What am I?

[toggleswitch2]

Why am I needed?
What is my purpose.

I know. Do you?
Seen on the streets of Manhattan.

:-0

 

[toggleswitch2]

Here is a clue.

 

[frigilux]

I have absolutely no idea, but should I be concerned that something obviously under pressure is being held together with electrical tape, LOL?

Here's my guess: It's the thing that goes P-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-T!
And then the door opens on the bus.

We're having a blizzard and I don't have to go to work, today. Yippee Skip!!

 

[iheartmaytag]

At first I though it was a cannister to hold sperm samples, but then I saw it was going into a "manhole" so yea, that's it. It's a cannister to hold sperm samples.

 

[blackstone]

Well, the ONLY thing that I can read on the label is DO NOT REMOVE.

 

[nurdlinger]

It's an industrial dewar flask

Used to contain liquefied gases which are very cold. But what gas? Oxygen for the sewer workers? Nitrogen for pressurizing electrical cables? You can see the frost covering the plumbing on the top, but none on the hose so it must be shut off at the time of the photo.

 

[toggleswitch2]

STAWP IT!

Oh I-heart. I'm dying laughing here!
Well technincally yes, it is a pipe/hose in manhole.



LOL ROFL LMAO.

 

[petek]

What are you doing on that block anyways,, were in Kiehls having your skin improved today?

 

[whirlcool]

We used to see those all over Houston before fiber optic telephone cables were used. It has something to do with keeping the moisture out of the phone lines or similar.

 

[pturo]

When I use my propane in the winter, the tank side gets icy like that, so I am assuming the tank supplies heat to the manhole to thaw pipes or preheat them for workers?

 

[toggleswitch2]

LOL no dear I was not having "work done" Don't know any Doctors named Matagringos or Chupapatos.

I was doing work! I was inspecting a nearby property for appraisal purposes.

Yes it is a storage cylinder that delivers compressed gas. It is related to telepohne/communications service.

Some guesses are close indeed.....
But I'm gonna tease all of you some more and make you wait.

 

[toggleswitch2]

It's not propane.
HINT: There is plenty of heat underground from MAnhattan's steam-pipe network. One can buy steam from the public utlity for heating, hot water heating, cooling, emergency power generatation etc.

You basically can't heat a skyscraper with a boiler at the bottom, becase the flue-pipe (exhaust) effluent would cool too much and condensing caustic acidic vapors/liquids would eat the pipe/clay/bricks. Dumping the byproducts of combustion near the middle or bottom of the building means it is going to go into someone else's window (or face).

Transporting gas or fuel-oil to the top becomes dangerous, costly and mechancially complicated. Natural gas at low pressure will probably not climb so high. Water in thsi city won't go up so high under normnal pressure and is booosted to a tank at the top where it falls back down by gravity.

So this is why it is easier and less costly (for LARGE structures) to buy steam from the ouside (i.e. the public utility) as vendor. Huge density of population makes this practical on the island of Manhattan.

 

[toggleswitch2]

and by the first part of the prior panel I meant to say it is impractical to run a flue to the top (of a skyscraper) from a burner/boiler at the bottom.

 

[andrewinorlando]

Steve - what fuels are the utilities using to generate steam for their steam customers these days?

 

[toggleswitch2]

Not so sure, but hopefully a large part of it is still "waste" steam from "Big Alice", the electrical generating station of Consoldated Edsion (our electrical and gas utility in NYC). It appears that the whole city and its steam users are, in effect, one large steam condenser for the utility, rather than a standard cooling tower!

IIRC only a portion of the steam needed is actually generated by burning fuel just for that purpose.

 

[toggleswitch2]

AFAIK, that is indeed a liquid nitrogen canister that is used to adminster that gas to be used as a coolant, year 'round.
Freqeuently their labels disclse their contents.

Apparently, a great deal of electronics are located in the streets to work with and control various type of fiber-optic and other types of low-voltage communications equipment.

Electrical cables and steam pipes generate a great deal of heat undeground, and as such various areas need cooling.

As a side benefit IIRC nitrogen is a major component of the air we breathe, so after it does its job as coolant, I suupose it seeks to act as an "air-freshener" (rather than somethign toxic) for those working underground.

Those things are all over the place and seen very fequently in the summer.

