Re: A.O.Smith

[Mark A Pepe <mpepe@domain.elided>]

	How about that, my dad worked for A.O. Smith's agriculture
department as a
field engineer for many years  and then owned a dealership here in Tucson.
If you've ever been around Farm land, Dairys or ranches you may have seen
blue silos with white roofs or in the last 10 years water tanks in the
same
color scheme. A.O. Smith developed a glass coating for steel (applied
at very high temp) and used
some of this technology in their water heaters as well. It completey
sealed out rust and was easy to clean too. they used large curved sheets
of steel , coated them with many layers and then the sheets could be
bolted together (useing bolts, washers, nuts and sealer all developed by
them)  The division was called A.O. Smith Harvester! Kind of ironic.
An intersting note on the washers, they were hexagons instead of round, by
doing this they didn't waste as much metal since like a honey comb they
all lined up. Due to the desighn of the Silos they were able to withstand
high winds and in some cases they even were still standing after
tornadoes. My dad eventually sold the dealership but kept most of the
tools and some equipment, witch was great! Snap-on tools (including about
six tourqe wrenches, impact wrenches, all kinds of cool stuff. He ended up
selling a lot of it but he still has one of larger home tool sets I've
ever seen , including wood and metal lathes, drill press, arc welder, oxy
acetylene torches, and on and on. I just wish I could go up to his house
and play more often.

Sorry got a little chatty,
Mark

76 traveler


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				Mark A. Pepe

University of Arizona					  Tucson, Arizona
			
			     mpepe@domain.elided

*Music Education Major*Tuba Player Extraordinaire*Concord Blue Devils Alum
*Sonora Desert Scouts Member *and much much more *blah blah blah*
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