My dad, a retired industrial chemist, told me many years ago about the one-legged stools. He worked for a company with a long history. It wasn't just nitroglycerine, but any reaction that required close monitoring. The way to scale up some reactions was just to build a whole row of reactors, with a worker at each one.
Scottish Nitroglycerin and One Legged Stools (2014)
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Re: Scottish Nitroglycerin and One Legged Stools (2014)
#12I liked this typo: “ A sample is taken of each lot of nitroglycerin when mad. ”
I'm suspecting a meaning of "marked by uncontrolled excitement". Given deliberate language of the article otherwise.
Suggesting freshly-brewed, not-yet settled nitroglycerine.
Re: Scottish Nitroglycerin and One Legged Stools (2014)
#13I liked this typo: “ A sample is taken of each lot of nitroglycerin when mad. ”
Maybe that’s where the erroneous “e” in “Ayreshire” was meant to be (note: should be Ayrshire)
Re: Scottish Nitroglycerin and One Legged Stools (2014)
#14Standards, controls, corporate structures, standards, and communications emerged out of novel complex commercial organisations of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, notably railroads (complex in space and time) and chemistry (complex in process and consequence). Studies of standards, communications, R&D, etc., fascinating for the sort of person fascinated by this sort of thing, focus strongly on such organisations and operations.
The thermometer-watcher, and set of practices for avoiding incidental explosions and runaway heat would be examples of this.
There's an interesting contrast, brought to mind with the focus on remote work, of autonomous working groups operating remotely an incommunicado for extended periods: merchant and military sailing ships, before the eras of radio and particularly of steam.
Ship captains were not subject to Zoom calls, Slack channels, keyboard and video monitoring, or daily virtual stand-ups, from superiors. They operated autonomously, at distance, for days, weeks, months, even years at a time. They were given mission objectives and empowered to act as agents for their merchants or militaries with remote vendors, counterparties, countries, even novel cultures.
And no, it didn't always go well. Mistakes were made, atrocities committed, misadventure encountered, fraud, abuse, and violence.
For long periods, the distinction between "merchant', "sailor", and "pirate" was at best vague:
https://www.etymonline.com/word/pirate
https://www.etymonline.com/word/corsair
But it was the best option available, and worked, after a fashion, until replaced as new capabilities emerged.
Re: Scottish Nitroglycerin and One Legged Stools (2014)
#15I liked this typo: “ A sample is taken of each lot of nitroglycerin when mad. ”
I'm suspecting a meaning of "marked by uncontrolled excitement". Given deliberate language of the article otherwise. Suggesting freshly-brewed, not-yet settled nitroglycerine.
I think that “when made” would make more sense in context.
Re: Scottish Nitroglycerin and One Legged Stools (2014)
#16I'm surprised that there aren't more comments. This was an article both humorous and informative about creating something (dynamite) which made the modern world possible.
I’m not sure I can trust this site to be historically accurate, given http://lateralscience.blogspot.com/2013/02/victorian-product...
The OP article is a historical account from 1897. What you linked to is clearly marked as fiction:
"Victorian Production of One Ounce of Nitrogen Trichloride" is the first chapter of The Ernest Glitch Chronicles. A Novel by Roger Curry
Re: Scottish Nitroglycerin and One Legged Stools (2014)
#17This is a partial transcription of an article from McClure's Magazine, August 1897 issue: "The Great Dynamite Factory at Ardeer." You can see it as originally printed here:
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015030656139&vi...
The original has more pictures illustrating the text and is considerably longer. It goes on to describe much more about the explosives manufacturing complex than just the nitroglycerin production. It also describes a disastrous explosion that occurred just a week after the author visited in person.
Re: Scottish Nitroglycerin and One Legged Stools (2014)
#18Re: Scottish Nitroglycerin and One Legged Stools (2014)
#19I liked this typo: “ A sample is taken of each lot of nitroglycerin when mad. ”
I'm suspecting a meaning of "marked by uncontrolled excitement". Given deliberate language of the article otherwise. Suggesting freshly-brewed, not-yet settled nitroglycerine.
It is "when made" in the original: https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015030656139&vi...
Re: Scottish Nitroglycerin and One Legged Stools (2014)
#20Milking stools[1] (especially the strap-on variety) can also be one legged. > "[He'd] give a warning shout and run. So would everybody, you included." reminded me of MAXIM 3: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23503989 [1] another reason for single-legged stools: less likely to trip you up if you need to jump quickly away from a kicking cow. I wouldn't be surprised if nitro factory staff prized that reason, but tol…
The maxims are The Seventy Maxims of Maximally Effective Mercenaries ¹, the third of which is originally from the Schlock Mercenary webcomic strip of November 1, 2009². 1. https://www.ovalkwiki.com/index.php/The_Seventy_Maxims_of_Ma... 2. https://www.schlockmercenary.com/2009-11-01
Maxim 3. An ordnance technician at a dead run outranks everybody