Excellent news that everyone has been recovered from the mine.
I was left wondering, however, how do the drillers actually control the direction of the drill, as it does deviate a couple of times according to the reports?
They might steer it like an endoscope in a colonoscopy ?
Directional drilling has been used in the oil industry for many years:
20 minutes, in a tiny pipe. I guess you just have to pretend you are not there? Like old age, better than the alternative!
Peter Scott
I hear Ant & Dec are negotiating for "Help! I'm a miner celebrity, get me out of here".
MBQ
Just shut your eyes and think of something else - rather like you do when having some unpleasant dental work.
They probably wouldn't have become miners if that bothered them too much.
And there's strange people like potholers that actively seek out that sort of experience.
True. Never understood pot-holing. Probably because I'm a claustrophobic wuss. Does anyone know the origin of the word. I wondered if it was to do with Santa Claus having to squeeze down chimneys.
Etymology: Latin, claustrum, a closing; Greek, phobos, fear
Another situation - being inside an NMR scanner. Patients are given a "panic bulb" to squeeze if they want out of it. The natural reaction is to ask how long it would take to be taken out after squeezing the bulb.
Ah. An engineer at heart. They'd probably rather you didn't ask that question. I suspect that the panic bulb is to give the patient a feeling of control. That means they can mentally cope with staying in the scanner. ("Yuck! This isn't very nice. Oh well, I can always ask them to get me out if necessary" vs "I'm stuck in here and I can't get out. Aaaaaargh!")
I don't think it'll be much problem. Cavers routinely go through smaller, and these guys are miners, used to working underground.
well its no different to being on an Ryanair flight is it?
Or in my case "Do you mind if I take the front panel off, and have a look at the cryo-magnets?"
I actually find it hard to understand why people find MRI or CAT scans scary. What you might hear in the results - sure (in the case of my recent MRI - a sequestered disc). But the doughnut ride itself - what's to fear?
When I had a CAT scan for a very low-probability brain tumour, many years ago - I was even more fascinated - seeing one's own brain is rather novel!
When my (elderly, claustrophobic, frightened, dying of a brain tumour) father had to have an NMR scan, they allowed me to sit next to the machine and hold his, er, ankle. (Couldn't reach his hand.) Boy, are those things noisy. Not really an option for the miners. But I imagine claustrophobia is not common in miners.
Yes it is! The miners did not face the risk of kids screaming and kicking the seat back, or of being next to 125kg of co-traveller reeking of last week's sweat. I'd prefer the Phoenix capsule any day - but then I did once enter pots (mainly for the beer before/afterwards).
Not something I could even contemplate. The only confined spaces I have been inside in my working life are 500 MW alternators.
At Eggborough you climb into the spaces normally occupied by the cooling water coils, and that isn't too bad. You then worm your way between bulkheads to get where you need to be. The hand lamp I had been given was just a mains fitting with reflector, so there I was, making my way around the stator end-windings and cooling water tubes, when there was a fizz and the light went out. There I was, in intimate contact with lots of earthed metal, not sure if I was about to be fried. Luckily, the problem was intermittent, and I lived to tell the tale (literally, obviously).
At Fiddlers Ferry, the technique was to stand on the bearing, facing an access panel. This was just about wide enough for me, so a no-go area for any more portly staff. The internal excursions were rather more tricky, with not a lot of room to get around. You had to exit feet first, feeling for the bearing housing before you could climb down again.
Chris
A CAT scan involves lying inside a large diameter, fairly thin, ring and there is absolutely no feeling of claustrophobia. Going head first into the MRI tunnel is a quite different experience.
I never got to see the results of my CAT scan, but I do have a nice set of MRI scans of my knee and hip. However, my favourite was the angiogram, where the screens were positioned so I could watch my heart working. The surgeon even pointed out things on the screen to me, particularly, to my relief, how clear the arteries were.
Colin Bignell
Did you ask, and do you want to? I asked for copies of my recent x-rays, and the hospital supplied them under data protection rules (ie 10 quid access charge, charge for the media - legit?) on a CD.
It was a wonder to see the miners come up to the surface, but how did they get rid of the drill debris?
Dave
When I was about 15, I went with my class at school for an "adventure" week in wales. One of the days activities was caving (i.e. like potholing, but you climb up a hill first and enter via a cave in the side rather than a hole in the ground). Many folks were anticipating feeling claustrophobia, but none did in reality. There is something about the space being "natural" rather than man made that makes it feel far less intimidating. Even the (in)famous "letter box" was not as bad as expected. This was a wide slot in the rock about 9" tall at the right and about twice that at the left - probably about 3' wide. Approached down a funnelling "slot". The party trick was the 6' drop on the far side of it once you got through!
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