Important Safety Tip

Today, I'm going to do something must unusual and talk about a good warning sign. This particular sign came with a pressure relief device. Now, when you first hear that phrase, you might think of some piece of complicated machinery that controls excess pressure through means so arcane that it requires one of those artificial intelligences that are always going rogue in movies. Well, you'd be right about the device showing up in movies, at least.


Remember the climactic scene in all those movies where someone has pushed the Big Red Button that says "Doom everyone after a dramatically appropriate waiting period" next to it? When all the dials start going into the red zone, things start bursting and spewing steam, and there's an epic fight scene going on. You know the one. A "Pressure Relief Device" is actually just a piece of metal that is designed to rupture when a certain amount of pressure is applied. That's right, they are the things that burst and let the steam out to add intensity to that final battle scene in movies, or to keep bad chain reactions from happening and turning your multi-million dollar facility into a crater, in real life.

Now, I don't know how likely someone is to notice this warning sign in it's intended usage scenario, since lots of Bad Stuff™ is happening, and there are likely to be distractions. But at least the sign will be there trying to warn people that they shouldn't stand in front of the piece of metal that is about to turn into a cloud of metal fragments flying at the speed of ouch. That's a nice safety tip.

This sign can even be useful when applied to other dangerous objects, and I think that's the true indicator that you have a winner of a warning sign. Anything from bombs, to ill-behaved children in restaurants, to your weird new coworker, Grog, could benefit from having this sign pasted to them.

A Warning for Industrial Workers Everywhere

"Everybody loves to get information in cartoon form, right?" That seems to be the line of thinking that led to this being included in the instructions/warnings sheet for an industrial electric motor.

What sort of people are they expecting to work around their motors, exactly? After looking over a warning sheet made up entirely of cartoons like this one, except less amusing, it seems they expect them to be the strong but not too bright type.

"Motor no work right. Grog hulk out and smash motor with hammer until it work right! HRRRRRRR!" appears to be how they expect things to go without their intervention. Only a cute little motor with a face, enormous hands, and bony elbows will stop the metal-bending rampage. "Poor leetle motor. Grog pat it on head and hope it feel better tomorrow." That's a much better result. Thanks, warning page guys!

So, this is my warning to industrial workers everywhere: Manufacturers think you are like unto a cross between a cave man and the Incredible Hulk. Figure out a way to take advantage of that. Walk off with their stuff and refuse to give it up. They'll probably just let you keep it. Either because they figure you don't know any better, or because they don't want their desks smashed.

A secondary warning: If Grog starts making friends with your industrial electric motors, take away his comics.