Dan Brown - Digital Fortress book

[Robert J. Hansen]

David Shaw wrote:
> Possibly Dan Brown used "freon" where he should have used "halon".

Possibly: it wouldn't be the first time he used terminology glibly to
the point of gross error.  That said, the last time I looked into Halon
fire systems they were advertised as not producing thermal shock, which
would seem to indicate they wouldn't be effective coolants -- which was
the purpose the book gave to the Freon, they kept TRANSLATR cold.



(For anyone who's confused about thermal shock: take a wineglass and
heat it to a few hundred degrees in your oven.  Then dunk it in ice
water and watch it shatter.  Thermal shock is the culprit.  The same
thing happens in data centers when there's a fire raging.  The servers
get heated up and the liquid Freon cools them down in a big hurry.)