So hard to know yet if it is an exaggeration or the truth but heard China will purchase from the United States, $100 Billion in Soybeans each year for the next two years. Thats a lot of traffic via West Coast ports.
I think it is more like 40 over the next several years.
That's an awful lot of money for a hill of beans.
CSSHEGEWISCHThat's an awful lot of money for a hill of beans.
But they're MAGIC beans.
Henry Ford thought they were the wave of the future for automobile construction at one point...
OvermodHenry Ford thought they were the wave of the future for automobile construction at one point...
Inventor of Kings FORD charcoal for grills which was a byproduct of burning wood scrapts from his cars. Still sold today in most stores.
1. Not invented by Henry Ford. His cousin's husband, Edward Kingsford, found a good stand of lumber for Ford autos. The waste product was disposed of at the mill in a process to make pressed lumps developed by Orin Stafford. The plant for making them was designed by Edison and managed by Kingsford. The name "Kingsford" briquets came much later, in 1951, when the Ford division was sold off.
2. The body of the old East German (DDR) automobile, the Trabant (Trabi) was made rumored to be made from Duraplast, from soybeans, but likely there phenol-based material was derived from coal tar.
Seems like I recall that one of the states tried soybeans, or something similar, to make their licences plates. Didn't last long once cows (and possibly other animals) discovered how tasty they were...
Larry Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you My Opinion. Standard Disclaimers Apply. No Expiration Date Come ride the rails with me! There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...
My newspaper uses soy ink for the printing.
Enzoamps My newspaper uses soy ink for the printing.
Johnny
Henry Ford used soybeans to make experimental plastic bodies for cars. I've seen a picture of him smacking a car with an ax to show it's strength. But, I did not see an "after" picture after the car got smacked. Early plastics were considered a luxury item and were mainly used for dashboard knobs and steering wheels. He did own woodlots in northern Michigan where the lumber from the trees were used to make model T body frames. Wooden planks used to make crates were recycled to make floor boards.
I am told that Trabant bodies were made of plaster and recycled plastic and whatever crap they could find that could be melted down and moulded. I've been to eastern Germany, most Trabbis are in the hands of collectors now.
54light15I've seen a picture of him smacking a car with an ax to show its strength. But, I did not see an "after" picture after the car got smacked.
I have. When the instrument was a hammer, there is no visible damage other than a little scuffing.
The 'soybean car' was a bit of a misnomer; I had thought any recognizable soy-plant part was heavily chemically modified to be used. In fact I thought I remembered the 'plastic' part was a hard urethane, like the early Endura bumpers, and would likely behave similar.
It turns out that the actual panels were a 'phenolic resin' (which means some flavor of Bakelite) with 'soy plant fibers' used as a kind of fibergrass in a composite. Apparently some part of this was aimed at preserving some kind of domestic auto production during potential wartime steel rationing, although the car was finished and introduced several months before Pearl Harbor. There are some interesting patents for lightweight car structure issued early in 1942. (There are a couple of interesting YouTube videos about different formulations and uses for "Bakelite" that are worth looking up, if your experience with the stuff is restricted as mine was to things like radio enclosures and Wen soldering-iron casings...)
Of course the development of composite car bodies (look up Weymann bodies, if you're not familiar with them, to see what this entailed in a slightly earlier context, or doped aircraft fuselage construction) went in a different direction after WWII: to the Fiberglas in early show cars and the Corvette, and to the acrylic tried in a couple of GM cars of the mid-to-latter Fifties. At production scale, improvements in deep drawing and steel composition made that kind of construction less economical.
The Ford 'plastic' was described in contemporary textbooks as an example of one of the ugliest words in English: 'chemurgy' (which we now more commonly call "applied chemistry"). This was the first place I remember coming across 'furfural' as an agriculturally-derived chemical; I still have a hard time coming to grips with something with that silly-sounding a name as an important hazardous material. Ford made quite a bit of promotion out of 'cars largely grown from the soil' around the same time Frank Lloyd Wright was touting Broadacre City, let's put the Dust Bowl back to efficiently growing things, cue the Aaron Copland music...
This stuff isn't the same thing as early noncomposite 'plastics' (which came in two very broad and very different general flavors, thermosets like Bakelite/phenolic, and thermoplastics like celluloid, which is basically dissolved guncotton ) These had uses for items that needed to be decorative and reasonably sturdy, but involved very complex forming if made from any, well, nonplastic material. There are few better materials for steering wheels than a plastic material molded and set around an appropriate wire armature...
tree68 Seems like I recall that one of the states tried soybeans, or something similar, to make their licences plates. Didn't last long once cows (and possibly other animals) discovered how tasty they were...
CSSHEGEWISCHIlllinois did that during one of the WW2 years in order to avoid using strategic materials. It was given up for the reasons mentioned.
And there's the difference between Michigan and Illinois in a nutshell!
And here the Chicagoans were leading me to think all the cows were in Wisconsin. Perhaps it was a 'Sconsin conspiracy to get Illinois residents in trouble with their own government, like a cheesehead Sendero Luminoso.
Oh rats, it turns out that it was probably goats, not cows.
54light15I am told that Trabant bodies were made of plaster and recycled plastic and whatever crap they could find that could be melted down and moulded.
I thought we were discussing automobiles.
Trabants weren't automobiles, they were a joke played on German people. Such kidders, those commies making Germans desire such a POS. I am well familiar with Weymann bodied cars, I've even seen American cars such as the Stutz and Hudson with Weymann bodies in England. Also, my old man restored a 1947 Aeronca Champ in our garage and I recall the linen fabric when he and his friend sewed it over the frame with a baseball stitch and then doped it. Boy did that stink!
