[TowerTalk] lost processes......way OT

[lstoskopf at cox.net]

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!

Sorry for the OT bit.  Such would never happen in a science based hobby like ours.

N0UU