Bombs and dust
Quite by chance I saw an interesting documentary on Discovery last night, I had no idea it was coming on but it turned out to be very timely. This prog was not about the conspiracy or the politics of such but simply about how the towers were built, the method of construction, and the effects of a jet fuel fire on that construction.
It unwittingly provided some of the most feasible and likely alternative suggestions that we have seen in this debate so far, and finally dispels what's left of the demolition theories once and for all.
The docu focused on the "tube" style of design for steel constructed buildings where there are prefabricated sections of steel around the outside of the building and steel columns up the centre (around the lift shafts and stairwells), which are linked together by the floors. The floors were also prefabricated - they comprised of sections based on the Trestle design. This was done to save weight and to quicken overall construction. The design consisted of two triangular forms of zig-zag type lightweight steel tubes (a bit like the triangular design you see in the stages and light Gantry's at rock concerts etc) laid parallel to each other and overlaid with a sheet of thin material to make a floor section. This was then bolted at either end to the central columns and the outer columns of the building via surprisingly small "L" shaped lugs. Many of these floor sections were then laid side by side all around the centre columns providing an open plan floorspace of one acre in area. It was this linking of the inner and outer columns by the floor sections that gave the building it's strength. Without the linking (cross bracing effectively) the building would have little strength. The floor sections were then covered with four inches of concrete. It was these trestle based floor sections that were hugely instrumental in the collapse of the towers.
All of the tubing in the floor sections, as well as the columns, were sprayed with fire protection foam to a depth of one and a half inches. This was calculated by the architect to provide adequate protection in the event of fire. In 1995, and again later, an independent architect (Roger Morse) was called upon to do a survey of the fire protection measures in place at the towers. On entering the hollow space under the floors he found sections of the fireproofing foam far to thin (poor application) and large sections had simply dropped off the tubing. This was due to the foam being sprayed onto the tubes while they were affected by a covering of dusty surface rust. The foam had simply not stuck properly. There was photo's shown of Roger Morse pointing out the missing foam on the exposed metalwork of the floor trestles.
When the planes struck the building a number of columns were taken out but the strong design held up. The fuel fire followed and the exposed parts of the floor trestles were weakened by the heat and bent, causing the floors to sag. This in turn bent the L shaped lugs until they snapped off the columns. The entire floor area then dropped onto the floor below. The outer columns could not support the weight of the floors above the crash site and they gave way and the visual collapse started. What was not seen from the outside of the towers was the floor collapse sequence was always several floors ahead of the outer collapse. It was the collapsing floors pulling on the outer lugs that pulled the outside of the building inwards creating the implosion effect.
These events were backed up by Prof Eduardo Kausel who had access to the scrap site and filmed the bent lugs on the outer columns (some were still attached but the bolts on the floor side had snapped). There were bent sections of centre columns, also pulled by the floors as they dropped. There was nothing wrong with the steel but there was an uncalculated sequence of events started by the sagging of the trestle floors. The design had allowed for "normal" fire (the foam application) but hadn't allowed for the additional heat from jet fuel and chunks of foam missing.
Prof Jonathan Bartlett from one of the UK universities built a model of the trestle floors complete with foam and missing foam bits. They loaded it to simulate the conditions in the tower and then introduced fire from underneath. It was frightening how quickly the exposed part of the trestle bent and sagged, even though the temp was way below the melting temp of the steel.
It was established that steel doesn't have to be at anywhere near it's melting temperature to give way when under load. It very much depends on the load factor. An experiment was shown which was carried out by one of the UK fire departments. Using a redundant steel constructed building they equipped it to replicate typical office space and then set a fire. With only the typical office furniture, paper, computers, cabling etc being present there was enough heat to bend and warp substantial steel girders and bearers. It was pointed out that the heat in the towers would be much more severe with the addition of jet fuel.
The firemen talked of boom-boom-boom as the building collapsed and, quote, "as if there were detonations". This was the sound of the inner floors striking one another (one of them even gesticulated with his hands the action of the floors coming down - a perfect description of what was actually happening!) They were ahead of the outer collapse and caused large volumes of air to be ejected from the building from wherever it could - highlighted in the video as being demolition charges??
The video narrator described the mess in the lower lobby. Quote - "elevator doors were missing, the marble was missing off some of the walls, the west windows were all gone, broken glass everywhere, the revolving doors were all broken and their glass was all gone"..... Later, dispelling the possibility of fuel coming down the lift shafts causing fire he says, quote - "However, there is no soot, no fire, no fuel residue. Instead, the entire lobby is is coated with a fine dust which is a signature of high explosives"
Now, back to the documentary, enter a WTC employee - an elevator operator who helped people out of the building. He was in the lower lobby and described the sight pretty much the same - except the causes were very different!! He explained that some of the elevator cables were severed in the crash (there were express elevators that ran the whole height of the building) and that the elevators came crashing down. They came down at tremendous speed and there were huge impacts as they hit the bottom of the shafts. The doors were blown off and they struck the walls breaking the marble! There was broken glass everywhere and everybody was covered in dust! He witnessed this in the making.
So it's fairly unarguable that the lobby damage was caused by the falling lifts and not explosives as the video would have you believe. At the end of the day, the employee was there - the video makers were not! But they have used the same evidence to blatantly mislead, even lie. They obviously didn't reckon on this employee getting into a documentary for all to see. They're not really very bright are they?
I'll say it again. The more you watch this video - the more the alternative answers come to the fore and make more logical sense. It's extraordinary the lengths these people will go to mislead.