I was there, in a seat off to one side and slightly elevated above the level
of the water surface. Not a really great seat as I had no view of the
cauldron at the time that it got stuck. I did however have an excellent view
of the actual flame lighting sequence.

The gas did not begin to bubble to the surface of the water until Kathy
Freeman had bent over and placed the hand held torch near the surface of the
water. The gas initially was only bubbling near the point where the hand
held torch was placed to the water and then when the initial lighting had
happened the rest of the circle of gas bubbles and fire quickly completed
the circle around her.

The whole sequence had been rehearsed (without a hitch) at midnight on the
night prior to the actual Opening Ceremony. (You just can't test enough can
you).

Kathy ended up getting drenched by all the water that cascaded down past her
from the cauldron as it moved upward. Afterwards she had to be wrapped in a
coat to keep warm as the air temperature was only around 60 degrees F (or 16
degrees C).

I admit at the time that I was not that concerned with the safety aspect as
I was simply blown away by the sheer visual spectacle with the whole concept
of adding the water element to a flame lighting ceremony. The cauldron
itself and all the associated hardware was concealed, adding to the mystery
of just how it would be accomplished.

The water fall and the stage/pool from which the cauldron emerged have now
all been removed in the interests of reinstalling the seats in the stadium
and selling tickets. The flame definitely will not be extinguished by
reversing the lighting sequence.

Regards



> -----Original Message-----
> From: Dwayne Reid [SMTP:dwayner@PLANET.EON.NET]
> Sent: Wednesday, September 20, 2000 5:56 AM
> To:   PICLIST@MITVMA.MIT.EDU
> Subject:      Re: [OT]: Sydney Engineering Heart Attack <-- Reinitializing
> regi sters
>
> At 12:39 PM 9/19/00 -0500, Severson, Rob wrote:
> >I LOVED it!
> >
> >Light a pool of water! What a great visual effect.
> >
> >
> > > Then, this contraption gets stuck moving the torch up a rickety
> >
> >Sticking was unfortunate.
>
> The following was posted on the Show Control mailing list about the delay
> in getting the burner onto the lift cradle:
>
> ****************************************************
> This is a message from the Show-Control Mailing List
> ****************************************************
>
> Yes it did!! A faulty switch stopped the system and told the operator that
> the cradle was not engaged when in fact it was. They had to put the system
> into manual control apparently to proceed once finding that all was safe.
> It
> was a major story in the Australian papers the next day.
>
> Tony Moffat
>
>
>
>
> Dwayne Reid   <dwayner@planet.eon.net>
> Trinity Electronics Systems Ltd    Edmonton, AB, CANADA
> (780) 489-3199 voice          (780) 487-6397 fax
>
> Celebrating 16 years of Engineering Innovation (1984 - 2000)
>
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