Bethlehem Steel BOF suicide

Retired worker jumped into a BOF bath; body floated, visible as gold on the surface. One ingot buried in the cemetery. Phosphorus contamination from human body slightly degraded the heat. Brief anecdote, but recurs in Eagar's lectures.

When I was at Bethlehem Steel, one guy retired and decided to commit suicide, so he came back and jumped into the bath. You float very well on steel, by the way. They could see the body spreading gold on top of the bath. In a case like that, what they do is bury one ingot in the cemetery. The only problem with the steel is the phosphorus increases, because we have a lot of phosphorus in us. Phosphorus is an impurity in steel — so that had to degrade the steel a little bit.