fdubose
To: Admiral Thad Allen,
Sir,
I recently saw what the BP engineers had accomplished in reference to the pipe they inserted inside the broken oil pipe to siphon off the escaping oil. It occurred to me that a better approach might be to use the concept of the Chinese Finger cuff. If the engineers could produce a section of pipe that was made of flexible bands of metal and rubber or neoprene, possibly it would perform like a finger cuff and tighten around a smaller diameter pipe. It could be permanently attached to a pipe that is slightly larger in diameter than the broken pipe. Then the open end of the flexible pipe could be slid over the broken pipe several feet and then be pulled back so that the flexible material would catch and tighten onto the broken well pipe. Then the gushing oil could not escape like it is currently escaping around the smaller siphon pipe. Hopefully this idea will spark some ingenuity on the part of the engineering staff that may stop the leak.
Sir,
I recently saw what the BP engineers had accomplished in reference to the pipe they inserted inside the broken oil pipe to siphon off the escaping oil. It occurred to me that a better approach might be to use the concept of the Chinese Finger cuff. If the engineers could produce a section of pipe that was made of flexible bands of metal and rubber or neoprene, possibly it would perform like a finger cuff and tighten around a smaller diameter pipe. It could be permanently attached to a pipe that is slightly larger in diameter than the broken pipe. Then the open end of the flexible pipe could be slid over the broken pipe several feet and then be pulled back so that the flexible material would catch and tighten onto the broken well pipe. Then the gushing oil could not escape like it is currently escaping around the smaller siphon pipe. Hopefully this idea will spark some ingenuity on the part of the engineering staff that may stop the leak.