So this East German guy goes to "Trabants R' Us" and puts his down payment in. "Gut! Sehr gut!" says the saleman. "Come back in five years from this date and it will be waiting for you."
"In the morning or the afternoon?" asks the buyer.
"Why is that important?" asks the saleman."
"Uh, the plumber's coming in the morning!"
Aside from Katarina Witt, the only decent thing to come out of East Germany is the "Praesentier Marsch Der Nationalen Volksarmee."
It may be Communist, but it sounds so Prussian!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9qKQX2ap6U
Overmod CSSHEGEWISCH Illlinois did that during one of the WW2 years in order to avoid using strategic materials. It was given up for the reasons mentioned. And there's the difference between Michigan and Illinois in a nutshell! And here the Chicagoans were leading me to think all the cows were in Wisconsin. Perhaps it was a 'Sconsin conspiracy to get Illinois residents in trouble with their own government, like a cheesehead Sendero Luminoso.
CSSHEGEWISCH Illlinois did that during one of the WW2 years in order to avoid using strategic materials. It was given up for the reasons mentioned.
Major difference indeed...Though I have noticed our license plates tend to be peeling quite often these days..
Seriously, do flatlanders and cheeseheads hate each other that much? Packers? Bears?
SD60MAC9500Though I have noticed are license plates tend to be peeling quite often these days..
54light15 Seriously, do flatlanders and cheeseheads hate each other that much? Packers? Bears?
As to railroads, a lighter moment:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1270038776414622/permalink/2783143995104085/
From an era when people knew, and cared about, and were amused by, the minutiae on railroad timetables. One wonders if Al E's family hails from that town about '230 miles' out.
If you ever wondered about train service to the places on Saul Steinberg's New Yorker cover, this could explain some of it...
Surely model railroaders somewhere have built pikes with some of this incorporated...
charlie hebdoAs to railroads, a lighter moment: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1270038776414622/permalink/2783143995104085/
Nothing quite like 'Air Conditioned Cattle Cars'.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
Shades of the Fiddletown & Copperopolis Railway.
www.gregariousrailfan.com/images/Map2.jpg
https://www.google.com/search?q=fiddletown+and+copperopolis+railroad&tbm=isch&source=univ&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi51MHx0r3mAhX-Ap0JHTlQA0IQsAR6BAgJEAE&biw=1366&bih=655#imgrc=NooHO1Hp9Q6UVM:
Or the real Lancaster and Chester Railroad in the Elliot Springs' era.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lancaster_and_Chester_Railroad
Jeff
Yes, Jeff, the L&C is an interesting railroad. I regret that I never stopped in the office in Lancaster and asked for a dIning car menu when I lived 10 miles down the highway. The building was still there the last time I was in Lancaster (4 1/2 years ago). A other vice president worthy of mention was General Jonathan Wainright; his resposnsibiloty was white horse supply (and his responsibility was not obtaining White Horse whisly).
tree68 SD60MAC9500 Though I have noticed are license plates tend to be peeling quite often these days.. NY is having that problem big time...
SD60MAC9500 Though I have noticed are license plates tend to be peeling quite often these days..
NY is having that problem big time...
I miss our old stamped plates that were blue. When I was at Enterprise car rental. We got some Mercedes CL45’s in one time and they came with Montana plates. They were plastic plates that had the logo, and colors printed on.
I purchased a Jeep Cherokee in 1993 and got a new set of plates for it because, under the state laws, I was changing from a automobile to a SUV. Kept those plates when I bought my Dodge Durango in 2003 and they were still valid when I traded the vehicle in in 2017. Buying the Ram that I now have I had to get new plates according to the state. If I had kept the Durango, it would have well over 400K miles on the clock today.
BaltACD I purchased a Jeep Cherokee in 1993 and got a new set of plates for it because, under the state laws, I was changing from a automobile to a SUV. Kept those plates when I bought my Dodge Durango in 2003 and they were still valid when I traded the vehicle in in 2017. Buying the Ram that I now have I had to get new plates according to the state. If I had kept the Durango, it would have well over 400K miles on the clock today.
Early 2000's Durangos were solid vehicles. Probably one of the best SUV's during that time.. I know a few owners who've clocked well over 300K on the meter. I had a 2006 Grand Cherokee years back had the 4.0 straight 6. Awesome vehicle, drove to California and back in it.
SD60MAC9500 BaltACD I purchased a Jeep Cherokee in 1993 and got a new set of plates for it because, under the state laws, I was changing from a automobile to a SUV. Kept those plates when I bought my Dodge Durango in 2003 and they were still valid when I traded the vehicle in in 2017. Buying the Ram that I now have I had to get new plates according to the state. If I had kept the Durango, it would have well over 400K miles on the clock today. Early 2000's Durangos were solid vehicles. Probably one of the best SUV's during that time.. I know a few owners who've clocked well over 300K on the meter. I had a 2006 Grand Cherokee years back had the 4.0 straight 6. Awesome vehicle, drove to California and back in it.
Durango had 360K on the clock with the MB designed 4.7L V8 when the drivers side seat belt wouldn't extend. Replacement would have cost more that I could get in trade for my 'low mileage, one owner' vehicle. Never had any engine or transmission issues. Bought a 'lifetime oil change' package from the dealer - all the while I lived in the dealers area, I would get the oil changed every 3 to 4K miles. Had the transmission flushed and fluid and filter changed every 80K miles.
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