Of course I was gonna say it's a huge canister of nitrous oxide (dentist's gas) or Amyl or Butyl Nitrate (video-head cleaner a/k/a poppers), but of course I know not of such things.

 

[toggleswitch2]

..so who knew that a pipe in the manhole works to keep it cool, fresh, breathable and running smoothly?

I did I did.

 

[vintagesearch]

i used to see like 3 to 4 of these on a corner with wires everywhere!!!! in the city.

 

[pturo]

My second guess was going to be a huge pressure shaker of chilled Vodka to supply Trump tower resident's faucets. Hot, cold and Stolis in the kitchen and the bar, how convenient, especially for breakfast time, during these hard financial times. DO NOT REMOVE!

 

[sudsmaster]

Minority opinion...

Natural gas is mostly methane, which is lighter than air. So there shouldn't be a big problem piping it to the upper floors of a skyscraper. What else would people do with their trophy penthouse kitchens with commercial gas-fired ranges?

I know that is a liquid nitrogen container because I used to freeze things in the bio lab back in the 80's with nitrogen from one of those. Ran an automated device that would gradually meter liquid nitrogen from the tank into an insulated box to do controlled freezing (cryopreservation) of various tissues/cells contained in cute little plastic vials within. Also used the tank to fill smaller tanks that contained same vials in longer term storage.

I did a little googling and it seems that the liquid nitrogen is used to cool POWER cables so that they can become superconducting and carry more current per ounce of copper. The nitrogen is carried into the length of the cable - which of course must be well sealed and insulated, as the nitrogen will eventually heat up and lose liquid mass to vapor mass. So it must be replaced either contiuously or on a regular basis.

The mad scientists are busy trying to make superconducting power cables that work at room temp... but don't hold your breath.

I guess the cost of maintaining cold conditions with liquid nitrogen is cheaper than buying bigger power conductors and ripping up the most expensive real estate in the world to place them. Liquid nitrogen isn't cheap, and I imagine a fairly large amount of it is used daily to keep the electrons moving in Manhattan.

 

[dalangdon]

The utility I work for used to use liquid nitrogen at the receiving substation by my workplace, but they stopped back in the early 90's. The tanks are still there though.

It was/is a fascinating mechanism. The whole substation is, as it's been there since the 30's, and still has some original equipment. The control house is a great WPA-era structure with a bunch of weird stuff in the basement. While almost everything else, including the dams, have been largely automated, they still keep old-school operators at that place, mostly because of the steel mill.

I know that our downtown network system uses oil filled conduits as a means of cooling conductors, but that is far above my paygrade

 

[bobbyderegis]

Can you imagine seeing that cannister after 9/11 on the streets of Manhattan? Up until a few years ago that would have caused a major public panic. Personally, I thought it was Toggle's laughing gas container. That's really why he's so cheerful all the time.
Bobby in Boston

 

[tolivac]

Some power company transformers use a nitrogen tank or and argon tank to use its gas to displace any air or oxygen from inside the transformer-this is to prevent oxidation of the transformer oil-if the oil becomes oxidized-instead of being an insulator it becomes a conductor.At the voltage these transformers operate it could mean the failure of the transformer and whatever homes and businesses it supplies power too.As power transformrs heat and cool-oxygen can be drawn into them-the nitrogen forms a "blanket" on top
of the transformer oil to prevent the air from getting into it.The nitrogen may also fill the unused space in a transformers "conservetor" tank-where the oil goes when it expands from heating.Its the tank you see above the transformer case.Some of the transformers in the transmitters have this.But they don't have the nitrogen tanks-have dehydrator pellets that absorb moisture and oxygen instead.
Oh yes RF transmission lines from the transmitter to the antenna for AM,FM and TV may have these lines filled with nitrogen or dehydrated air to prevent moisture entry and arc overs.The gas is maintained at a positive pressure so containiments can't get into the line.Have forgotten how may nitrogen tanks I have gone thru at radioi and TV stations-and dehydrator cartridges I have reviatalized.

 

[mielabor]

Aha, I already suspected that it was not for cooling. I can see that the nitrogen isn't liquid anymore once it has entered the tube into the manhole, otherwise ice formation would be visible. However, it seems rather cumbersome to have these dewars in the streets. I have never seen this here and I think that they would be quickly vandalised. All the interesting things you can do with liquid nitrogen!

 

[mielabor]

Now I think of it: has it something to do with pest control?