Ok, I thought the bad news was going to be that there might suddenly be a spike in radioactivity in the world, but luckily followed by a reduced need for low-radioactive metals
@@interludeconcretespecify I don't understand how these bots survive. They literally post the exact same vague clickbait everywhere. _I_ could write a script that filters and bans them.
@@mysticondeflamme and, y'know, the whole current situation where some madman in a country called Russia is threatening to blow everyone up, you might have heard of him, his name is Putin or something? :P
Kodak found out before the bomb was detonated, one of their paper mills for making packaging was downstream from a fissile material enrichment plant. So their new, freshly packaged film was somehow being exposed in small spots
John W. Campbell also knew, and in a rather amusing way: a story was published in Astounding Stories basically describing the atomic bomb in 1944, and the FBI freaked out. Turns out it was just a case of sci-fi writer Cleve Cartmill being good at his job and predicting near-future societal dilemmas, but during the investigation Campbell revealed he'd known that *something* was being done in the Santa Fe area because a huge number of subscriptions had suddenly moved there.
Wasn't it Germany found out about the nuclear program because a bunch of scientific journals were pulled from publication based around nuclear physics, etc. and it's like "Hang on a tic... those scientists stopped publishing. They might be working on a secret nuclear project!"
@@brokeindio5072False, the practice of throwing insubordinate sailors into the brig has existed since the age of sail. So, brigs certainly did exist in 1945. 😉
"What's wrong, Dave?" "Now call me crazy, Gary. But I've got a suspicioun our government is testing radioactive superweapons nearby." "Why do you think that, Dave?" "I don't know but these pictures just aint right, doesn't make sense"
"you wouldn't have clicked on a video called "Why steel- making is sometimes done with pure oxygen in a clean room environment." Sir you're talking to the fanbase that demanded a brick video.
@@cymond It's getting pretty annoying to be honest. I clicked this already with an understanding of the topic, but was hoping I'd learn more from it, instead of wasting six minutes listening to bad jokes.
If you were to melt this pre-1945 steel using oxygen to melt and reuse it, aren't you still incorporating Co-60 or other radioactive elements into the steel?
I didn't think there was a need for low background steel anymore because there are new processes in place during the manufacture of new steel that basically eliminates the existence of radioactive material.
But you wouldn't have clicked on a video titled "Why steel made before 1945 used to sell for 143x more, but now there are new processes in place during the manufacture of new steel which removed that demand".
Part of the issue in the past was that a lot of the wrecks that were salvaged had casualties. People weren't happy when they found out that unscrupulous individuals were robbing war graves. Ships that sunk without casualties are easier to accept people cutting up for profit.
@VaderxG This is like saying it's ok to take headstones from a graveyard cause they're just rocks. The ships aren't simply the place these people died but also their final resting place. HMS Repulse and HMS Prince of Wales sank with almost all hands but have been completely destroyed by salvagers. The UK has said these ships are not to be disturbed but the wrecks aren't in international water and the local government just doesn't care. The only reason similar things didn't happen to USS Arizona and HMS Hood is because Hood is too deep and the US decided Arizona wasn't worth the trouble to raise until after the war at which point public opinion wanted a memorial to Pearl Harbor.
@@Ebolson1019 the line between archeology and grave robbing is a fine one, but certainly anything that sank after 1850 is definitely off limits for explotation if its also a grave. (Most sunken ships are also graves) Your best argument to touch them would be an environmental one of wanting to remove it from the water and place it in a museum of some kind. (And make a memorial/tomb for the deceased) But the argument of "economic benefits for an individual" is definitely just grave robbing with extra steps.
In the Philippines, illegal salvage of famous WWII shipwrecks is a problem for this reason. These shipwrecks are considered war graves, and of national importance to their country of origin. The UK conducted an operation to retrieve the bell of the HMS Prince of Wales, which was involved in the sinking of the Bismarck. They knew the ship was being illegally salvaged, and wished to save the bell. There are reports of piles of human bones littering the shore where they break down and process the metal.
Interestingly, the Wikipedia article on low-background steel mentions old railroad rolling stock as another source. Makes me wonder about pre-ww2 cars, is the metal too thin or are they simply worth more intact.
Most likely neither. All pre ww2 cars have either already been scrapped and melted down for parts, or are sitting in a land fill under 80 years worth of garbage, making them not worth digging out.
