Who the heck is Arthur Scheuerman, and why did he comment at my blog?

The following comment has been posted to my blog (repeated below). It purports to come from:

Arthur Scheuerman
Ret. Battalion Chief

It was in response to my reposting of John Wyndham's letter to Nist at http://www.theprogressivemind.info/2008/09/dr-john-wyndhams-comments-to-nist-wtc7.html .

Who the heck is Arthur Scheuerman? Is he on the up and up? This is the internet mind you, and I could pose as the Queen of England if I wanted.

It is a very long and detailed comment on my very inconsequential blog, which I find curious. I believe that Scheuerman's claims are specious, but it would be nice to have some heavyweights weigh in with rebuttal.

I have allowed the comment to be posted on my site, The Progressive Mind, even though I suspect Scheuerman may not be everything he says that he is. See his site: http://www.blogger.com/profile/14211118872671048625 .

He has two posts on his blog, both on 9/11.

Michael Zimmer

Arthur Scheuerman has left a new comment on your post "Dr. John Wyndham's comments to NIST (WTC7) | 911bl...":

The NIST investigation was mainly interested in what caused the WTC collapses. They have discovered that the long span, open area, high rise design and construction with week connections was unable to withstand the effects of a large out of control fire over several floors and that this fire was sufficient to deconstruct both the towers and building 7. NIST is saying is that explosives were not necessary and were not used in the destruction of the WTC buildings.

Reports of Controlled Demolition, Molten Steel, Thermite, etc.

I would like to know who is paying the Architects and Engineers for 9/11 truth’s Richard Gage to go all around the country to spread his pseudoscientific deluge of misinformation typical of the absurd ideas put forward by the 9/11 ‘truth’ movement. Real scientists rarely speak of the truth until they have spent enough time and experimental effort examining the evidence. Its amazing to me how the 'controlled demolition' people most of whom have little or no knowledge or experience or expertise in the building collapse or fire protection area, just dismiss the reports of the top Fire Protection engineering experts in their fields and take some theological professor’s absurd babble as gospel. I suppose if their car broke down they would call the pizza man. The vaguest possibility is immediately touted as the truth and repeatedly echoed on the internet without any research or fact checking. Four years after the 9/11 attack and without inspecting any of the steel the Architect Richard Gage was listening to some equally uninformed Philosophy Professor, David Ray Griffin and had an epiphany and from then on he ‘knew’ that the buildings “had to be brought down by explosives”. “That’s the only way that you could have all the exterior columns in Building 7 fail within a fraction of a second.” How does he know all the columns failed at the same moment? These lower columns were out of sight of the cameras. The first thing to fail was the east side interior columns as evidenced by the east penthouse on the roof caving in. Five seconds later the west penthouse caved in indicating core column failure and than the exterior frame started to descend, but the outside frame was very strong and there were large belt trusses around the entire building between the 22nd to 24th floors. There could have been many exterior columns failing at different times below these belt trusses but these trusses held the upper building steady until a large number of lower exterior columns had failed. Building 7 took over 13 seconds to collapse not 6. NIST computer models show that the building was deconstructed by the heat of the uncontrolled fires expanding the long span steel floors, buckling beams, disconnecting structural steel, and eventually buckling one key column which started the progressive collapse. The connections were so week that that the collapse progressed across the core to take down the entire interior of the building. Now that’s an architectural and engineering problem. I want to hear what the Architects & Engineers for 9/11 truth think about a building that can loose one column which starts a progressive collapse that brings down the whole building.

