Strange entry about magnetic current

The following is from Captain Gene Morin, USN (RET),
a member of the Board of Investigation: (10-1999)
...The fire initiated in the engine room, when the ship was somewhere off of Savannah. I believe that she was enroute to Panama City to provide minesweeping services. As a member of the Board of Investigation, I was at pierside in Savannah when the ship tied up and offloaded the men who perished in the fire. The Board's conclusion was that the fire started from a diesel leak at a flexible rubber coupling. The pressurized leak sprayed onto a portable hanging trouble light which probably was the ignition source of the atomized fuel. The rubber couplings were installed in the piping systems in order to break up the piping loops metallic continuity. When a loop of metal is rotated in the earth's magnetic field, it creates a current which generates a magnetic field. This is highly undesirable in a minesweeper since every effort is made to eliminate any magnetism inherent in the ship itself. These rubber couplings were subject to heat and normal deterioration so it is not surprising that a failure occurred. One of the corrective actions taken as a result of this fire was to install Aeroquip flexible fittings in place of the rubber couplings. It was an expensive but necessary fix which was carried out on all of the MSO 421 422 Class minesweepers. The fire cut off the normal engine room access ladder and acted like a blowtorch on the bulkhead at the top of the access ladder. There was so much smoke that the men in the engine room were unable to egress from the emergency escape ladders.

This is an exerpt from an incident on board a minesweeping ship, notice the following

When a loop of metal is rotated in the earth's magnetic field, it creates a current which generates a magnetic field.

They are referring to the metal fuel supply lines within the ship. How is the metal pipe rotating in such a manner that it is creating a magnetic current ???? And where did this knowledge that a loop of metal simply rotating within earths magnetic field creates current ???? Does this not seem odd and out of place ??? Wouldn't they just say to break the conductivity of the metal pipes, in an effort against accidental electrical discharge. Why even bring up the creation of magnetic current, since when does magnetic current affect combustion ??? I know they are referring to insulating the entire ship from magnetic pulses, but that is what the degauzing wires were for along the outside of the hull.

Any comments ?

buphy.bu.edu...

Let's say you have a metal rod, and decide to connect that to your galvanometer. If the rod is stationary in a magnetic field, nothing happens. If you move the rod through the field, however, an emf is induced between the ends of the rod causing current to flow. This is because when you move the metal rod through the field, you are moving all the electrons in the rod. These moving charges are deflected by the field toward one end of the rod, creating a potential difference. This is known as motional emf. Motional emf can even be measured on airplanes. As the plane flies through the Earth's magnetic field, an emf is induced between the wingtips.

But what they are talking about here is a stationary metal fuel tube.

So its hard to correlate the two principals together.

Originally posted by robertfenix
But what they are talking about here is a stationary metal fuel tube.

So its hard to correlate the two principals together.

A stationary tube in a moving ship.

Yes, I know the ship is moving, but at what rate... and how much rotational change can be affecting this stationary metal fuel tube. If the ship is moving at lets say 20 knotts and maybe the yaw or pitch is changing lets say 5 to 10 degrees per second then you are saying there is enough inertial momentum on the metal atoms in the tube to create enough current to magnetize the entire length of the tube ???

Then If I over exegrate the example and take a short length of the tube and simply rotate it at 1000rpm's or higher that just the act of rotating the tube in the air will produce enough current to magnetize it ????

If this is true then, electricty as we know it is a farce, because there is far greater potential energy out there, just we are looking in the wrong place.

Which by-the way I truely believe that we actually no very little about "energy" and our frame of reference for "electricity" is actually all wrong

A wire moving through a magnetic field will indeed produce current. Its only relative motion though... either the field is moving or the wire can move. I dont have my electronics book with me now for the correct formula to compute the current induced though... You need to know the magnetic flux through a certain area.

flux=o/a^2

o=lines of force.?

I'll give this a re-read when i get home with the correct info... but magnetism and electricity are no farce.. (unless the laws of physics are off a little bit?)