@@Tommy50377 so basically any pre ww2 car that is actually accessible is definitely worth more as a collector's item than as scrap steel for use as low background steel. Especially considering the dropping demand for specialty pre ww2 steel as background atmospheric radiation is dropping to more "normal" levels.
I own a pre ww2 car. They’re actually pretty easy to come by if you’re looking for one. They’re still worth more than scrap value even in bad shape but unless it’s something super rare or iconic prices are pretty reasonable compared to later model collector cars.
My wife's lab had a big sheet of battleship steel from a WWII battleship. The professor who owned it loved it and would point it out on tours. Nobody realized why. Then he retired and they couldn't give it away... because it didn't fit through the door. Whoops!
The trouble with that is they were trying to fit it through a door. That's almost never going to work. Pesky things are usually solid, maybe have little holes in them. What they needed to be doing was opening the door then fitting it through the doorway. Much easier.
@@igrim4777 You are a genius! At first I thought I couldn't get out of my house because I was an introvert, now I know it's because I'm an idiot! Man, these nose bleeds sure do make a lot more sense now!
The story of the Germans scuttling their own Navy in a British port after surrendering so that the British wouldnt get their ships is a really interesting story but it gets completely swamped by the all the snarkiness in this video. May I suggest a video on this topic in the future?
And it's important in this qestion as it was a planned scuttling after hostilities had defacto ended. So no-one went down with those ships and thus they are not classified as sailors' graves. So they can be legaly salvaged.
The British actually were quite happy they scuttled it. The alternative was that the ships got split up around the allies. The Royal navy was already far ahead in naval size, so they could only lose from the German grand fleet being given to others.
I don't know why Nebula is a thing. I give him a cent or two by watching videos on RU-vid. I don't give him squat by not signing up for Nebula. He's turning away income by not putting videos on RU-vid. At least post them in both places.
anyone gonna mention in the thumbnail that in the left pile of steel, the top layer is floating above the bottom layer because of the orientation of the beams?
A ton is roughly 2,000 lbs or 1,00 Kg depending on where you're from. Ship & Submarine hulls ... are pretty thick, there are LITERALLY tons of steel in the sea
Used to work at a site which had a room shielded by steel taken from a named sunken ship. It's difficult to figure out how radioactive something is when the room containing it is already radioactive.
@@schwig44 You can, and that's usually what's done. Now, I'm no professional, but my guess is that subtracting the average background count rate isn't good enough if you want to be extremely precise, or if the amount of radiation you're trying to detect is so small that it's impossible to tell apart from natural variation in background radiation.
@@schwig44 Seb135 has it right. Radiation is not a constant thing. Each emission is entirely random, and even if the average emission rate is low, you want to be able to tell that apart from the background. In nuclear facilities, for example, you want the emissions from a person to be at normal, background level. That means not having your detectors swamped by the room's walls. Good operators can tell how many bananas a person has eaten recently - they are naturally radioactive.
Hey HAI, please make a video on the village of Vulcan (in West Virginia) who wanted a bridge in the 1970s, but because their state government had ignored them, they asked the Soviet Union for help; when the Soviets promised to fund a bridge and sent journalists there, the state government inmediatly agreed to build a bridge, and it was major news at the time; seriously, search it up, it's quite an interesting story.
Actually, he call is "Scarpa Bay" which as near as I can figure using Google search is a place the doesn't exist. After 3 major errors in the first 3 minutes I gave up watching and came down to the comments to join the roasting...
Before clicking on this, I guessed why pre-1945 steel was prized I also knew about the German fleet scuppered at Scarpa. Bonus fact: To scarper is Cockney rhyming slang. Scarpa Flow - go.
Unfortunately, the value of this steel has created a sort of "black market" and illegal salvage ops have disturbed the "final resting place" of sailors. Some wrecks are now missing from the sea floor, their crews remains having disappeared with them. 🙏 RIP
It may be sad that they're removing the graves, but removing the ships from the ocean is actually really good for the environment. Lead in these hulls can cause increased heavy metal in marine organisms, and the iron can make invasive corals take over healthy reefs. So while it sucks that these graves are disturbed, it's overall a good thing that the ships are being removed.
@@aliciacardella9526 with the coral reefs, and thus the marine life that relies on them, being fucked over, don't we kinda need invasive corals in the world?
@VaderxG pretty sure even the skeletons are gone after this long. It's unreal the kind of pointless stuff people decide to get worked up about! Everybody who died in WWI have been dead for 100 years, and even their grandkids are almost certainly dead too. If they have spent 100 years in Heaven now, they certainly aren't going to be upset that someone moved some metal around near where their dead bodies settled 100 years ago. And if they just don't exist, they also won't care.
