New Earthquake Proof Bed May Actually Be A Terrible Idea

If the idea of an earthquake keeps you up at night ...




News - See earthquake-proof bed that sucks you into metal coffin - The Weather Network

:crackup: Brilliant idea! Looks like something that could sell here on the west coast from California to Alaska.

Alan

Interesting topic since I just watched San Andreas last night.

It seems a bit over engineered.

The "Tomb" part is a bit silly, as it increases the odds of surviving until you could be rescued. A sat phone option would make sense for example, as would a megaphone, alarm horn, etc.

A simple cage for the bed ROOM would make more sense overall though.

Teej said:

It seems a bit over engineered.

The "Tomb" part is a bit silly, as it increases the odds of surviving until you could be rescued. A sat phone option would make sense for example, as would a megaphone, alarm horn, etc.

A simple cage for the bed ROOM would make more sense overall though.

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Kind of looks like an earthquake, well, inside an earthquake. With the sinking and swallowing. Think I'll wait for the teleporter option ...

I guess it would actually prevent you from dying from falling debris during an earthquake which makes it a good idea in principe.

Something like a sat phone might be difficult since that requires and external antenna that woudl probably be damaged or broken off by that falling debris. Some sort of (ultra)sonic locator beacon might be nice though, and doesnt require fragile external components.

The whole 'tomb' design my seem scary, but it can be a good thing if you're in a tall building where it will take some time for rescue workers to dig you out. Having a source of oxygen and water could give you a couple of days instead of minutes or hours to be dug up. It would be probably make death worse if noone came to your rescue, but that is pretty rare. Even in places like nepal rescue attemps are made, but they may not be fast enough to save you from dehydration even if you are covered in rubble but still able to get some air.

Keeping in compact has its reasons as well: if you'd line an entire room with 2 inch thick steel plates to protect it from impact, that would be so heavy that the highrise it is in would probably collapse if you did one such room for each appartment in it.

The basic idea is good but the design may need some improvement. I hope there is ventilation with a fan so you don't run out of air, there should be compartments in the sides to store suff, not in the bottom. I can just imagine someone buried under the rubble for a day or two only to be dug up and found dead. It has to be properly designed and tested to be sure it's reliable.

Alan

You guys know you can make pure oxygen from yeast and peroxide might be worth figuring out a way to do it and fill empty old small cylinders that have a pressure gage with pure O2. You never know when you'll need to hold your breath for a few mins and you can hold it better with pure oxygen.

Getting enough air would be a bit of a problem: if you are under so much rubble that no outside air is available to ventilate, you'd need to carry it. And quite a lot of it to last a while.

Lets take a scuba tank as an example. 12 liters of air compresssed to 200 bar may last you 1 to 2 hours when diving, probably a bit more when not moving around much and reasonably insulated from cold.

So to last a day or two you might just have to install 10 scuba tanks - which is feasible under a normally sized bed.

Taking pure oxygen is probably not a good idea as it is dangerous breathe for a long period of time. It would be fine for a couple of minutes, but impairing and posibly deadly in a few hours. It also tends to set everything on fire (things you'd never expect to easily combust in 21%).

If it has a vent in it there is the slight chance of letting water in from a broken water pipe/main or smoke if a fire breaks out. If the fire is strong you might get cooked like a Christmas ham

Laser Chick said:

If it has a vent in it there is the slight chance of letting water in from a broken water pipe/main or smoke if a fire breaks out. If the fire is strong you might get cooked like a Christmas ham

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Ok then build in a HEPA filter into the ventilation in case of smoke, and make the vent close in case of water, and make the whole thing float in case of a tsunami. :crackup: There's no way to win, the cost is going to be too high to properly design one of these, no one is going to take out a mortgage on their bed.

Alan

Cost is a factor indeed. It is absolutely possible to build buildings that can withstand severe earthquakes, which would be most effective for new constructions.

Solutions like this are most suited for people living in older buildings, and since most highrises are built fairly quake proof, chances are that air supply will not be that big of an issue.

Where the requirements change varies by area, but often it is between 4 stories or more than 4. With taller structures there are often requirements on how wind and quakeproof they must be, whereas there is no such regulation for smaller structures apart from building code.

Here in the netherlands we don't have significant earthquakes, but tall buildings have to meet wind load requirements such that they stay structurally sound even in 200 km/h storms and such.

Emergency measures in case of collapse or flooding can still be useful though. I guess protection from modern day threats like terrorism also need to be factored in. These earthquake-portectingm'coffin' beds could also save you when some idiot decides it's a good idea to blow out a floor below yours or fly aircraft into your building.

A sturdy welded frame with a bottom and a top plate, under and over head, like a steel 4 poster bed, would be economical and easily fabricated. Adding hinged wing plates that were out like awnings would add a layer of off angle protection...as they would naturally swing to cover the most likely areas of intrusion.

Moving it to somewhere there is no subduction zone would be the next step in safety for example.



A set of mounts on the ceiling of the top plate (facing you as you sleep) holding a jack hammer, chisel, sledge hammer and rock hammer, air horn, sat phone, and scanner, smoke bombs, water bottles and nonperishable foods, first aid kit, HEPA filtered mask, safety goggles, work gloves, spare clothes, flash lights, etc, BOB, would be great.

Or move some where there's few earth quakes if possible...as if the above seems like a good idea, you should probably just move.

Dang Teej, sounds like you are gearing up to go prospecting

i get that a significant portion of the world population lives by active fault lines, but wouldn't it just be easier for them to move somewhere else?

Rather than sucking you in, it should open up a door and roll you outside by tilting the bed automatically.