On the Bottom Half

Another Wander

Two days after getting back home, I took off again on another trip. There wasn't much internet while I was away, which explains the lack of posting for the last couple of weeks.

The tour went through several mines, taking things like copper, gold, and coal from the ground. All of them were interesting, and certainly very large scale. And what fun to see the processing that makes powdered rock into useable metal.

One of the highlights would have to be the iron smelter in Wollongong. There we saw the inferno that makes iron ore into steel. If you ever get a chance to see steel being made, go. A question though: how powerful a torch is it that will blow through a 1 meter length of 23 centimeter thick solid steel tablet in 2 minutes? Hoo-wah! Hot, though. The way they use recycled steel is pretty nifty: pile the rusty old bits into a bin, then dump it into the smelting pot, mix with plenty of 'clean' liquid iron, blow liquid oxygen into the mix to bring up to temperature (1700 degrees C), brew for 20 minutes, dump off the steel, drain the slag, lather, rinse, repeat. It's just that easy...

And all for 2.3 million dollars in electricity per week.

Anyone out there interested in process engineering?

Anyway, learned a lot on the trip and had fun sifting through the hormones of 38 17-year olds. Back at it now at Uni, but things are going to change. Don't know exactly how yet, but I'll keep you posted.

The 'Increase in Entertainment Factor Package' finally arrived and I can't thank you enough! The pillow case was a conversation starter for the whole trip :-) It makes me happy. So was the knitting, but hey, I like to think I'm a bit of an original.

I'm told that my camera is fixed - I toasted to connections to the CCD, which apparently have been replaced. Somehow, I'll get it back, but I haven't figured that out yet. Anyone coming to Aus any time soon?

Miss you lots...

posted by Kyle @ 21:07