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Home / Presidents Perspective - 2002 / It’s Elementary, My Dear Watson, Hydrogen is Lighter than Air |
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It’s Elementary, My Dear Watson, Hydrogen is Lighter than Air |
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Written On: November 1, 2002 |
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One of the first things you learn in junior high school science is hydrogen is lighter than air. That’s why the Germans used it in airships like the Hindenburg to transport passengers across the Atlantic Ocean in the 1930s.
Tell that to the officials at the Springfield, Mass., office of the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). In an appalling show of ignorance, the area director – who claims to have a Bachelor’s Degree in chemistry – testified under oath that hydrogen is heavier than air. Incredibly, the director’s “weird science” was corroborated by a subordinate, also under oath.
The testimony comes amid allegations that OSHA officials are harassing businesses in the state. This particular case involved James Knott, CEO of Riverdale Mills in Northridge. Knott was awarded the Governor’s Prize in 1999 for inventing a less toxic process to galvanize fence wire. His process eliminated the need for hydrochloric and sulfuric acids and cut energy use in half.
But during a “wall-to-wall” inspection of Knott’s factory in April 2000, OSHA claimed the process was unsafe because hydrogen and nitrogen gas could become trapped in the large steel chamber where the galvanizing took place. OSHA inspectors said that workers entering the steel chamber could be suffocated.
Knott countered that the process was completely safe because the gases would immediately dissipate if the chamber was opened. The inspectors disagreed, based on their contention that hydrogen is heavier than air.
Note to all OSHA inspectors: according to the chemistry books, hydrogen “is the lightest of all gases.” (By the way, the books also say that nitrogen, the other gas used in Knott’s process, is “lighter than air.”)
The last time I checked, lighter things float and heavier things sink.
This isn’t the first scrap between Knott and the federal government.
In November 1997, 21 heavily armed federal EPA agents stormed his plant claiming he dumped contaminated process water into the city storm sewers. After a grueling two-year legal battle that cost Knott hundreds of thousands of dollars, the charges were dropped.
So egregious was the EPA enforcement action that it was featured on ABC’s 20/20 program, and Knott is in court against the federal government seeking damages and restoration of his good name.
Hopefully, the Bush Administration will make federal regulators enforce the laws fairly and stop their heavy-handed treatment of Jim Knott and other small manufacturers. In the process, maybe they’ll learn the basic facts about chemistry. It would help them do their jobs as inspectors.
As detective Sherlock Holmes might say, “It’s elementary, my dear Watson. Hydrogen is lighter than air.”
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