The statute of limitations has passed so I can confess. So I’m at my healing place in the mountains in BC. I am reminded that when my son was 2 & pampers weren’t invented yet, the airline stew gave me my first disposable diaper. We arrived & immediately head ed for the pool. PUt him in wi diaper. The diaper immediately disintegrated. Tiny little dots expanded all over the pool heading directly for the filter. Boy did we leave quickly! The pool was closed for several days. My son has twins of his own now so I think I can confess. So there are barges of garbage disposable diapers floating all over the ocean, isn’t there? What about all that expandable stuff they put into diapers? Ah sseeing this in writing especially after looking at the pressure pictured below, makes me want to delete. Its so stupid. But oh well can’t be more stupid than the execs at BP. So I guess I click submit & give U all a laugh.If we don’t laugh, we’ll cry. Puppy love from Inventing Joy & the furry folk

So it now looks like they’re using a plug to plug up the leak. The geniuses at BP could be finally on to something here.

Update…

BP has placed a pipe-like connector called a flange spool atop the Gulf oil well as part of its effort to cap the leaking oil well. It should take several days to see if the new capping effort works…
http://news.yahoo.com/video/us-15749625/raw-vid...

BEFORE
AFTER

Hey Buddy! Good to see ur still brainstorming with one hemisphere never the less! I haven’t had time to back read many posts, has Linda been gone long also?

William, my old friend, I’ve been lobotomized so I can’t engage like in the old days before you left. I wonder if Linda is coming back.

All is wonderful, thanx for asking! Been doing an out of town big job is all… An 8,000 sq. ft. red spanish tile roof, complete with 1,200 linear ft. of hand made custom 12 in. (large) copper gutters and down spouts. The house was kind of a three story mansion on lake Pontartrain. The guy we were workin’ for was a neurologist and I’ll post some pics of it soon. But yeah, it did take quite a while to complete, but we’re back in the city now and all just hoping and praying that the oil doesn’t ever make it into that lake!

William… that certainly sounds like a better plan than using a torpedo made of magnets and Memory Foam!!…Hope it’s “quick dry” cement, though!

Wow! Haven’t seen you post in a long, long time!! Hope all is well!! :-)

Sherri, you were on the right track with the magnets… electro magnets can be extremely powerful depending on how much electricity you run into them… the best solution i have heard thus far actually was proposed by a scientist from louisiana.. he has calculated a sytstem of two electro magnets placed near the top of the well head on either side of the broken metal pipe.. then a metal “junk shot” pumped in thru the other valves at the bottom of the blow out preventer, to be followed by cement, rather than the shredded rubber tires and golf balls junk shot that was previously attempted.

            
"Well, I appreciate Mr. Chlipalski’s comment here, although, I must admit, I do detect a bit of cynicism surrounding it….Please don’t patronize, sir! Folks, I’m a human being, just like most of you out there…Don’t look at me as anything more! My Administration and I will get to the TRUTH…For JUSTICE and the AMERICAN WAY of life regarding this matter ASAP.

And to answer your earlier question, Mr. Chlipalski…No, BP doesn’t stand for Barrack’s Problem…What kind of question was that anyway?! Can I have an agent detain Mr. Chlipalski to meet with our High Value Detainee Interrogation Group later this afternoon…Thanks so much!"

Woo hoo, way to go Obama, put the screws to the oil industry! This’ll make health care look like a tea party. Oh wait, it was a tea party.

…I don’t know anything about oil wells…. I just like helping the engineers and experts do their job right..lol

Ok, yeah, so now people who know something about oil wells have joined the discussion making some of us look bad. Thanks a lot!

Great graphics Sir Ed! My measurements were all in speculation. I have not been able to review in detail the structure or the cap prior to seeing your graphic and I am convinced, with certainty, that they have compromised the volume of flow at the point where the oil enters through the “sealing grommet” into the tube above that carries the oil up to the vessel.

If you will note where the “diamond wire saw cut” shows the true size of the opening where the oil is spewing. Now, look up at the very top of the cap – there is a significant change in size of the tube that carries the oil to the surface – a Major Reduction in the size where the oil must now flow through. Common sense tells me that you can not take a large volume of fluid, flowing with great force, and IMMEDIATELY REDUCE the flow to now fit into a smaller channel AND without having some residual. It just doesn’t make sense, it doesn’t work that way, the excess from the interruption in consistant flow must expel and will continue to spew into the ocean.

