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Re: [Phys-L] awesome but cheap technology (was trains, et cetera)




On 2016, Jun 25, , at 06:59, Richard Tarara <rtarara@saintmarys.edu> wrote:

Based on some relatively recent ecological trends, I wonder how disruptive canals are/were to animal migrations. At least out West there is a rising awareness to the importance of keeping migration routes viable to the point of building animal crossings over interstate highways. It would seem that canals offer a fairly serious barrier since there are no suitable fording locations as would be found with rivers, but of course today we could build the same kind of crossings that are showing up over the highways.


Except in the plains states, many locks. At least in the English murder shows a bridge at each lock.


On 2016, Jun 24, , at 21:05, John Denker <jsd@av8n.com> wrote:

Before Bessemer came along, a good
steel sword was worth a fortune.



Regarding materials science. A Swedish friend (engineer at Sandvik; both his son’s now work there) told me the story of a Swedish company that sued Bessemer, because the converter wasn’t working. Turned out their pig iron had too little silicon to make a correct judgment of the completion. (IHRC)


bc has a T shirt celebrating the first open hearth electric furnace near Sandviken.