Kevin Ryan knew nothing about how floor assemblies are tested by his own company Underwriters Laboratory. He reported that they tested the steel and it withstood 2000 deg for 3 and 4 hours. The UL tests floor and wall assemblies not the steel per se. The problem is that the long span floors used in the towers were never tested in their long span composite configuration of 60 feet. Building 7 also used long span steel “I” beams. As any architect knows the longer span floors require either massive joists or beams uneconomical for high rise buildings or specially designed construction such as steel trusses. What most architects apparently don’t know is that lightweight, long span steel trusses and “I” beams can fail at fire temperatures not yet compensated for in the codes. The standard furnace test can only handle 17 foot lengths of flooring and doesn’t test the connections for fire exposure. The furnace standards were set in the 1930s, 40s, and 50s when about 15 to 20 feet was the standard span used in high rises built for the more conservative codes used at that time. These older buildings used shorter spans, more robust columns and beams, stronger connections and better fireproofing then now. If a floor failed the push-out forces of expansion and the pull-in (catenary) forces created by the short spans were easily handled by the strength of the rest of the structure. For this reason the codes allowed floors to have a shorter (3 hour) rating than the columns and girders (4 hours). The 17 foot furnace test, currently still used, is meaningless for the longer spans and connections. The main problem in the WTC flooring was due to the differential elongation (expansion) of the steel parts of the trusses. NIST’s studies found that the different expansion rates immediately deformed the steel parts, buckled the top chords and struts and disconnected the composite bond between the concrete slab and the joists. Greater thermal expansion of the bottom chords releases the tension and allows the cool top chord to sag until it acts as a cable in suspension creating pull-in forces on the columns. Contraction of sagging, long span steel flooring during the cool down faze after fire die down puts heavy pull-in loads on the connections. It is known now that Building 7 collapsed from expansion and contraction in the beams disconnecting enough of the beams and girders to affect column stability. The whole interior and core failed before the perimeter wall which came down as a unit at 40% less than free fall speed.

Many people interpreted the loud sounds and debris being projected out sideways during the Tower collapses as an indication that explosives were used to demolish the buildings. Most of these loud sounds, heard during the collapses were heard after the collapses began. In order for an explosion to cause a collapse it would have to occur before the collapse. Some ‘thunder’ sounds were heard before the columns buckled and these were probably from floors collapsing. Explosive forces great enough to destroy the columns would be as loud as ten times the decibel level (140 db) of standing next to the speakers at a rock concert.



Initial Collapse Cause


Bar joist Floors

It is clear from the computer studies that the heat from the fires caused differential expansion of the steel parts in the long span, floor trusses in the towers with the resulting thermal bowing in some floors directly exerting pull-in forces on the exterior columns or this thermal bowing could have detached a floor which would have impacted the floor below destroying its composite action by separating the concrete slab from the trusses and inducing strong tensile (suspension) forces in the double weighted floor. In other floors thermal expansion of the floor against the columns compressed the trusses which along with shear forces within the trusses that buckled the diagonal struts collapsing the trusses which went into suspension (catenary action) and this also helped pull-in and eventually buckle the exterior column walls. Differential thermal expansion of the concrete and steel has also been shown by NIST to disconnect the knuckles (knuckles are the steel tops of the bent over bars in the trusses which are imbedded in the concrete slab) from the concrete slab causing loss of composite behavior in the floors.



In order for a column to support the loads it has to be plumb and in line with the columns above and below. The fact is, columns have to be axially (in line and centered) aligned to support the weight of the building above. If they get out of alignment by 10 to 20 degrees they buckle and can no longer support the weight. The tower buildings collapsed because the floors first caved in from restrained thermal expansion and from thermal bowing or delamination of the slab and bar joists composite action affecting floor truss stability. The sagging, 60 foot long, floor trusses gradually pulled-in the 59 columns in one exterior wall in each tower and these column walls eventually buckled removing support on one entire side. In Building 7 floor failures from steel expansion and/or contraction disconnecting the floor beams exposed a critical column to loss of lateral restraint over many floors causing the column to buckle and remove support for all the floors above and starting the complete collapse of the building.

In the Towers once the exterior columns buckling spread, along an entire wall removing support on one face, the buckling spread around the towers exterior and into the core and the towers began to tilt. With all the columns buckled the leaning top sections of the tower began to fall straight down. Although the North tower antenna appeared from some northern angles to have began falling straight down it actually tilted to the south because the south wall buckled first and the cantilevered top building section pulled the core along with the entire top over to the south. This is especially telling since with all the damage from the plane impact on the north side, the tower should have leaned over to the north. The South Towers’ top tilted to the east because its east wall buckled first. Once the tower’s tops began tilting all the columns across the buildings would eventually be out of alignment enough to have easily buckled.





