Memories of 1976
After the amazing floods I remember 1976 as a long hot summer and serious
drought , also this :-
I designed 3 distillation columns at ICI huddersfield in
1976 using a Sinclair Scientific calculator as in the photo. This was supplied
as a kit from New Scientist. The kit consisted of a Texas Instruments chip , a
keyboard , a red LED display and a plastic case. You soldered the parts
together , fitted the batteries in the case and hey presto it worked.
Here is a description of the calculator
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinclair_Scientific
I had not realised the amazing maths in this calculator devised by Nigel Searle, I just read this and its amazing. http://files.righto.com/calculator/sinclair_scientific_simulator.html
And there is a story
to tell about Diquat as well. Invented by ICI in the 60's it has just been
banned by the EU 60 years later in 2019.
Diquat is an agricultural chemical used to dry the green part of the potato plant to allow the machines to dig up the potatoes .
They used to use sulphuric acid but that was banned because of the effect on the potatoes. Diquat has the advantage that it is destroyed by the soil so it does not affect the potatoes but it is a well known and widely available poison and sadly people use it to commit suicide. When Korea stopped using it the number of suicide cases dropped by 50% . The EU have banned it because of the risk of spray blowing on to housing next to fields.
In UK the National Farmers Union have said that not using Diquat will affect the potato crop because they have to wait some weeks longer for the plants to wither and the potatoes will be subject to blight.
In terms of toxicity it is not that dangerous, it is classed as a moderate toxin, warfarin (rat poison) is more deadly and is not banned.
Diquat is an agricultural chemical used to dry the green part of the potato plant to allow the machines to dig up the potatoes .
They used to use sulphuric acid but that was banned because of the effect on the potatoes. Diquat has the advantage that it is destroyed by the soil so it does not affect the potatoes but it is a well known and widely available poison and sadly people use it to commit suicide. When Korea stopped using it the number of suicide cases dropped by 50% . The EU have banned it because of the risk of spray blowing on to housing next to fields.
In UK the National Farmers Union have said that not using Diquat will affect the potato crop because they have to wait some weeks longer for the plants to wither and the potatoes will be subject to blight.
In terms of toxicity it is not that dangerous, it is classed as a moderate toxin, warfarin (rat poison) is more deadly and is not banned.
Photo of Diquat Plant in Huddersfield taken from the
cycle track by Leeds Road
The plant in Huddersfield is still working, I cycled past it in May this year, see photo, you can see the distillation columns on the side of the plant. The plant makes Diquat which is a close relative of Paraqat.
The plant in Huddersfield is still working, I cycled past it in May this year, see photo, you can see the distillation columns on the side of the plant. The plant makes Diquat which is a close relative of Paraqat.
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