Prison Escape

 Episode #123

OAD: June 3, 2009

Myth: Car Cling

Is it possible to hold on to the roof or hood of a car if the driver’s trying to shake you off?

Memorable/Quotable Moments:

Adam: Attention former car.  Prepare to be modified.  Resistance is futile.

Jamie: How are we gonna call it?

Adam: Dude, I’m calling this one Fun with a capital F!  I swear this is a whole new amusement pa…oh, you mean Busted – Plausible – Confirmed?

The Action/Results:

When Hollywood wants to show one character clinging to a car despite the driver’s best efforts, the stuntman is strapped to the car wearing a safety harness.  This won’t work for these tests, because if the guys lose their grip it needs to be clear that they did.  Loosening the harness would make that clear, but runs the risk of Jamie or Adam hitting the pavement at speed.  They bring their test car into M5, and go into a two-hour brainstorming session to work out the rigging.

Adam pulls the trunk lid and chops down to the car frame.  The guys then weld support posts to the frame.  A triangular antenna truss stretches from the trunk supports the full length of the car.  Their safety harnesses will attach to a track welded to the bottom of the truss.  One paint job, and a little repair work after they learn Adam got a bit saw-happy and cut power to the fuel pump, and it’s off to the Alameda runway for the full-scale tests.

In the shop, the rig easily supports Jamie’s weight.  But at testing speeds, there are g forces to contend with as well.  The guys start by strapping Buster into the harness, and Jamie takes him out for maneuvers.  Buster whips around enough to have both of the guys a little worried, but the rig remains solid throughout and they decide to go ahead with the tests.

For the first set of tests, Jamie dons protective gear and safety harness.  He’ll be on the car roof, and Adam will try to shake him off.  They start with a simple zigzag swerve, at the insurance-approved maximum speed of 45 MPH (72 KPH).  For the first run, Adam leaves the front windows rolled down to give Jamie a good handhold.  Jamie has no problem holding on … but how often do we see rolled-down windows in movie chase scenes?  They repeat the swerves with the windows rolled up, and this time Jamie slides off the roof on the second swerve.  For the rest of the tests, the windows are rolled up.

On the next test, Adam drives in a large circle, and keeps increasing his speed until centrifugal force takes Jamie off the roof.  Jamie is clearly struggling at 15 MPH (24 KPH), and completely loses his grip at 20 MPH (32 KPH).  Finally, they try just slamming on the brakes.  For safety reasons, Adam only takes the car up to 25 MPH (40 KPH) before the sudden stop.  And it’s a good thing that he slowed down, because Jamie makes a Buster-style departure from the roof, whipping into the end of the truss and pulling enough g forces to almost black out.

One medical checkup later, the guys trade places for the hood cling tests.  The zigzag swerve is slowed to 20 MPH, and Adam cannot hang on.  He points out that the edge of a hood isn’t as uniform a gripping surface as one might think.  Between vents and windshield wiper parts, he came close to hand injury trying to hold on.  On the long curve, Adam loses his grip at 20 MPH.  Before the emergency stop test, Jamie predicts that Adam will be able to hold on this time because he’s lined up with the forces he’ll be undergoing.  Once again, Jamie’s right – Adam has no problem holding on to the hood at 25 MPH, or when they repeat the test at 45 MPH.

Back at M5, the guys agree that while there are situations where one can hold on to the outside of a car, you’re far more likely to lose your grip.  This myth is Busted.

Sub-Myth: Car Wash Knock Off

Can you knock someone off the outside of your car by going through the car wash?

Memorable/Quotable Moments:

Jamie: That was definitely one of those “What the (pause) heck am I doing?” moments.

Rob: Adam?  Have fun?  Surely not.

The Action/Results:

There’s a little time left, and Adam wants to try out this method from the Discovery website.  The guys head to a local car wash with test car and camera crew, and each of them takes a ride.  Jamie goes through first, on the roof of the car.  He complains about the cold (the water temperature is only 55 F/12 C), but stays on the roof without even holding on.  Adam goes through on the car hood.  The slope of the hood means he needs to hold on, but he has no problem doing so.  This myth is Busted.