The heavy exterior wall columns in the 1500 foot high buildings while pealing off could project the column sections outwards a great distance. This distance (300 to 400 feet) was proposed as only being made possible by explosive forces. I disagree. If a wall is strong enough and doesn’t break up as it falls outward it can fall out flat to a distance equal to its height. The Tower walls, however, did break at the weak splices as they fell. The fact that the exterior wall columns can be seen in the videos and pictures falling outward and downward and reaching the ground before the tower finished collapsing proves that the tower did not collapse faster than free fall times. These outer wall sections were falling at free fall speed and apparently were the first to hit the ground.


Deep Seated Pockets of Fire

The deep seated fires which occur in the rubble are supplied with air because natural convection currents. Heated air rises because of its bouyancy and is replaced by cool air drawn in from the bottom and sides of the fire. This air flow can become rapid because of the high temperatures developed. The more air drawn in the hotter the fire becomes and the increased temperature increases the convection currents which draws in more air. Like in a furnace the containment of heat by insulation provided by the compacted combustible material surrounding the fire allowes the gradual increase of temperature.Remember after the collapse the fires had a large increase in combustible furnishings available to feed on. I am convinced that temperatures of over 2000 deg F. can easily be developed in these deep seated pockets of fire in the rubble of a collapsed building.

Pure oxygen is used in oxyacetylene torches to actually ignite burn and melt the steel when cutting. These torches were used to help clear the debris pile during search and recovery operations. A slag of melted and re-solidified steel and Ferrous oxide is formed on the opposite side of the cut. This slag formation and the angle of the cuts were erroneously reported to be evidence of cutter charges having been used to sever the columns. Small molten pieces of glowing steel cool into spheres as they fly out from the cut. These steel microspheres could also have been produced during the buildings’ construction by welders and retained in the concrete or else where only to be released during the collapse.




About the concrete destruction into dust; F.R. Greening did a paper called Energy Transfer in the WTC Collapse in which he says "the energy required to crush concrete to 100 μm particles is 1.9 × 1011 J, which is well within the crushing capacity of the available energy. Hence it is theoretically possible for the WTC collapse events to have crushed more than 90 % of the floor concrete to particles well within the observed particle size range." http://nistreview.org/WTC-REPORT-GREENING.pdf I would also investigate the possibility that the concrete was sub par due to freezing during curing or too much air or water having been added during the pouring and finishing operation.

Do you think the architect or engineers who built the Towers would want to admit the deficiencies in design, fireproofing and other construction weaknesses after their buildings collapsed? Do you think they will get any other jobs after 4 of their buildings collapsed from fire? (Building 5 had a serious interior multiple floor collapse due to fire.) Do you know that the Port Authority of NY, NJ didn't legally have to follow any building codes? The reason the columns broke at the splices was that they had serious weaknesses due to lack of reinforcing plates or even welds on most of the exterior column, bolted splices and not because of the ridiculous idea that they were broken up into short pieces, presumably by explosives, ‘so they would fit onto the trucks to be carried away’. The long span truss floors were never tested for fire resistance at their design length. Why do you think it took so long to get the plans for the buildings after they collapsed while the building engineers had them all along? I am astounded to think the architects and engineers for 9/11 truth would be more accepting of a ridiculous excuse,-the wild idea that explosives or thermite was involved,- that would allow them to avoid the introspection necessary to fully realize their own ignorance of fire safety precautions.


About the eye witnesses; there are many reasons that loud sounds can be produced at a fire. Most of the people in tower 2 did not know tower 1 had been struck by a plane but they heard the explosion and even felt the radiant heat produced by the fireball. Often at fires the ones closest to the fires and engaged in heavy work or evacuation have a very limited overall conception of what is actually happening. When you don’t know what’s happening your imagination starts to work. When tower 2 collapsed most of the people in Tower 1 thought the sounds and vibrations came from the building they were in and they even felt a rush of air up the stairs as the air was compressed in the cellars. There can also be smoke explosions (backdrafts) particularly in fires that have a flammable liquid involved. One elevator shaft that extended into the cellars had a fuel-air explosion from the jet fuel spilling down and evaporating in the shaft. There were other fuel-air explosions in the elevator shafts. There could have been floor detachments impacting the floors below and producing loud sounds before any general collapse began. Explosives also produce loud distinctive pressure waves that can leave people deaf or blow out eardrums and usually blow out all the windows on the particular floor and in any buildings nearby. This kind of sharp piercing crack was not heard. The windows broken out and marble wall panels detached on the interior of the first floor lobby were probably because of torque or bending forces experienced on the lower floor columns from the plane impacts many floors above. The buildings were reported to sway several feet when the planes hit the towers. The reports of "explosions" in the cellars were also probably from such column or floor displacements or from jet fuel ignitions in the elevator shafts. If you imbed a stick into the ground and hit it with another stick most of the deformation will be in the ground around the bottom of the stick. There were reports of split walls and ceiling collapses on many floors after the planes hit.

