On 07/09/2016 10:03 PM, lstoskopf@cox.net wrote:
A Chem E relative of mine who worked in the Pacific NW in a plant where they
made Vanillin out of some tree byproduct related that they cooked the stuff in
big vats before processing. Had for a long time. One day an old guy that
worked there took a prolonged vacation and soon the brew started developing
more and more foam that ran over everything, so much so that they had to start
using smaller batches. He came back and was quickly surrounded by quality
control to see what he did. The batch started to foam so he reached up on the
wooden wall, pulled off a little tar paper and threw into the mix. Foam
stopped. When asked why he did that he commented that years ago he saw a bit
of the stuff fall into the batch which stopped the foaming so he just always
did it that way. Undocumented, luckily!
Many decades ago I heard about a plating works where the long-time
operator retired, and under the new guy things just didn't work right.
They called the old guy back in to see what they might be doing wrong,
and he said, "I always spat in the tank." I think the result of the
investigation was that the old guy was a tobacco chewer, and something
in his saliva acted as a catalyst -- or something like that: it's been a
long time.
73
Alan NV8A
_______________________________________________
_______________________________________________
TowerTalk mailing list
TowerTalk@contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/towertalk
|