If they HAD increased the size of the tubing on top to match up with the size of the true opening, would there be less interuption in the flow and that maybe would of reduced the unnessary waste into the ocean??…

Besides, BP’s CEO, Tony Hayward did report today that he is in contact with someone of extreme importance…Who has an uncanny knowledge of deep-water operations and exploration, and he’ll try and deploy him immediately, should this latest attempt fail.
 
        
“Dag nabit, Ariel…Seriously, how many times do I have to tell you to NEVER go up to the surface and to NEVER, EVER associate with humans…How many times, young lady?!? I want nothing to do with this Tony Hayward fella…Those dang fools made this mess, now they should be responsible enough for cleaning it up! Next time, I won’t hesitate releasing the Kraken on their asses…Tony Hayward, my anal fins!”

Everyone forgets that BP is currently drilling a new well bore that will intersect the current well bore which is blowing out. Once intersected, they will be able to kill the well then plug it. Kudos for all the efforts to capture as much as they can today, but the news is derelict in it’s duties by not reporting the work going on behind the scenes.

“I’m making an “uneducated” guess that the intake tubing is smaller creating the on going problem….I’m willing to bet my 2 cents on it :-)”

Hmmm…I think you maybe on to something there, Susan!? The damaged riser was indeed 21" in circumference…The Blowout Preventer wellhead connector reportedly measures 18 3/4"…The flow of oil from the LMRP will rise up a 6 7/8" drill pipe within the riser (the same size as the one currently fitted to the riser insertion tool)…At least the riser also carries hot water down to the LMRP to protect against the formation of hydrates, so, that shouldn’t be as much a problem this time around…Interesting observation!?

Is it possible that when the engineer/expert designed the current LMRP Cap to fit over the Blowout Preventer the designers used an intake tubing smaller and did not use the same width or larger to accommodate the continuous flow of the oil?

If the severed pipe spewing oil is 18"’ wide (guessing) and the tube siphoning the oil up to the floating vessel above is only 12" wide (guessing) or smaller than the spewing pipe, could/would that present a problem?…So if they had increased the size of the intake tubing would there be less overflow spewing into the Gulf?…..I’m making an “uneducated” guess that the intake tubing is smaller creating the on going problem….I’m willing to bet my 2 cents on it :-)

Ron. I think those show that Ralf has a lot of courage, creativity and a wonderful family! C’mon! I couldn’t do that in a million years.

Where’s Mr. Ed? I want him to sing about feeling pretty again!

Thank you imajane. You are the queen of imajannation.

Oil and water don’t mix whats the problem

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkOGM6gHvao
You knew it was coming, right? ;-)

with a weird cigarette commercial stuck on the end??

Oil that is. Black gold. Texas tea…
(had to finish the line in the song)
I can picture the pipe, the valves… all of it. In my (completely ignorant of this topic) mind, it would work better than anything else so far.

How about they put a big paddle wheel just in side the spewing oil’s path and have this hooked to turbines to generate electricty. Tit for tat

Those super-strong magnets are amazing… those little ones that just really hold tight… maybe a huge one of those could manage to make it’s way past that gushing oil and block the pipe. Of course, it would take a year to build one!

(Always sad to see insults fly in here. Arguments are naturally going to come up, but…)

Torpedos made from magnets and memory foam…should I enter it in the LPS??!! LOL…just kidding! Wondering if there is some way large, powerful magnets could be used to either plug this leak or help guide something else in position. Sure, I could be ridiculed for suggesting this…but maybe Ron and Ralf would stop bickering with each other? Magnets can be strong diversions!! He-he!

Remember the movie, “The Graduate” with Dustin Hoffman? When you said magnetics… made me think of his graduation party when that guy just whispered… “Plastics” lol
Didn’t mean to ruin your thought!! I don’t know. What were you picturing?

Hmmmm…I wonder if magnetics could be used in some way to stop or ebb the oil flow?

