The Cellar - View Single Post - Mar 10, 2011: Ink truck down on the highway

Undertoad · 03-09-2011, 10:52 PM

This beaut is found at boston.com, along with the story, which I will now re-write.

OK, it's 6 am on a cold Wednesday morning in Boston, Massachusetts. The previous week's snow is still on the ground in spots, as the UPS freight driver leaves his facility with a "tandem": a tractor-trailer with not just one, but two trailers.

For our Brits, that's an articulated lorry with a second articulation.

And the trailers are heavy. They're filled with ink, which has probably made its way from Indianapolis to Boston by train, and was being trucked to Portland, Maine where it would be used by a newspaper.

You may have heard of "CMYK" in relation to color and printing. It stands for Cyan Magenta Yellow blacK. You notice this if you have a color printer; there are four print cartridges, and those are the colors. Four-color printing is based on this process, even from before the time when ink jets and lasers were used to apply print to paper.

And since the newspaper would print mostly in black, with occasional color, it stands to reason that they would order ink in volumes similar to the average ink jet printer: three times as much black as in the smaller color "cartridges".

Thus the lorry driver was hauling color ink in the front trailer, black in the rear trailer*. He drove the long, turning ramp connecting Boston's most important highway, Route 128, with America's most important highway, I-95**. And one figures all that heavy ink might have shifted a little - the liquid finding its own level - as the truck took that ramp.

And one might notice that the ramp has a tighter curve than some highway entrances, because the turn from 128 to 95 is a little more than 90 degrees.

And so, at some point, the driver realized that his trailer was tipping and his tractor was going with it. Somehow, he managed to avoid any injury - as well as hitting any other vehicles - when the trailer finally went all the way over.

And somehow, the first trailer managed to tip without taking the second trailer. But now its contents had been breeched, and Cyan and Magenta leaked out, enough to color the side of the road and half the highway in blue and red. Drivers were able to get by in one lane for a while, and they must have been amazed at what they saw when they drove by.

And as I write this, 500 feet of highway is being torn up and repaved... so that, by tomorrow morning, the commute will be much less colorful.

huge version of image hosted at boston.com

* There is nothing in the story to actually indicate that black ink was in the rear trailer. I made that part up.

** I have no qualified opinion or facts to suggest that I-95 is the most important highway in the country. I simply believe it to be true, that's all.

03-09-2011, 10:52 PM	#1
Undertoad Radical Centrist Join Date: Jan 2001 Location: Cottage of Prussia Posts: 31,423	Mar 10, 2011: Ink truck down on the highway This beaut is found at boston.com, along with the story, which I will now re-write. OK, it's 6 am on a cold Wednesday morning in Boston, Massachusetts. The previous week's snow is still on the ground in spots, as the UPS freight driver leaves his facility with a "tandem": a tractor-trailer with not just one, but two trailers. For our Brits, that's an articulated lorry with a second articulation. And the trailers are heavy. They're filled with ink, which has probably made its way from Indianapolis to Boston by train, and was being trucked to Portland, Maine where it would be used by a newspaper. You may have heard of "CMYK" in relation to color and printing. It stands for Cyan Magenta Yellow blacK. You notice this if you have a color printer; there are four print cartridges, and those are the colors. Four-color printing is based on this process, even from before the time when ink jets and lasers were used to apply print to paper. And since the newspaper would print mostly in black, with occasional color, it stands to reason that they would order ink in volumes similar to the average ink jet printer: three times as much black as in the smaller color "cartridges". Thus the lorry driver was hauling color ink in the front trailer, black in the rear trailer. He drove the long, turning ramp connecting Boston's most important highway, Route 128, with America's most important highway, I-95. And one figures all that heavy ink might have shifted a little - the liquid finding its own level - as the truck took that ramp. And one might notice that the ramp has a tighter curve than some highway entrances, because the turn from 128 to 95 is a little more than 90 degrees. And so, at some point, the driver realized that his trailer was tipping and his tractor was going with it. Somehow, he managed to avoid any injury - as well as hitting any other vehicles - when the trailer finally went all the way over. And somehow, the first trailer managed to tip without taking the second trailer. But now its contents had been breeched, and Cyan and Magenta leaked out, enough to color the side of the road and half the highway in blue and red. Drivers were able to get by in one lane for a while, and they must have been amazed at what they saw when they drove by. And as I write this, 500 feet of highway is being torn up and repaved... so that, by tomorrow morning, the commute will be much less colorful. huge version of image hosted at boston.com There is nothing in the story to actually indicate that black ink was in the rear trailer. I made that part up. ** I have no qualified opinion or facts to suggest that I-95 is the most important highway in the country. I simply believe it to be true, that's all.