History /
What was it like in 1989+ in Poland when the Soviet house of cards fell? [237]
I had hoped we could have avoided the Church-related talk here...
Ironside, you forget about something. The properties confiscated by the communist state were used. It means, investments were done and the property was maintained, better or worse. We cannot revert the course of history to see if Zamoyskis would bankrupt with their Monte Carlo debts (or due to crises or due to poor investments) or they would make a lot of money by proper use of their property. The fact is, the properties were run by the state. Now, it is interesting to determine who would owe whom? It is impossible.
Now, The Pruszków Pencil Factory had been however returned to the heir of the owner. First thing the new owner did was killing the factory because he did not understand how to make business.
Now, Ironside - do you think it is better to act in the justice & moral way, turn everything upside down and increase the number of unemployed that way? To degrade the country's economy because you would like to "undo injustice"? Are you thinking of "peeps" or only of your ideals and also you take care of former large owners but not of "peeps"?
The way of thinking assuming a revolution is to be done and selected people make decisions who is a traitor and who is not -- is the one of most typical landmarks of Communism.
It is self- evident yes?
Not at all. Perhaps you are a traitor because some guy would say that?
Very interesting story, Antek. I didn't do the distillation myself, but was a witness of so many :) How did you purify the rum from oils? I know some use charcoal or cotton besides the evaporation itself. What about that white material mangle?
This is what is called "fractionation" or multistage distillation. The vertical tube is called "the distillation column" and if you do the process right, it is equivalent to many distillations done in one unit. The tube is filled with "packing" that has large mass transfer surface. I made "Fenske spirals", extremely efficient laboratory packing using copper wire as the material, an axle, a small electric motor and scissors to make the packing ;-) The top part is the 'reflux tank". The fractionation requires that the part of distillate is continuously fed at specified rate back to the column ("the reflux"). My column was equivalent to six distillation stages. After making the first charge of the product, the product was fractionated again (so it was 12 distillations in total, 2 operations x 6 stages = 12 stages). With this process, the oils have been totally retained in the distillation pot. Light-ends will always pass with such process but the sugar-derived are exactly what you expect in white rum ;-)
It is important to say I was controlling the reflux manually, calculating the process quality with charts (these were laying on the top of the fridge) ;-)
The white material was asbestos + mineral wool. This was thermal insulation of the column, helping better separation, greater control, and speeding the process by avoiding heat losses to the ambient.
I have calculated this very process with university students using a process simulator last Saturday. You get 70% product, free of fusel oil, with twice the 6-stage fractionation.
Alcohol of any sort, including the one produced by our colleagues from Chemistry department, served as a basis for "cashless exchange of goods and services" in our university.
Absolutely, Boletus, great story!
We had easier situation with our Chemistry Faculty and Chemical Engineering Faculty. The glass blower at Chemistry was very happy to earn more by making custom glass equipment. The craftsmen in the Engineering were good with mechanical parts and automation. However I was poor and could not afford a custom rig, so I declared some of the glass "broken", paid a symbolic fee and could build the rig myself.
Antek_Stalich: white rum
What did you make it from - sugar?
The essence of rum is that it is made either from sugar or molasses ;-) Sugar, yes. No methanol, nicely smelling light-ends.
Antek_Stalich: Konstantin Chernenko had just died
And have you tried to use this equipment ever again? :)
To kill Gorbachev?! ;-) (joking). No, I did my experiments just twice and then found some other interest - girls ;)))) Ah, and everybody used to smoke cannabis at that time, too ;-)