How do you think that the supposed Conspirators knew that Building 7 would be hit by pieces of Tower 1 which would set it on fire? They would have to know this beforehand in order to set the mysterious explosive charges. Why did they wait 5 hours while the fires burned before they set off these alleged charges, and how did these so called charges withstand the fires for 5 hours without igniting? The computer models show steel beam, thermal expansion, sagging floors and disconnection from the columns due thermal expansion or contraction of the beams and girders due to the fires.

How come the, A&E, 9/11 ‘truthers’ never mention Building 5. Did building 5 which had a serious fire on many floors and had several floors collapse from the steel beams being disconnected from the columns due to thermal expansion sagging and catinary action tearing out the bolted beam connections. (ASCE, Building Performance Study) I propose that some of the ‘truthers’ never even read the American Society of Civil Engineer’s or the NIST’s report. Did building 5 also have charges set beforehand? How many other buildings had hypothetical charges set beforehand and were never set off? If they went to all the trouble to rig all these buildings with assumed explosives, why didn’t they just set them off and forget the planes and the fires. Waiting for the planes and fires would surely increase their chances of being detected


In addition to the damage done to Building 7 by the heavy steel column trees that pealed off of the collapsing twin towers some of these steel columns penetrated the roads and broke the nearby water mains. There was no water supply immediately available and the Fire Department could not fight the numerous fires in Building 7 and ordered every one out of the building and out of the collapse zone (which was a large area including buildings and streets around Building 7). Two huge buildings had already collapsed and when you can’t fight a fire because there is no water pressure it grows out of control apparently now all bets are off as to exactly what will happen in one of these newer lightweight, open area high rise office buildings.


BBC reporting error on Building 7 collapse.


I can imagine how it happened. Possibly a reporter on being told to evacuate the street area around Building 7 by a rescue worker or the Police Department balked and to get him to move faster the worker told him the building is coming down. The collapse possibility was anticipated by the Fire Dept. who ordered the evacuation out of the “collapse zone” in the first place. Many people’s lives were saved by that order. Apparently the only people who knew of the possibility that an out of control fire on multiple floors in a steel framed, long span, open area, office building could cause a collapse. The reporter called his boss and told him the building 7 is coming down. The person receiving the call believed the building was already collapsing. It went out over the air as the building had already collapsed before the actual occurrence.

If you really believe that all the top fire protection engineers from the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) and government scientists from National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) investigating the collapse are in on a conspiracy and also want to accuse the BBC, the NYC Fire Department, the NYC Police Department, the Red Cross and all the Government agencies controlling access Building 7 of being ‘in on’ a secret controlled demolition even though there was no hard evidence than I would say you may be suffering from a case of paranoia. Paranoia can easily become contagious when people panic and no longer trust their government. We certainly have reason not to trust our present government. I would say that if you really believe these ridiculous demolition theories you should do some soul searching and possibly seek some therapeutic help.


Release date: September 23, 2007


The reasons are as follows:




Regards, Dan Nigro
Chief of Department FDNY (retired)



Arthur Scheuerman
Ret. Battalion Chief

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Posted by Arthur Scheuerman to The Progressive Mind-II at September 8, 2008 6:41 AM

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My shill meter is going

My shill meter is going through the roof.

This guy has appeared as a guest on "Hardfire" - the show hosted by "debunker" Ron Wieck.

One reason I call him a shill is because he refers to 9/11 truth and Richard Gage as "pseudoscientific." This is not true. DEWs are pseudoscience; controlled demolition is an actual science which has been employed countless times in the past.

The funny thing is...

I noticed this comment on your blog a week or so ago and thought it was another one of those obvious trolls/con artists out there.

Let me tell you where I stopped reading:


This is a lie. Assemblies include steel. Therefore, UL tested the "steel", since assemblies INCLUDE steel.