"Why steel- making is sometimes done with pure oxygen in a clean room environment" sounds like an interesting video especially if the details of the process are discussed.
This is wild to think about. I’m a train conductor and each piece of rail they use is dated. I found a piece of rail dated all the way back in 1919 that is still in use today. Crazy to think that rail was made 20 years before any nukes were ever detonated and it’s in use today.
There's still some stadiums standing that are pre 1945. Wrigley. Fenway. Rose Bowl. Michigan Stadium. Franklin Field. They would also have this special steel in places.
Calling it Scarpa Bay really turns that bit of Cockney rhyming slang on its head. From Scarpa Flow - go, to Scarpa Bay - stay. Anyway, I’m in a rush, I need to Scarpa
I do love me some Helen Mirren. She still a fox too. Also don't tell me that I wouldn't click on a video titled "Why steel-making is sometimes done with pure oxygen in a clean room environment". You don't know me.
Yo, this made me really appreciate the work being put into proper headlines. Nice sidebar! Also I thought I was not interested in the Crime Spree series, but it was super fun. Also really loved the Colorado documentary. I can not find the St Helena one though… the search on Nebula is, let’s say not as great as the content on it.
Did anyone else notice the subtlety that the steel beams in the left were oriented to be an H and the ones on the right were oriented to be a capital I, as in H(alf) as I(nteresting)
Do one on why RU-vid videos change their titles. This video had the title “why steel made before 1945 sells for 143x more” before i clicked on it and now it says “why steel from before 1945 is weirdly expensive”
Damn. I have like 6000lbs of train track from the late-1800s laying around and I got really excited that I had a payday stacked behind my shed. Then you had to go a kill my brand new dream.
That was weird. In the first sentence of this video, your voice sounded exactly like that weird guy from wendover productions. From then on it was just your normal HAI voice
I thougth for the bad news you were gonna talk about how this demand for low background steal lead to a lot a people disturbing and destroying old shipwrecks which for civilian ships the final resting place of her crew and military ships are war graves under international law and are protected sites. Force Z (HMS Repulse and HMS Prince of Wales) have been almost completely destroyed due to the shallow water they sank in.
This video felt like going down a 50 ft tall steel zigzag slide, slamming between informative content and oversimplified absurdity. Honestly, I enjoyed it
2:30 That hits too close to home, lol. I was trying to date a girl and it came up that she thought 9/11 was an inside job and the steel beams wouldn't melt and stuff. So that clip brought back a now funny memory (not at the time, though)
well she's right, jet fuel doesn't even get close to the temperatures needed to soften steel, the twin towers were actually build with plane attacks in mind and would be able to resist them, the most likely scenario is that thermite bombs were used for which there are indications on footage but we'll never know what really happened excapt for the fact that the planes alone weren't the ones who destroyed the towers and that something else helpt with that
for one of the first times ever I actually know where this one is going (spoilers) Its for geiger counters and other things that need steel that isn't radioactively contaminated
this was, at the very least, 3/4 as interesting. it reminds me of an incident in Mexico involving radioactive equipment being dismantled at a junkyard by unqualified workers, the "Cobalt-60" incident - there's plenty of information if you're interested.
Without watching the video, I'd guess it's because it's missing the trace levels of radioactive content in the modern era when trace levels of radiation make a difference to sensitive equipment. Am I right? Or should I watch the video?
By early 1946, Kodak, the film company, had noticed a substantial increase in flaws in the film being produced; they discovered it came from the radiation fallout that got into the manufacturing process.
The part you might have mentioned is that the pre-boom steel is so valuable that breakers have been disassembling ships marked as war graves. Most of the ships from Scoppa Bouy had already been recycled.
I was wondering why companies were mercilessly scavenging WW2 shipwrecks (gravesites) in the Pacific. This is why. Astounding that I am mid-40s and never knew this.
I knew what this awesome video was about as soon as I saw the title cause I used this as my history essay in high school and I still find this stuff so fascinating.
Congrats, you successfully talked about steel for a total of 2:28 before the inevitable everyone knew it was coming “Jet Fuel Can’t melt steel beams” joke.
@@boxinabox6608 they followed “smarter” “noble” men into a wall of hot steel so the rich can get richer. All they had to do was aim at their officers. Fuck the troops, they serve in profit conflicts and shouldn’t be glorified
