In the land of 3M.
After a brief bad habit #1 delay we left New Ulm. Two blocks later team S crossed some railroad tracks. Before team A could follow we heard a train whistle blow. Oh no! By the time a 100 car train passes, team S will be miles down the road.
| Heart | 0 | Comment | 0 | Link |
Today was 20 degrees cooler than our last ride. These pleasant temperatures were more like what we expected from Minnesota. We noticed that every farm house was surrounded by trees to block the wind, including evergreens to deal with bitter cold winter winds. The only exception is the southern exposure, which is often left open.
We passed some 3M facilities. Alain informed Viktoriya that 3M stands for Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing. This was met with disbelief. Alain has no credibility because he is a habitual lier and teller of tall tales, but in this case he was trying to stick to the facts.
But what are the facts relating to 3M? What was it they were mining? Were they mining glue for scotch tape and post-its? No. Basically, they were mining for grit to make sandpaper and grindstones. But their mine was producing relatively soft stones that were useless for grit.
What to do? 3M decided to import a grittier stone from Spain. That should work, right? And it did, for a while. Then they got a shipment in which the ship was carrying both stones and a load of olive oil, which spilled onto the stones. The slippery stones resulted in defective sandpaper in which the grit fell off.
3M couldn't afford a new load of Spanish stones, but they managed to come up with a process to heat up the stones and cook off the olive oil. This ingenuity saved the company.
All of the above is true. After all, it's in this blog and this blog is on the internet, so it must be factual.
| Rate this entry's writing | Heart | 3 |
| Comment on this entry | Comment | 0 |