Emmanuel BIGLER wrote, in part:
Hello from France!
First, it should be reminded that Polaroid Corp. had on catalogue a
silver halide product rated ISO 10,000.
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In the long-ago I attended a technical seminar in New York, held at a
university, so we had room mates in a dorm. My room mate was a
scientist/engineer from Polaroid.
He explained, in detail, how Polaroid milked every tiny thing to get
the highest possible efficiency for their products. It's been over
40 years so I don't remember any specifics but I was impressed by
their handle on the applicable technology.
Emmanuel, on a separate subject. do you remember the company once
called CSF? I worked for General Dynamics and made several trips
towards creating a joint-venture company to exploit our missile
tracking technology. The director I worked with was a decent fellow
and I had lunch at his apartment several times. Gracious family.
We eventually failed because upper management decided to not
proceed. I remember a few things, however.
1. Some CSF engineers took me to the top of the Eiffel Tower to show
how they had managed to get 3" coax all the way to the top for TV
transmitters. Over that distance the weight of the center conductor
is significant.
2. At lunch in Paris, their engineers said that if someone had to
work on Saturday they just weren't qualified for their job. In the
U.S. working Saturday morning was expected for engineers and managers.
3. I remember a train ride from Paris to Bordeaux, sleeping on
folded-down seats.
4. Installing some antennas we had built in San Diego, in the beach
at Biscarrosse Plage. The antennas were embedded flush in the
sand. I remember the electronics equipment was in a metal hut. It
was windy and sand was everywhere. I helped work on a system that
had a phase-locked-loop, suffering from a limit-cycle instability.
Well, very odd topics but sort of related, at least the Polaroid comments.
DAW