Lordy Lordy Lord………

Do I think BP cut corners to save bucks at the expense of safety? Yes
Do I think they came up with any backup plans incase of catastrophic failure? No
Do I think BP lied to cover up the severity of the leak? Yes
Do I think BP is still lying about the effectiveness of their “fix”? Yes
Do I think a good number of corporations are headed by people who wouldn’t hesitate to kill most of us and the earth as well in order to make a buck? Yes
Do I believe we are to blame and not BP? No
Do I believe in the integrity and god-given mastery of the Ameri-European race over all other races? No
Do I believe bureaucracy is big business and that making people watch safety films means the corporation takes the same extreme care to ensure the safety of their drilling rigs? No

Carnival rides kill people, space shuttles blow up and engineering and machines fail. We must realize this.

Everybody screamed, louder than they scream for ice cream, “Gimme more oil, gimmeee gimmme gimmeee, cheaper cheaper cheaper….my SUV burns up alot you know” Then we will blame BP for all??? Utuh…and our President…leading that blame? He is not thinking well AT ALL. We are all to blame..as we heat our empty extra rooms in the too big houses we bought the last 20 years.

BP are not full of evil souls trying to contaminate the earth. They are trying to fix this.

We better be careful not to destroy a British-U.S. based giant company because you know who….will replace that company. We need European and American oil companies!!!!

I have been to BP headquarters showing two inventions to their safety engineers along with other safety products BP uses from my manufacturer. I thought the levels of safety and 45 minutes of safety videos they made me watch was just RIDICULOUS…just to walk down a hall in an office building and talk to engineers in an office.

Engineer, obviously an engineer. But who do you work for?? BP maybe?

“I tried a similar test using a piece of rubber tube with a threaded rod and washer and nuts on the end, stuck it in the end of a pipe and tightened the nut and a few turns you could not pull it out of the pipe without serious effort.”

Shawn…Actually, no, to all those who continue suggesting the inflatable bladder idea solution…I have a challenge and none of you will even have to attempt this challenge a mile below sea level or with actual oil.

If ANYONE of you, can safely insert and stop the water flow coming from this typical broken fire hydrant, which has a PSI pressure of approximately 60 PSI (the wellhead pressure is probably around 2250 PSI or greater), using your inflatable bladder idea, then perhaps it could be seriously considered. Outside of that, I seriously doubt it could work!? Then again, I could be totally wrong…Just my opinion!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jAgHehzgjw&... [0:57]

Ron, did you see my post about pipeplugs, they work for big pipes and if done correctly an inflatable plug would work. If made long enough it would create enough friction with less risk of damage to the casing. If they can shove it in farther thats all that much better but the idea is not much different from the tire idea. I tried a similar test using a piece of rubber tube with a threaded rod and washer and nuts on the end, stucki it in the end of a pipe and tightened the nut and a few turns you could not pull it out of the pipe without serious effort. The key is length, the longer it is the more surface area which increases the holding power. The longer it is the less pressure would be needed to hold it than a shorter plug. Yes, there is always a risk of the casing cracking, if it hasnt already, but this is the most we have short of the relief wells sometime in a couple of months. These plugs can come with a bypass so you could still have oil flowing and collect it, thus lessening the risk of damage from the hydraulic ram effect if you just plug the hole.

Yeah, agreed!

"Well, a lot’s happened this week in the ongoing, excruciating-to-watch saga of the BP Gulf spill — we saw oil continue to lap up on miles of coastline, hundreds of birds put in danger, estimates of the spill’s size double, BP’s stock plummet (causing some to float the word ‘bankruptcy’), we saw BP buy search terms like ‘oil spill’ online to inform the public … about BP stock value, and we saw much more anger, chaos, and confusion. And we saw the oil continue to gush out of leaking hole in the Gulf. Here’s what Jon Stewart had to say after seeing all of that:

At this point, I hate to say that I can’t help but agree with him. But it’s certainly not I, or Jon Stewart, for that matter, who’s, well, you know. It’s the Gulf Coast, the wildlife that resides there, and everyone whose livelihood depends on it, that’s fu$&ed. But this whole ordeal — with the huge scope of the disaster, BP’s lack of transparency and callousness, the federal government’s helplessness, and massive surfeit of confusion — leaves all of us feeling generally fu**ed. And justifiably so."

