A question on metal cutting

admin

Hello.  I have a question and am looking for a professional opinion.  The following picture has been posted around the internet by some people who claim that the column in the top center of the picture was cut by some sort of remotely detonated thermite device and thus, according to them, proving that the WTC towers were intentionally demolished by the U.S. government, or the "New World Order" or the U.N., Iluminatti, or whomever.  I maintain that it is obviously a torch cut that was done as part of the rescue and clean up activities.    It has been about 10 years since I have handled a cutting torch, and I would like your professional opinion.So what do you think, "thermite bomb" or cutting torch?
Reply:Im looking at it, and altough I have heard some very compelling info to indicate there was a lot more going on than a couple of aircraft knocking down two well built buildings, this particular picture Im having a hard time to deciede.  Sure does look like a torch cut.  However, its rather good.  If you consider how uniform the cut is for the size and the angle put on it, makes you really wonder what was going on.  In most demo operations Ive been on there wasnt the concern for making angles like this.  So I dont know.  I am not familiar with the thermite bombs destruction, or any other bombs destructive power myself.   I think it definately looks like slag from the oxy-fuel cutting process on the bottom of hte cut.  The jury is out as far as Im concerned.  I know a lot of people died that day and I dont believe that jet fuel from two planes could bring them towers down myself.  I aint saying a lot else, but I know for a fact I watched on TV this thing happen and the puzzle is still missing some pieces.  Jet fuel is basically very similar to kerosene.  Kerosene and diesel are very similar.  I dont think theres a lot more to say than that.IF it Catches...Let it Burn
Reply:Good point about the straightness of the cut, but the only reason to have made that cut was as part of the demolition process AFTER the towers were down and needed to be cleaned up.  So an angled cut could very well have been an appropriate method to aid in the cleanup and further skilled demolition that was needed.  These were all top hands that participated in the demo and cleanup, they probably couldn't cut a crooked line if they tried.I think the slag is a giveaway of an OFC process, in my experience.
Reply:Yeah, I think I went around in circles.  I do beleive this was OFC but I wont swear on my mamas grave, course I dont swear on mamas grave cause shes only 47 and wants to be cremated  IF there was more to the story than we are told, I seriously doubt we will find it in pictures that will ever be posted.  If some how it were to be, I almost guarantee its doctored.  Basically same probability as that its OFC IF it Catches...Let it Burn
Reply:1) An angled cut is a longer cut.  Why waste time and effort with angles when you are in a situation like this, unless you are trying to get it to fall in a particular direction (like with a tree)?2) Could it be that these beams were bolted end to end?  I park in a parking deck that uses plates and bolts to join vertical beams end-to-end, but obviously my parking deck is a much smaller structure in comparison.  Just a thought, cause there is some evidence of stuff welded on the side of the beam in the forground.3) Conspiricy theories are always very compeling, but when they involve dozens or hundreds of different folks, none of whom have ever met, even doing the most mundane thing becomes a real chore.  Folks often fixate on a single piece of "evidence" in a thing like 911 and think that it proves a whole bunch of other stuff because it fits a prior belief.  If you start off with the premise that there IS a conspiricy, you can easily find evidence in all areas of life that your belief is true, no matter what the conspiricy is about.  This phenomena is the basis for a whole bunch of psychological work.  So, the picture shows what MIGHT be a pre-disaster cut, or it might be cut after the disaster, or it might not be cut at all, but is just a very uniform failure that is easily explainable to an objective observer.  I will bet you one thing, though...if someone BELIEVES this is proof of a conspiricy, that same person will find other questionable evidence tipping toward the conclusion of conspiricy.I don't think there is any doubt that a terrorist conspiricy is what brought down the WTC.  However, I am having a hard time believing that someone could cut the foundation from under the building without folks asking a question or without a single person from the building saying "Hey, just a few days or weeks before 911, a bunch of foreign terrorist-looking guys were in the basement with torches.  I just thought I'd mention that now because the building collapsed and all."  I am not saying it did not happen...just that the picture is not much in the way of conclusive proof.Last edited by smithboy; 05-02-2006 at 11:21 AM.Smithboy...if it ain't broke, you ain't tryin'.
Reply:Originally Posted by smithboy1) An angled cut is a longer cut.  Why waste time and effort with angles when you are in a situation like this, unless you are trying to get it to fall in a particular direction (like with a tree)?
Reply:Looks like an OFC cut, made with a big tip, and lots of heat. Conspiracy theory shmeory. A jet 2/3 full of fuel crashes into the building at 500mph. Jet weighs mega-tons. Kerosine fuel burns nice and slow compared to gasoline or say acetone. A good slow burn got the metal hot, and kept it hot long enough for the building to fall. The hit from the planes did a lot more damage than they give credit for. A golfball shot into you at 500mph will do unbelieveable damage. That's about the equivalent of a jet getting stuffed into the WTC. I was amazed the buildings held up as long as they did.
Reply:This is what brought the towers down. After the impact the fire super heated the steel.We all know what happens when we heat steel with a torch. It will bend real easy. Now this steel had untold millions of pounds sitting on top of it.Watch the video. Suddenly the steel in the fire can take no more heat and it collapses. Now these millions of pounds fall how far? 30-50ft. perhaps more. All this weight is now dropped onto the next floor down which collapses and drops to the next floor down and its getting heaver all the time.
Reply:Yup, classic pancake/domino effect. The principles behind it are sound and have been proven time and time again. The columns are made to hold so much stress and weight...once they were heated beyond tolerance, it was just a matter of time. Add the eponentially increasing weight of the pancake effect and you have exactly what we saw...disaster. No room in the math for conspiracy theories....but then try telling them that.