Just a quick anecdote regarding the latest column from the archives:
It would, of course, be a relatively cheap delivery method for petroleum to have an elevated tank, and I have actually seen this. But there are safety issues with having a big can of gasoline sitting up on stilts …
When I worked a summer job for my public school district’s grounds maintenance department, we had an elevated gasoline tank we used to fill the tractors, trucks & equipment. They’d fill it with several hundred gallons of gas periodically, and we’d use it over the course of a few weeks. Nice & cheap–no electric pumps needed, everything works by gravity. And it was basically just a big metal drum on top of a metal scaffold, with a hose & a stopcock.
We high school & college kids had had an escalating prank war going on at one point. Well, one day I parked my car on the gravel drive right next to the gas tank, and that gave two of the other guys a brilliant :rolleyes: idea. They snagged a length of chain and a padlock from the hardware stores, and chained my rear axle to the scaffold that supported the tank. :eek:
I imagine that they planned to give me some kind of warning before I left for the day. But I noticed what they’d done early in the afternoon … I notified the manager, who was pretty much furious, obviously, and stated that the practical jokes were at an end. I agreed, but asked him not to talk to the other guys until after I left. Had to get the last word, you see.
I slipped out a few minutes early that afternoon without saying goodnight to my co-workers. So their first indication that I was gone was the sound of the big V-8 engine in my trusty '72 Plymouth Satellite revving up. I grinned as I saw them running out of the maintenance building, waving their arms and screaming. Then I slammed that baby into drive and vanished in a spray of dust and gravel. I’d snipped a link from the chain & unleashed my axle, but left the chain trailing under the car, so you’d have to get all the way underneath to see that it wasn’t still attached to the gas tank. I can only imagine what was going through their heads …
I’m told that they were very subdued during the subsequent conversation with the manager. 