Check out the first 8 minutes or so…

Jon Stewart’s Outlook on BP Gulf Spill: “We’re So F*$ked”
http://www.thedailyshow.com/full-episodes/thu-j...

Yes I did. It was good to see Discovery back on top of the science of things instead of their now soap opera type programming.

The show was more informing than CNN in many ways and I watch about the oil spill a couple hours a day.

Yeah, the inflate tires idea by that girl was quite ridiculous because it could crack the well casing which makes things MUCH worse. In all attempts there must be great care not to crack the well casing below.

I have no idea how that young girl got national publicity for that crazy and dangerous idea that would not work even if the casing held…no way.

“Good to have you around this forum Ed…you scare some a little…but they don’t know you…your one of the good guys here.”

Please, Ron, I have somewhat of a reputation to hold up here…Yeah…Somewhat!

BTW, did you happen to catch ‘Disaster in the Gulf: A Race Against Time’ last night on the Discovery Channel?

"This young woman genius had a unique idea for an inflatable way to plug this too! "

                            
"Oh pleaaassseeee, “Genius” indeed…Automobile tires?! Now, time to unveil my “Super Genius” plan…Drop a gihugic anvil weighin’ several quadrillion tons onto the failed blowout preventer, thus crushin’ it to complete obliteration and voila…Oh my, my, now that’s “Super Genius”! Not only is it “Super Genius” on my behalf, but I have the full faith and trust of the Acme Company behind me!"

Gee, I doubt even James Cameron or Kevin Costner can complete with such “Super Genius” as this…Unless they’re collaboratin’ with that dastardly Yosemite Sam fella…Then we may have a contest!"

I hate to be a cynic (who am I kidding, I love to be a cynic) but I’m thinking if all those people who flood the 911 lines whenever there’s a power failure became inventors and flooded those 911 lines with suggestions on how to fix the power failure, just think of the possibilities. Maybe EN could set up a special LPS and evaluate ideas before presenting them to BP. I think minimum search criteria should include trying the idea on a running garden hose in the backyard. Then stepping up to a running fire hose and finally the exhaust of a jet aircraft. Here’s a link to a great comedy schtick: http://mashable.com/2010/06/10/bp-youtube-parod...

This young woman genius had a unique idea for an inflatable way to plug this too! You can also submit your own ideas here by clicking the blue link within this New York Post article! http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/leak_solu...

Gary, same idea using inside pipe plugs with a bypass such as here http://www.pipeplug.com/inflatable_plugs.html, your air bladder is the same prinicple.

ITS ALL GOES BACK TO OUR STUPID, POSER OF A MAGGOTY PRESIDENT TO TAKE CHARGE, AS HE SHOULD HAVE DONE SINCE “DAY #1”, AND ASK FOR THE ASSISTANCE OF AMERICAN INGENUITY.
BP DOES’T HAVE THE ANSWERS, AND WHO THE HELL ARE THEY LISTENING TO?
THEY TRY TO SAW THAT PIPE, AND ANYONE THAT HAS EVER SAWED ANYTHING KNOWS THAT IT WOULD HAVE YAWLED AND BOUND UP THAT BLADE, AND THE ROBOT HAD OTHER ARMS THAT COULD HAVE PLACED A WEDGE INTO THAT CUT…..DUH

Nice find Sherri…I alerted Mike Drummond of Inventors Digest to this guy who also holds patents in oil spill technology. I think Mike may do an article on the oil spill. Comment on Mike’s thread if you have anything to say about this guy or whatever.

This man is getting very frustrated trying to find someone to listen to him as well!! News article: http://www.asylum.com/2010/06/04/texas-entrepre...
This is his website: http://www.oilspillfix.com/

Ron I was thinking? What you think about this? get a long pipe connected to an air hose or something. At the end of a pipe fit a industrial inflatable bag. Plug the hole and blow the bag up? How’s that for a quick fix.

I saw again the latest cap they now put on over the cut off riser pipe right in top of the blow out preventor.

QUITE DISGUSTING!!! The live feed shows what looks like more oil than ever leaking around the underside of the cap and the project has been abandoned for 24 hours now. So sad. BP is failing so bad. Such idiots really. How did they make this worse in the past two days??

Why doesn’t anybody else see my idea? Rip the damn failed blowout preventor and pile on the sandbags until all leaks are sealed!!!!!!!!!!!

