[TUHS] nassau smelting was Re: Current Ownership of 3B/WECo Computer IPs

[Douglas McIlroy]

> i’m having trouble identifying “Agricola”.

See WIkipedia on "De re metallica", or for the real thing
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/38015/38015-h/38015-h.htm

On Mon, Sep 11, 2023 at 4:29 PM Mark Seiden <mis at seiden.com> wrote:
>
>  i’m so happy you replied.
>
> have you considered a memoir?
>
> your writing is very vivid (and literate).
>
> but i’m having trouble identifying “Agricola”.
>
> the strategy board game?  the roman emperor? the farm to table restaurant in princeton?
>
>
>
>
>
>
> > On Sep 11, 2023, at 3:58 PM, Douglas McIlroy <douglas.mcilroy at dartmouth.edu> wrote:
> >
> > Way off topic, but too nostalgic to pass up. I was involved in
> > after-hours training courses and persuaded Bob Morris to organize the
> > first one ever to be held off campus, "Bell System with field trips".
> > The highlight of the series was Nassau Smelting and Refining. They
> > proudly told us about their new environmental consciousness: aqua
> > regia (used to reclaim gold) was now being adjusted to pH 7 before
> > being dumped into the Kill van Kull, and stack emissions of lead had
> > been reduced from  hundreds of pounds per year to eight.
> >
> > The scene was almost straight out of Agricola. An enormous steel
> > jousting pole mounted on a backhoe was used to shove scrap copper and
> > live-cut tree trunks into a ferocious green-flaming furnace. Men in
> > moon suits and respirators puddled slag floating on open vats of
> > molten lead. A Dickensian crone snipped gold tips off the old relays
> > cradled in her lap. Clothes, including shoes, exchanged at the door of
> > the gloomy gold room, were collected periodically and thrown into the
> > aqua regia pots to extract every last milligram.
> >
> > The only process that really deviated from Agricola was pyrolysis, for
> > reclaiming modern cable cladding. But he surely would have been
> > impressed by the mechanism for casting continuous copper bar and
> > collecting it on a giant spool. They delighted in telling about the
> > time the spool stopped turning while the copper feed continued,
> > filling the hall with an enormous tangle of 1" copper stock.
> >
> > Doug
> >
> >
> > On Mon, Sep 11, 2023 at 1:47 PM Mark Seiden <mis at seiden.com> wrote:
> >>
> >> hi, old friends (and i mean that both figuratively and literally)
> >>
> >> the recent/continuing brouhaha involving lead sheathed cables made me wonder about
> >> nassau smelting and refining in staten island (a sub of WEco which ended up with Lucent)
> >> (and apparently another location at  W. 29th st which was a superfund site for a while.)
> >>
> >> wonderful chaplainesque photo:
> >>
> >> https://www.facebook.com/classicstatenisland/photos/a.286586221935407/516688818925145/?type=3
> >>
> >> also regarding the Staten Island location, quoting from
> >>
> >> https://www.silive.com/news/2020/02/former-nassau-smelting-site-sells-for-306m.html
> >>
> >> "The cleanup was to entail covering 450,000 cubic yards of contaminated soil with a thick, unbreakable plastic liner, as well as layers of clean soil.”
> >>
> >> (hah, what could go wrong with that?)
> >>
> >> On Sep 11, 2023, at 11:34 AM, Paul Winalski <paul.winalski at gmail.com> wrote:
> >>
> >> Regarding the possible Western Electric -> Lucent -> Nokia IP path,
> >> has anyone tried contacting Nokia's legal department and asking
> >> whether they think they own the rights to the 3B/WECo computer IP, and
> >> if not, do they know who does (or might) own it?
> >>
> >> -Paul W.
> >>
> >>
>