Money will be tight

[johnofgwent]

That's made my day. No wonder we rule the world! 

One final point from me then.

Ion exchange resins and recycling.

As many might realise, the thames is used as a starting point for drinking water by a number of water boards. 

A fundamental tool in biochemistry is the application of various forms of chromatography. At the least technological end of that technique is simple gel chromatography, we get a big glass tube, fill it with a goo made from what is in effect wallpaper paste, made from a carbohydrate powder featuring starch chains of roughly the same molecular length, and water.

These filter solutions passed down them.

Smaller molecules penetrate further into the gel than larger ones, so in effect large molecules fall quickly down the tube as the gel molecules are as impenetrable to them as if they were marbles.

But in the sixties some guys had bright ideas of bonding charged anions or cations eg na+ or cl- etc to these gels so molecules that were themselves charged would stick or be repelled. And so Ion Exchange columns were created. In the eighties I was among a small number who used other techniques to chemically bond sugars to these gels, so I could capture enzymes that metabolised those sugars...

These two novel (for the 60s and 80s) systems were to provide me and my predecessors, quite healthy research grants for a while.

You see, the permissive society of the swinging sixties was fuelled by the widespread availability of the contraceptive pill

And as I said, several towns near old father Thames used, put back and re used the water.

By the early 70s it was apparently noticeable that lots of Londoners were on the pill whether they liked it or not.

Early versions of the ion exchange resin chromatographic columns captured and held these chemicals and for years certain pharmaceutical companies supplied water boards with cartridges they went through in amazing numbers. The pharma companies took the cartridges away and purged them if the captured chemicals ... Which i presume they could recycle.....

But when in 1981 I looked into adapting the newer technique of what they called affinity chromatography to pluck enzymes in a cellular stew of ground up cellular material out of the macerate and obtain instant purification a million fold, it quickly became apparent a similar process applied to capturing all sorts of pharmacologicals from the "effluent" before it was returned to the river would save millions in materials costs.

Sadly it increased London's reproductive ability too.

[cromwell]

Perhaps this thread would be more appropriately renamed — The Effluent Society...

Stop taking the piss?

[T00ts]

Thanks for the clarification. Pity. I found the thought of everyone peeing in their flower pots to save water rather amusing

As a small girl I was very envious of the kid next door who was able to pee high up into their water butt. I assumed it was a prank but maybe he was under instruction.

[srb7677]

As Borchester points out it was the fertiliser cost I was referring to.

Thanks for the clarification. Pity. I found the thought of everyone peeing in their flower pots to save water rather amusing

[T00ts]

Are you suggesting that we all adopt the dubious habit of urinating in our plant pots to save on water usage?

As Borchester points out it was the fertiliser cost I was referring to.

[Borchester]

Are you suggesting that we all adopt the dubious habit of urinating in our plant pots to save on water usage?

If you mix the urine with about twenty times as much water you will find that it is the best possible fertiliser.

[srb7677]

  Perhaps but for those who didn't know it would be a cheap way of keeping those plants growing considering money is getting ever tighter..

Are you suggesting that we all adopt the dubious habit of urinating in our plant pots to save on water usage?

[T00ts]

Perhaps this thread would be more appropriately renamed — The Effluent Society...

  Perhaps but for those who didn't know it would be a cheap way of keeping those plants growing considering money is getting ever tighter..

[patman post]

Perhaps this thread would be more appropriately renamed — The Effluent Society...

[Borchester]

Roman tanners used to use human urine to tan hides. They provided pots for passing members of the public to piss in and functioned as public conveniences. I don't think they were bothered about the gender of whomever had a full bladder that needed emptying, and the smell would likely have been a good antidote for any erections anyway I would have thought.

Which is why the practical Vespasian turned to his priggish son Titus and said, "Pecunia non olet."

That sort of thing went on until quite recently, with the nitrates required to make black powder being obtained from tavern loos.It was an amazingly labourious and hence expensive process, which makes one wonder why folk went to war in the first place.

[T00ts]

You women rule the world? Is that why everything is getting so rubbish?

Only joking of course.

   It has always been so! 

[srb7677]

No wonder we rule the world!  

You women rule the world? Is that why everything is getting so rubbish?

Only joking of course.

[T00ts]

OK. You have triggered a memory from my research days.

Apparently the americans had problems in both the war of independence and the civil war with the supply of key chemicals necessary for the manufacture of gunpowder and significant effort was spent seeking alternative sources of nitrates suitable for the task. To this end the call went out particularly in the civil war for patriotic southern ladies to save the "chamber lees" (to be blunt, the contents of their piss pots) which was to be collected, and processed in ways i really don't want to think about.

Sadly the material created was indeed explosive, but there was a much bigger problem. The process of drying down the material which was obviously done by women given the men were busy shooting each other failed to remove certain pheremones that survived the process and made their way into the explosive powder as impurities. In what was probably the worst case of chemical warfare gone horribly wrong, the military were forced to abandon the process and look elsewhere as , according to reports sent back to headquarters, after an hour or so of a prolonged artillery barrage, the smoke drifted over the assembled fighting men who became seriously distracted by the erection caused by the airborne pheremones released by the firing.

   That's made my day. No wonder we rule the world!  

[Nick]

Hence the term...

So poor he hasn't got a pot to p*ss in. 

[srb7677]

OK. You have triggered a memory from my research days.

Apparently the americans had problems in both the war of independence and the civil war with the supply of key chemicals necessary for the manufacture of gunpowder and significant effort was spent seeking alternative sources of nitrates suitable for the task. To this end the call went out particularly in the civil war for patriotic southern ladies to save the "chamber lees" (to be blunt, the contents of their piss pots) which was to be collected, and processed in ways i really don't want to think about.

Sadly the material created was indeed explosive, but there was a much bigger problem. The process of drying down the material which was obviously done by women given the men were busy shooting each other failed to remove certain pheremones that survived the process and made their way into the explosive powder as impurities. In what was probably the worst case of chemical warfare gone horribly wrong, the military were forced to abandon the process and look elsewhere as , according to reports sent back to headquarters, after an hour or so of a prolonged artillery barrage, the smoke drifted over the assembled fighting men who became seriously distracted by the erection caused by the airborne pheremones released by the firing.

Roman tanners used to use human urine to tan hides. They provided pots for passing members of the public to piss in and functioned as public conveniences. I don't think they were bothered about the gender of whomever had a full bladder that needed emptying, and the smell would likely have been a good antidote for any erections anyway I would have thought.