of both worlds perhaps, and an important factor no doubt that I got wiser without having to pay too high a price, like scars or missing body parts.
Same here, Mike, although I have got into the odd 'scrape' from time to time! Usually alcohol is involved somewhere down the line - and not for fuel, either...
David, I like to point out, stress even, that I have been lucky too for not having to pay too much for my 'tuition'. For years I have worked professionaly with woodworking machinery and twice I felt the intense and immediate airflow of a circular saw on my fingers.....too close for comfort. Mind, in both cases these blades were shielded from view by a 'safety cap', which is why on my own equipment they are removed. But in retrospect stupid actions that could have cost me some finger parts.
All the safety guards on my tools are very firmly in place! The only time I used equipment without the safety features intact (a pair of folding stepladders that opened out into a conventional straight ladder), I managed to get them to fold back under me and fell about 3 metres onto the concrete garage floor. Two broken bones, 17 days in hospital, wheelchair and crutches for 4-5 months and off work for six months. Mind you, I still use them as a ladder but don't go up beyond half-way where they hinge...
I consider myself lucky that none of that ever happened to me, at least not on my own account. About 10 years of hopping out of flying aeroplanes, nearly 50 years of motorcycling and counting, and more (professional) situations were good or bad luck can be a possible factor. All I do is seeing to minimise that factor by optimal awareness. But in the end we are all human, innit?
I've never understood the desire to throw oneself out of a perfectly serviceable aeroplane (and I fear I never will), but there you are - it takes all sorts, I suppose...
Yes, I heard that one time and again, but I doubt any serious explanation was ever contemplated, not even worldwide. It never was a mainstream sport, and never will be. Perhaps like collecting pressure lamps, although I could be wrong on that one.
