Equipment Repairs

In olden times, when weapons were not so varied in style, a good gunsmith was a national treasure, a cherished craftsman-artist, importuned and honored. Nicolas Noel Boutet--"Boutet of Versailles"--was such a man. Henry Hadley of England was another. So was Michele Lorenzoni of Florence. There were others. A man such as these, a creator who could design a gun and make it and maybe decorate it too, was singular, distinguished. Dan Dwyer of Mission Hills is such a man.

BP and government officials said Thursday that they planned to remove the damaged existing blowout preventer on top of the company's troubled oil well and replace it with a new, stronger one — a move they said would allow them to safely carry out the final "kill" of the well, but would delay the ultimate fix until after Labor Day. Earlier in the crisis, BP had estimated that it would be able to complete the final step to plug the well, called...

A decadelong effort to refurbish thousands of aging nuclear warheads has run into serious technical problems that have forced delays and exacerbated concerns about the Energy Department's ability to maintain the nation's strategic deterrent. The program involves a type of warhead known as the W76, which is used on the Navy's Trident missile system and makes up more than half of the deployed warheads in the U.S. stockpile.

Repairs underway at the riot-damaged California Institute for Men at Chino include replacing ceramic bathroom fixtures with stainless steel and cotton bedding with flame-retardant fabrics to prevent the kind of widespread destruction that occurred there in August, state prison authorities said Tuesday. In a report on lessons learned from the Aug. 8 riot that injured 249 prisoners and eight staffers, investigators with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation praised staff response to the violent disturbance for preventing escapes and fatalities.

BY the time a musical instrument arrives at the Los Angeles Unified School District repair shop, it might be dented, cracked, scratched, bent, chipped, smashed, warped, jammed, gouged, rusted or snapped. It might be missing strings, keys, valves, hooks, hammers, springs, pads, paint, cork, felt or horsehair. Somebody might have carved "Tony {heart} Jenny" on its side. Maybe somebody kicked it or threw it. Maybe somebody used it as a club or bowled with it. Never heard of piano bowling?

He works among ghosts and old stories, dreams that linger on dried ribbons of ink and in ancient dust from smoky rooms. He sits there in his shop, under a warm cone of yellow light, and his hands, still steady after 68 years of living, are fiddling with a typewriter. He is dusting it, oiling it, snapping the keys, and, somehow, he can see those who once sat in front of it. It is just a typewriter, but for Richard Lewis, it is a window into their souls.

Repairs underway at the riot-damaged California Institute for Men at Chino include replacing ceramic bathroom fixtures with stainless steel and cotton bedding with flame-retardant fabrics to prevent the kind of widespread destruction that occurred there in August, state prison authorities said Tuesday. In a report on lessons learned from the Aug. 8 riot that injured 249 prisoners and eight staffers, investigators with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation praised staff response to the violent disturbance for preventing escapes and fatalities.

The pipeline problems that shut down the largest U.S. oil field early this month brought a chilling reminder of what can go wrong with the extensive, aging maze of pipelines that carries volatile fuels across the nation. Poor pipeline maintenance led to extensive corrosion and leaks, leading oil giant BP to turn off the spigots at Alaska's Prudhoe Bay. Energy markets were roiled, but no human lives were threatened in Alaska's North Slope wilderness.

Improperly adjusted brakes and the driver's failure to use a low enough gear apparently were major factors in the July crash of a chartered school bus near Palm Springs that killed four teen-age Girl Scouts and three adults, a California Highway Patrol officer said Thursday.

Navy engineers have determined that the 16-inch gun turret involved in a powerful explosion on the battleship Iowa April 19 can be repaired, Pentagon officials said Tuesday. But the Pentagon still has not decided whether to fix it or how much it would cost. Pentagon spokesman Dan Howard said that Navy workers Sunday succeeded in moving the turret's middle gun to its "center line," or normal position, indicating that the foot-thick steel walls of the structure have not been bent beyond repair.

A decadelong effort to refurbish thousands of aging nuclear warheads has run into serious technical problems that have forced delays and exacerbated concerns about the Energy Department's ability to maintain the nation's strategic deterrent. The program involves a type of warhead known as the W76, which is used on the Navy's Trident missile system and makes up more than half of the deployed warheads in the U.S. stockpile.

Astronauts Michael Massimino and Michael Good were hoping that their tough repair mission Sunday to fix the Hubble telescope's black-hole hunter would go as smoothly as Saturday's spacewalk, which revived a dead space camera on the observatory. No such luck. The two managed to pull off the fix after eight hours and two minutes, but it was one of the most frustrating spacewalks in NASA history, stymied by a stuck bolt and a balky tool.

The space shuttle Atlantis blasted off Monday from Kennedy Space Center in Florida on a challenging 11-day mission to repair and upgrade the Hubble Space Telescope. The shuttle and its seven-person crew lifted off on schedule at 2 p.m. EDT, reaching orbit after an eight-minute jump from a standing start to 17,000 mph. At a post-launch media briefing, NASA officials said it appeared the spacecraft had performed nearly flawlessly.

After 19 years of service, during which time it has provided the most eye-popping images ever of galaxies, nebulae and, most recently, of a planet orbiting an alien star, the Hubble Space Telescope is suffering the pains of old age. It's unsteady, with only half its gyroscopes working, and several of its key science instruments are broken. To restore the ailing telescope to its former glory, NASA on Monday is set to launch the fifth and final repair mission to the orbiting telescope.

NASA is unsure what caused the hydrogen gas leak that prevented space shuttle Discovery from flying, but will attempt another launch today. Shuttle managers are hopeful that repairs at the Cape Canaveral launchpad have solved the problem. There is "a potential risk" that the leak will recur, said Mike Moses, chairman of the mission management team. That would mean yet another delay for the international space station construction mission, which is already more than a month behind.

Amid allegations of conflict of interest, the five members of the California Energy Commission voted unanimously Wednesday to tell lawmakers there was no benefit to fixing service station pumps to end an inequity that may be costing Californians millions of dollars a year.

The Russian commander of the stricken Mir space station expressed concern Saturday that its three-man crew may be unable to fix the 11-year-old orbital complex after its worst-ever accident. The pessimistic words of cosmonaut Vasily Tsibliyev--possibly reflecting exhaustion and dispiritedness after four days of crisis operations--contrasted with upbeat forecasts by Russian Space Agency officials predicting a successful repair mission.

Major equipment failures and shortages have grounded up to one-third of the Air Force's B-1 bombers, leaving the service with no crews trained to use the full capability of the bomber and sharply restricting the number of planes it can put on alert until 1990, according to a new government report. The equipment breakdowns--far higher than expected--have hampered training and will almost double the bomber's projected repair bills to more than $895 million, the General Accounting Office said.

The first of four new steam generators needed to keep the San Onofre nuclear power plant in operation is making its way -- slowly and carefully -- to the facility in northern San Diego County by ship, barge and a tractor-trailer-like vehicle with 256 wheels. The 650-ton pieces of equipment are intended to extend the life span of the power plant, which has come under scrutiny from regulators in the last year because of safety lapses.