Posted on 06/27/2024 9:31:10 AM PDT by V_TWIN
It was not clear (to me) that you were experiencing hypoxia which lead to diminished hearing. Thanks for the clarification, and I retract my snark.
Good story, here’s my only close one:
I used to have a lot to do with LN2, which we used to cool detectors (GeLi - Lithium-drifted Germanium) and vacuum cooling traps for experiments at our university heavy ion accelerator.
We had a room which had a line to a tap from an outside 50,000 liter LN2 tank for filling 20 liter dewars - our group in the building was not the only one to use LN2, but we used a *lot*.
Anyway, about a year after I left the physics institute for self-employment, one of the young graduate students was found frozen stiff (-196 °C is about as stiff as it gets) in that room one morning.
The ventilation system was good enough, so how that came about remains sketchy to me... Though the whole setup was a bit basic - when the dewar was filled there was no automatic shutoff, it would spill over and form clouds on the floor. You’d think PhD candidates were smart enough to close the tap... Anyway, to close up on the oxygen displacement, if someone wanted to go, nitrogen asphyxiation is a pretty good choice.
You sure got my attention with your story. That was horrible. Was it possible that not being diligent about closing the tap, would the tap freeze open?
You had previously said “ It was an odd feeling of attenuated sound because oxygen was not reaching my eardrums.”
I’m not a medical doctor but that sounded (no pun intended) like low oxygen in the bloodstream - aka hypoxia. But never mind.
The setup with the LN2 tap was very basic, had been around for many decades. Large tank right outside that room of the building, insulated line through the wall, lever ball valve, downtube ending about 2 feet above the floor so you could stick the end in the dewar (large thermos looking like a milk can). Oh, there was ventilation as well, but just a fan in the wall blowing to the outside. There were always a few inches of dense LN2 fog on the floor when filling the cans. Poor guy had to have his head very low to pass out from nitrogen asphyxiation. How that happened...???
The tap never froze up even when filling a dozen dewars - somethink like 20 to 30 mins constant flow. Freak accident or intentional. Did not hear that anyone got indicted over it.
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