Vintage Quartz Crystal Manufacturing
Hi,
Sometimes this game goes very silly.
Earlier this year I was invited to come and talk in the US since it
seems extremely hard to learn about real-life chores in GPS usage, since
every american company would not be able to tell anything useful as it
is "business confidential". I was even asked specifically if I
understood that this would be on the record in public, something which I
had no issue with. I was even offered confidentiality for my report, if
only I would tell them these things. I felt that it was silly and no
need. To be honest, most of what I had to say was really no big surprise
to anyone reading time-nuts.
To put it into context, NASA had to get a crazy swede coming over to
tell about GPS usage in telecom and broadcast since no US company could
tell anything useful. Then it's crazy.
What Bob describes is more on the deeper knowledge, but in the long run,
some of that becomes silly over time too. It's just that you don't
realize because you don't talk about it. The uniqueness of knowledge
might give you a lead for some years, but soon others figured it out too.
Cheers,
Magnus - crazy swede
On 09/25/2016 07:32 PM, Bob Camp wrote:
Hi
As I said, there was more than one side to the controversy.
The crystal industry being what it was, what one company knew, the others
soon knew. Indeed, there was money made on the film ….
Bob
On Sep 25, 2016, at 12:38 PM, William H. Fite omniryx@gmail.com wrote:
So cynical, Bob. ☺
The fact is that many, many short films of this type were made during WWII
and to a lesser extent during the Cold War, primarily for educational
awareness of the general pubic as well as members of the armed forces. A
great uncle of mine who was an executive at RCA oversaw the making of
several of these films. I do not believe that the companies profited
greatly from their production. As to advertising, would watching that film
make you run out and buy a box of crystals?
On Sun, Sep 25, 2016 at 9:53 AM, Bob Camp kb8tq@n1k.org wrote:
Hi
The film on YouTube was done by a crystal manufacturing company. The
production of the film
was paid for by the US Government. The company made a chunk of money off
of making the film and then
preceded to use it as advertising for the next 20 years.
If you dropped in to a crystal manufacturing plant at any point over the
next 30 years after that film
was made, the styles of dress had changed. The crystal holders had
changed. Most of the processes
were still the same and some of the gear was still the same ….
Bob
On Sep 25, 2016, at 1:00 AM, Cube Central cubecentral@gmail.com wrote:
I watched this video totally in awe at how much "hands-on" processing
was required. I am not sure what I thought before, but I suppose this
level of work was done for most every technical thing back then. I really
got a huge kick out of seeing every step of the process. I was also in awe
of the machines that were made specifically for the manufacturing process -
the testers, the vacuum chamber, the meters, the cold box! However, I was
a bit concerned at the somewhat relaxed attitude and working conditions,
specifically around the X-RAY devices and found myself hoping that they
were well shielded! I couldn't imagine wearing rings (or nail polish) on
my fingers and working with oil, water, abrasive grit, soap, etching acid,
neutralizer, etc. every day and not wearing gloves - my hands would have
been wrecked! I got such a great sense of not only how these things were
made, but also how the working environment must have been. I couldn't
imagine doing any of those tasks for more
t
han a month straight before I would go batty. I have a ton of respect
for the women and men who hand checked every single sliver of quartz and
who tested, retested, etched and re-etched thousands of crystals.
Would you please expand more on what controversy you are referencing? I
didn't really see anything controversial there, except maybe the working
conditions/safety hazards! Maybe I need to watch it again and not be so
engrossed with the technical and working aspects?
Thanks for your thoughts, and thank you to whomever linked it - I really
enjoyed it! Any others I should see?
-Randal R
(at CubeCentral)
-----Original Message-----
From: time-nuts [mailto:time-nuts-bounces@febo.com] On Behalf Of Bob
Camp
Sent: Saturday, 24 September, 2016 09:53
To: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement <
Subject: Re: [time-nuts] Vintage Quartz Crystal Manufacturing
Hi
It’s interesting how much controversy that film stirred up. Literally 30
years after it was made, you could get a fairly excited conversation going
about it at the FCS.
On one side were the people who felt it was a sweetheart deal to Reves
at a point that other companies were being prosecuted for “excess profits”.
On the other side were the guys with Reves badges and those who believed
it did serve an honest purpose.
Bob
On Sep 24, 2016, at 6:04 AM, Bryan _ bpl521@outlook.com wrote:
May find this old video interesting.
https://youtu.be/Iy23Us3nrX8
-=Bryan=-
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On 9/25/2016 6:53 AM, Bob Camp wrote:
Hi
If you dropped in to a crystal manufacturing plant at any point over the next 30 years after that film
was made, the styles of dress had changed. The crystal holders had changed. Most of the processes
were still the same and some of the gear was still the same ….
Bob
Certainly, this applied to HP. Much of the equipment went back to
the 1959-1963 era, even as the line was closed down circa 2000.
Some equipment even used vacuum tubes. Similarly, the cesium
beam tube burn in-fixtures were labeled "Varian" and went back
to 1960. AFAIK, these were in use up to ~2005 when Agilent
sold (or maybe gave away) the business. Can you say "cash cow"?
Supposedly one of the reasons for Agilent exiting the business
was that the equipment was so long in the tooth that they would
have to finally replace it, at an unacceptable capex cost.
Also, whenever you do this, you stand a good chance of losing
the recipe.
Rick
I watched the video when it first hit the list and found it interesting,
as I would any complex industrial process.
I've seen another crystal film that was available a few years ago as a
file, but can't find the reference.
The people who can't believe people ever worked under those conditions
with those primitive (today) tools need some historical perspective on
the rate of technical change. My grandfather grew up before automobiles.
My father grew up before jet planes. I grew up before computers, and
worked with them as they changed. And the 'S' curves keep coming . . .
[See "Rise of the Robots."]
One other thing - the comments contained one about the matter-of-fact
presentation being so different from what passes for explanations of
technology on TV today. I'd quote it, but I couldn't find it in the
comments today. It hit home, though. Today the presentation would have
half a dozen people of varying ethnicity and sex, each making some lame
joke along with a shallow explanation of what was going on. Compare the
Science channel's new "How Do They Do It" to the older "How It's Made"
shows. I blame it on the advertisers who control TV programming who want
to maximize eyeballs by going as low as they can and still find people
who can change a TV channel.
Be glad to discuss this with anyone off the list.
And now, back to precision time.
Bill Hawkins