BP oughta now be ashamed of themselves for such stupid engineering…really. Look at the live feed…they all just left…nothing being done on that leak for over 24 hours. What dumb engineering idea you got next BP? Sandbags you idiots!!!!! 10,000 of them… to start. That sure will do some plugging of that leak!

I’m glad you opened this thread. My idea is too simple. Have EN contact them & invite them to post a LPS. Let them offer 2,500 for each idea that they try.
I don’t know enough about the ocean to really have confidence in anything I come up wi. But in the Lake of the Woods, we built very sturdy docks that lasted thru winter ice. We built a crib out of old telephone poles & filled it with rocks. Think child’s wooden playpen with X bars instead of verticle bars, made out of telephone poles & filled wi rocks. If I had ocean property in the area, I might be inclined to build cribs just out from the shorline & fill them with left over used, rolls of carpet. The carpet is absorbent & usually made out of non degradeable, but absorbent material. The cribs would stabilize them. More discarded carpet could be added as it becomes saturated. Ultimately, coral & shellfish will form a reef, to which more carpet rolls could be added. If you check the land fills, you will see that there is an almost inexhaustable supply of used carpet .
How do they build docks in the ocean. Anyone know? Is it at all similar to the cribs we build in the lakes? What does it take to stablilize docks at various depths in the ocean. Actually, how do they stabilize those platforms out there? Obviously this doesnt plug the hole, but at least it might do some damage control til you, more knowledgeable guys figure out how to plug it.
BTW, Was anyone else as fascinated as I was wi Water World? I do not discount Keven Costner’s ability or any of the people who produced that show’s ability to come up wi ideas. There was amazing ideas in that show.
& venting on the political end. Don’t tell me that they didn’t know that this couldn’t happen. Deregulation by the previous administration & non watchfullnes of this administration, & probably some payoffs along the way >>> >>>I’m pointing fingers >>> FOLLOW THE MONEY!!!!
That being said, what do you think of the other ideas? Do you have any input & info & answers to my questions?
Puppy Love From Inventing Joy & the Furry folk Inventor of Camp Stamp www.CampStamp.com & originator or Giant Schnoodles www.GiantSchnoodles.com & See Me on EveryDay Edisons a few years ago. No sense of time. Can Someone tell me what season?

Ok, I haven’t touched this thread because it seemed over my head. But for some reason last night I was thinking of this. I’m sure it’s been considered by the people on the site, but I’m wondering if they are giving it serious thought.

The idea: Create a new hole in the pipe.

Simply go further along the pipe away from the damaged area, encase it with a coupler and a new pipe veritally up to an oil rig. Drop a drill down the new casing, and your done. The pressure, if I’m thinking correctly, will force the flow up the casing where they can direct it free flowing into tankers. Since the pressure would be relieved at the rupture, they could then send a repair sub to do the needed repairs without having to deal with the outcoming pressurized oil flow.

When the repairs are finished. Close the new coupler and return to the flow to its normal method of containment. This shouldn’t be rocket science to accomplish, and I think it would work, dunno. Thoughts. Or is this old stuff.

Ya know Ed…your pretty damn smart. You impressed me with all your legal explanations the other day on that thread about employee inventing.

Also Ed….looked the other day at the video you made for me with my appearance on Pitchmen….I was reminded how nice of a job you did for me. I still have to post those links on my website…just have been lacking energy to catch up to all in the past year or two…gotta get strong again and get to this stuff.

Good to have you around this forum Ed…you scare some a little…but they don’t know you…your one of the good guys here.

“How simple it would of been if they had just designed a “shut off valve” when they originally designed this unit….but that would been too simple…”

Well, there is a the device called an acoustic trigger, also known as an acoustic switch or actuator. It’s a remote-controlled device deployed off oil rigs that sends acoustic impulses through the water, triggering an underwater valve or explosives to shut down the well even if the rig is catastrophically damaged or abandoned…BP chose not to equip oil rigs off the coast of the U.S. with acoustic triggers because U.S. regulations enacted in 2003 do not require companies to do so.

A $500,000 device that may have prevented this situation…Unreal!?

Thats all we can do Ron, so keep on doing what we do, and thinking of the best outcome for all.