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You likely use things made with the help of my maternal grandfather’s patent every day. From cars to jet airliners, from garden hoses to welding torches, reinforced hose is used. You need an inner layer that stands up to whatever flows through the hose, you need a reinforcing layer to keep the hose from bulging and bursting under pressure, and you need an outer coating to protect the hose from the external environment. So, how do you make that? Therein lies a tale.
He worked in the rubber industry his entire adult life. He was hired after college by Quaker Rubber, which was eventually bought by H.K Porter, which is now part of 
It’s not a cigar, although rolling is involved, nor a lemon meringue pie, although you must combine ingredients in order and apply heat.
This conversation is part of our Group Writing Series under the February 2019 Theme Writing: How Do You Make That? There are plenty of dates still available. Tell us about anything from knitting a sweater to building a mega-structure. Share your proudest success or most memorable failure (how not to make that). Do you agree with Arahants’ General Theory of Creativity? “Mostly it was knowing a few techniques, having the right tools, and having a love for building and creating whatever it was.” Our schedule and sign-up sheet awaits.
I will post March’s theme mid month.
Looking at that heating element, how do you get it set up in the first place? Cool it down, thread new hose through it, start it back up. Going to be a long maintenance cycle any time your line breaks.
What do you do with the glass beads when you have to turn the blowers off? Do you have nozzles so fine the beads won’t slide through? Can you put enough pressure to float your glass through those nozzles?
Pretty cool system; it’s just that when I see a thing like this I wonder about the practical challenges of dealing with it day-to-day.
I should also say I like the continuous method of production. A long hose can be segmented into short ones. The longer you make it, the more useful it can be. Ideally you’d have hose in different area codes.
Trump makes everything better.
Mid month was at midnight on Valentine’s day. (sorry, I couldn’t resist!)
The March Quote of the Day signup sheet will be up tomorrow.
I’ve long been mildly interested in the transition from batch to continuous modes of production for things like starch, paper, and roasted coffee. It makes for some interesting industrial history.
I got interested about the time a bicycle ride near Richmond, Indiana inspired me to write this blog article: The House That Starch Built? But I see that I wrote mostly about the effect of government regulation on 19th century starch production in England, France, Ireland, and the United States, and didn’t write anything about the transition to continuous processes. Maybe to write about it, it would help to know something about it.
I’m glad to now know something about the continuous production of hoses.
Question: Some old Russian movies make a big deal about the production of metal cylinders, and in at least one groundbreaking film, about the political battles and personal risk it took to innovate. (The film itself was an innovation, you could say.) I wonder if any of the skills needed to innovate in that industry had any applicability to rubber hoses, and vice versa. The film I’m thinking of (whose name I can’t recall at the moment) was rather squishy on the technological details.
Pretty dope.
I don’t recall, from the decades back that I walked the line. However, it ran three shifts a day as I recall. As I recall, there was talk of rivals looking at microwave instead of direct heat, and the capitalized equipment plus energy bill was calculated to be significantly higher.
I enjoyed your post on starch, including the farm country photographs. I have no knowledge on the metal cylinder question…jump ball anyone?
That was lovely. Thank you for posting it.
I should work up something similar about my grandfather, William A. Smith, who invented chunky applesauce. He also built the house I am blessed to live in, and planted the 45 acre arboretum that surrounds it.
The company I work for uses braided tubing to make medical devices. Angioplasty balloon inflation, used to deploy stents, would be impossible without it.
I’m sure Mrs. OS. Would enjoy visiting Robin Hill . One question, see there labels on the trees/ plants? Being an avid Gardener she is constantly looking to expand her knowledge of plants .
These technical posts don’t have a great appeal to me, @cliffordbrown, but your grandfather was awesome. Just needed to say that. Thanks for telling us about him!
Near as I can tell a lot of metal casting is done by extrusion much like the rubber hose; only at higher temperatures and pressures. I’m sorry but that exhausts my knowledge on the subject.
That’s an ongoing project. I’ve been working with the University of Buffalo to identify the plantings. We have records of about 350 interesting trees and shrubs that Granddad planted and have located around 130. I need some grad students to do it for credit.
I’d love to show you around any time, although I am no gardener and would undoubtedly learn from your wife.
That sort of hose process is exactly the reason that the patent system exists. Not phony “innovations” like “One click” business methods, or de-genericizing an old drug by patenting a dose counter and making that the only version available.
Please do! We have plenty of days left this month to tell how he made that!
Great post, Clifford. I love learning the hows and whys of things. Thank you.
Superb post, thank you!