[plugholes]

Fact & Metaphor Of The [Plughole]

Many of us will have had an unfortunate experience with a plug hole at some point in our lives. This was brought to my attention by a guest on one of my radio programmes recently (http://www.foundry.tv). Both her and her partner are hostile-environment trained photographers and recently covered the Labour party conference in Brighton U.K. Whilst staying in Bed and Breakfast accomodation, her partner took a shower after using the toilet and experienced the raw sewage that he had flushed down the toilet swirling around his feet, gurgling up out of the shower plughole .... They just forwarded a poem

Labour Conference. In the dead of morning..the eve of the day. Preparing to do battle with the dark side, dismay! - it splurged through the plughole submerging the feet - all shades of shit, warm and wet, swilling around the feet. The stench was foul, the turds still steaming. What to do? Where to go? He was covered in shit from toe to toe.. The plug hole was detached and eventually cleared of brown clotted water it was disappeared. But what of the feet? Washed thoroughly now they still hummed with confidence.. a B+B metaphor for life covering the con-fer-ence. (c) jeff hard 2005

Plug Holes Belly fluff, soap gunge and skanky long hair, Down the plug hole, Down the Drain; Blood, Sweat, expended seed, urine and Tears, Down the plug hole, Down the Drain; Exalted Passion, Exhausted Fashion, Down the plug hole, Down the Drain; The baby and Cleopatra's goat milk, Down the plug hole, Down the Drain; The Ubermench, Superman's, false eyelashes, Down the plug hole, Down the Drain; The crown jewels, the clown's mask, Down the plug hole, Down the Drain; Uncle Sam's distorted face and daddy longlegs, Down the plug hole, Down the Drain; All human effluent smells the same, Down the plug hole, Down the Drain; The Acid rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain, Down the plug hole, Down the Drain; Snowflakes falling softly out of the sky, Down the plug hole, Down the Drain; Polychromatic Stars from Distant Constellations, Down the plug hole, Down the Drain; The Great Bear dog dancing in the dark, Down the plug hole, Down the Drain; Kaleidoscopic visions of the Night, Down the plug hole, Down the Drain; Some Secret Sacred Symbols in the Sand, Down the plug hole, Down the Drain; Ancient Celtic designs on warrior shields, Down the plug hole, Down the Drain; Wheels of Thor's Chariot thundering through the sky, Down the plug hole, Down the Drain; Catherine Wheel of Fourtune, Wheel of Fate, Wheel of Life, Down the plug hole, Down the Drain; Crop Circles, UFO's, Extra-terrestrial Space Crafts, Down the plug hole, Down the Drain; Meta-Sonic Messages from another universe, Down the plug hole, Down the Drain; The Mississippi, The Thames and The Euphrates, Down the plug hole, Down the Drain; The Vortex sucking us into the underworld, Down the plug hole, Down the Drain; Acheron's River and the Stygian River of Snakes, Down the plug hole, Down the Drain; Glug! Glug! Glug! Glug! Glug! Glug! Down the plug hole, Down the Drain. (c) grassy knoll 2005

Bolton Evening News
Tuesday 10th Oct 1995
Lisa's finger trapped in plughole for two hours

A YOUNG mum got into "hot water" when she trapped her finger in a plughole as she prepared to bath her baby.

It took firemen two hours to release Lisa Sollinger, who had to be taken to hospital with the plughole's metal surround still on her finger.

The accident happened last night as Lisa, 21, was cleaning the bath, ready for 15-month-old Michael's wash.

But her finger slipped into the hole and became stuck.

"It was stuck past the joint and I couldn't get it out," said Lisa, of Cartleach Grove, Little Hulton.

Her friend, 18-year-old Shelley Knight, and mother Flo Knight tried to release Lisa, but without success.

"They used lard and washing up liquid, but it wouldn't move," said Lisa.

Firemen from Farnworth station were finally called in. "By this time I was sitting in the bath because it was a more comfortable position for my finger," said Lisa.

The firemen had to dismantle the plughole from underneath the bath. "They tried to get the metal surround off my finger with a hacksaw but it wouldn't move. By now my finger had swollen really badly," said Lisa.

She was taken to Bolton Royal Infirmary and given injections to numb her finger. Firemen then sawed the metal away.

Lisa said: "I feel much better today, but when it was happening I was scared to death. I thought I would never get my finger out."

Spiders do not come out of plugholes in the bath ....

The reason spiders can't get up the plughole is because the plumbing just below the plughole goes through a U-bend which always has some fluid in it. Similar U-bends can be found on handbasins and on kitchen sinks. These "traps" aren't primarily a counter-arachnid measure but are mainly to inhibit the smell rising from the sewer and for stopping objects such as cotton buds and teaspoons from going down the plughole and bunging up the drain. You can verify the existence of U-bend traps by inspection of the plumbing or by checking to see if any draught of air comes up through the plughole.

Extract from the 1962 Halley Comet. From the BAS Archives. Document reference: AD7/Z/3/1962/1 25 May 2004
The Flow of Water or other Fluid through a Small Orifice, or the Plughole Effect

Recent investigators have suggested that the direction of the vortex produced by the flow of a fluid through a small orifice, depends on the hemisphere of the globe on which the said flow takes place. That is to say it depends on Buy's Ballot Law as does the Geostrophic Wind.

It must be pointed out however that the rotation of the earth does not effect the rotation of a fluid passing through a small orifice. The factor governing the rotation is the magnetohydrodynamic effect, caused by the action of the earth's magnetic field on the pressure gradient across the boundary layer of the moving fluid.

One recent investigator in dealing with water going down the bath plugholes, suggests that the amount of 'crut' in the water has a considerable effect on the circulation. (Halley Bay Express, No.1, Vol. 1, June 21st, 1962). In the opinion of this writer this could well be true and furthermore if this 'crut' is of a ferrous material it could well upset the whole circulation.

The effect of non-ferrous 'crut' is to change the density and viscosity (and thus the Kinematic viscosity) of the fluid, and in doing has a considerable effect on the preessure gradient across the boundary layer. In some cases the extent of reversing the direction of rotation of the vortex. It has been noticed by previous investigators that sometimes the circulation will start off in one direction and will then completely reverse. This is because of the thick dirty water is always the last to go out of the bath and there is so much 'crut' in this water that it completely reverses the direction of rotation.

An important point revealed by the magnetohydrodynamic theory is that a magnetic storm can have a devastating effect on the plug hole, and in fact during investigations at Halley Bay has even been known to completely freeze up the orifice thus stopping any kind of circulation. It is therefore advisable that, before having a bath, base members should check with Doug to make sure that there is not a magnettc storm in progress. It should be noted that the vortex motion of a certain bird which is reputed to fly around in ever decreasing circles has nothing to do with the magnetohydrodynamic theory mentioned above.

Having read your blurb, the stuff about hurricanes and the Coriolis force reminded me of a couple of (related in subject matter) books I've read this year. One is "Chaos" by James Gleick and the other is "Fearful Symmetry" by Ian Stewart. In both they talk about fluid dynamics and turbulence especially with reference to rotation.
Take a look at this
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turbulence
There's lots of links to related phenomena from the above website.
I'll be in touch again soon.
Tim