Myth: Prison Break 2 – Floss To Freedom

Is it possible to cut the bars of a prison cell with dental floss?

The Expert:

JD Nelson provides a “loaner” jail cell.

Memorable/Quotable Moments:

Grant: Hopefully, the twenty-seventh time is a charm.

Kari: My prediction is that we’ll get out on good behavior before we actually get out of prison.

The Action/Results:

The trio starts with another trip to the Alameda County courthouse.  While Tory discusses this myth with JD Nelson, Grant and Kari are locked in a cell with dental floss to give it a try.  Sergeant Nelson thinks this might work, but the smooth surface of dental floss will work against the escapers.  Back in the cell, Kari had the same idea and brought some toothpaste with her.  Whitening toothpastes contain silica, which is a mild abrasive.  She applies some to the bars she and Grant are working on, but two hours later they’ve only cut through the paint.

Testing this myth manually will take far too long, so Grant decides to build a flossing robot out of things a prisoner could get his hands on.  The core of the robot is a “stolen” cassette tape player, with dental floss loaded into the cassette.  Meanwhile Tory builds a wall with a barred window for the tests.

Grant spends most of a day trying to get his tape player floss-bot to work.  After multiple failures and a lot of bleeped comments, he finally gives up.  Flossing Robot 2.0 is built with the full resources of M7.

Over the next week, the flossing robot (with toothpaste abrasive added regularly) puts in 35.2 hours of flossing, and cuts a groove 0.015 inch (0.04 centimeter) deep in the bar.  Grant calculates that if a prisoner could get eight solid hours of flossing in per night, he could cut through the steel bar in 293 days.  The team agrees that this myth is Plausible.

Myth: Prison Break 2 – Cannonball Breakout

Could an 18th-century prisoner have escaped by loading his ball and chain into a cannon and launching himself over the wall?

The Experts:

John Tabor provides advice.

Jim Brown picks out the appropriate size ball and chain.

Memorable/Quotable Moments:

Grant (to Buster): It’s nothing personal, you know.

The Action/Results:

The prisoner in the myth was held in a prison that had a ceremonial cannon on the roof, fired every hour.  Supposedly, he snuck up to the roof and put the ball of his ball and chain into the cannon.  He fired it, and the cannonball carried him over the wall to freedom.

Tory and Kari start with a couple research trips.  John Tabor has a mortar that will fire a 16-pound (7.25 kilo) bowling ball 700 to 800 yards (640 to 731 meters), and the pair takes detailed measurements of it.  Next stop is the Folsom State Prison museum, where curator Jim Brown tells them that a prisoner of Buster’s weight would have worn a ball 5 5/8 inches (14.3 centimeters) diameter, and the whole set of ball, chain and leg shackle would have weighed 37 pounds (16.8 kilos).

Back at M7, Tory starts work on a cannon.  He wants this to be solid, so he bores out a 10.5-inch (26.7 centimeter) thick chunk of steel for the combustion chamber.  He welds in a barrel with walls 2 inches (5 centimeters) thick.  Meanwhile, Grant builds several replica ball and chain sets, and paints them yellow for maximum visibility in flight.

Testing is at the Alameda bomb range.  Kari and Grant set up a section of snow fence to give them something to shoot for.  The first test is simply to proof Tory’s cannon.  The ball from one ball and chain set is loaded, with one shotgun shell of black powder, and Tory lights the fuse.  The ball goes over 80 yards (73 meters), easily clearing the target fence.  Next, Buster is locked into another ball and chain.  This one is loaded with twice the black powder, but the shot only drags Buster 6 feet.

Before the next test, they discuss the human element.  The incarnation of Buster they’re working with has a solid steel skeleton, much stronger than human flesh and bone.  Kari disconnects his hip joint, and substitutes some synthetic rope.  This rope has the same breaking point as the muscles and ligaments of the human hip.  This time, the cannon (with an unspecified powder charge) launches Buster’s leg over the fence, at over 200 MPH (322 KPH).  The rest of Buster sits unmoved by the cannon.  It wasn’t a knot failure; the rope is clearly broken.  The team agrees that there is no way a human could have survived this injury, which makes this myth Busted.