it&#x27;s not chemistry, but tangentially, I have another amazing read.<p>Liquid N2 is held in a dewar, consisting of an internal and an external tank with vacuum in between.  In case of overpressure, there are blowout valves, designed to relieve pressure in a large hole rather than a small one.  You&#x27;d rather have a large hole because a high pressure tank with a small hole is basically a rocket.  Or a grenade.  Also, the N2 liquid to gas expansion factor is roughly 1:700.<p>In any case, some special person at Texas A&amp;M noticed a N2 dewar with a presumably damaged overpressure blowout valve and fucking <i>welded a brass plug in place</i>.  Eventually, the tank catastrophically failed, most likely due to corrosion of the internal tank, leading to temperature increase and the aforementioned 1:700 volume increase.  According to I believe the tank manufacturer, the tank mechanically fails at 1200 psi.  When it finally went boom, it shredded the room it was in, put a 24-in hole through a concrete floor, significantly damaged a concrete&#x2F;steel support beam, and was eventually stopped by a 3-in water main and other stuff in a mechanical room.  Miraculously it went at 3-am or so and no-one was present.<p>When people determined what had happened, some unlucky dude who didn&#x27;t get paid nearly enough got to frantically inspect every tank in the chemistry building to see if the mystery welder had &quot;upgraded&quot; any others.<p>There&#x27;s a report pdf somewhere on the internet that I can&#x27;t find at the moment.<p>I may have some details wrong but the boom part is definitely right =P<p>edit: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;web.archive.org&#x2F;web&#x2F;20060901094515&#x2F;http:&#x2F;&#x2F;finance.tamu.edu&#x2F;ehsd&#x2F;report_on_chemistry_301A.pdf" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;web.archive.org&#x2F;web&#x2F;20060901094515&#x2F;http:&#x2F;&#x2F;finance.ta...</a><p>it&#x27;s worth looking at the pictures in the pdf