Which School Did you Graduate From?

Great information!

I'm in the camp where if it doesn't/hasn't hurt me ...

You must have been a bit more affluent... We almost always put the mercury on dimes.

While teaching physics and science, we always had mercury around. In addition to the broken thermometers, we also had mercury barometers, mercury switches (I still have a small drawer of those in the garage), and a five-pound glass flask of mercury for various uses. One of the common uses was simply to stick a finger in it, to feel the huge buoyant force it exerts. The floor of my lab/classroom was one-foot squares of vinyl. When someone broke a thermometer or other source of mercury, I picked up what I could onto a sheet of paper, cleaned it as best I could, and added it to the flask. Obviously, there were plenty of little tiny balls of mercury that escaped and got into the cracks between the floor tiles. I never did anything to try to remove them, and taught in that room for many years.

One time, a couple of my students found a steel flask, like a miniature scuba or oxygen tank, containing 30 or 40 pounds of mercury in an abandoned gold mine. They wanted to give (or was it sell?) it to me, but that much I did not accept. I have no idea what they eventually did with it...

Most of that mercury handling on coins was about 70 years ago, and the teaching was 25-50 years ago. I'm not aware of any problems related to all that mercury exposure.

I've heard the same stories That Autobroker mentioned, and clearly believe the first one is far closer to the truth.

It sounds like we, as a civilization, have become too concerned with safety or maybe it's being too worried about lawsuits?

You had mercury in your lab and as far as you can tell, it didn't cause any issues. My sister and I played with mercury balls and I think we're okay.

I've had quite a few good laughs when those emails are sent to me - the ones about our generations surviving all the unthinkable things of today. I'm of the belief that it was good for us to have been exposed to the unsafe - I think it builds our resistance, makes us more sociable and gives us common sense. Will it cut our lives short? I don't know, but I do know that it gives life it's flavor ... and most importantly, we lived life and still are.

A little known fact. Mercury is sold in 76lb flasks. How do I know this? When I was a kid (an odd one at that), I read the business section of the newspaper. In the commodities section, mercury was listed with the quantity 76lb flask.

When I was in high school, I took an electronics class (freshman and sophomore years). In the supplies room, there were mercury switches. It was great, because I could physically see the drop of mercury come into contact with the metal in the tube to complete the circuit.

There was (maybe still is?) a "Mercoid" company that made switches in which a Bourdon tube or like mechanism would tilt a vial of mercury to make contact with two electrodes.

I didn't know what a Bourdon tube is, so I had to look it up. The mercury switch I'm thinking of looks like one of those old neon lights, but instead there's a mercury drop inside that moves as the tube moves. Like the one on the back of a mechanical home thermostat. Like this

Among other uses, those little glass vials with a drop of mercury and two contacts were commonly mounted on a coiled bi-metallic strip to form a thermostat. If mounted correctly, the weight of the mercury flowing back and forth from one end to the other of the vial gave it automatic hysteresis, and the mercury could carry sufficient current so no relay was required.

Another advantage of the mercury switch was that no "snap" was required. Back many years, my wife was working nights, so I replaced most of the light switches with silent ones, so I wouldn't wake her by flipping the switches. I don't recall ever having taken one apart, but I presume they are mercury switches. I've never had a problem with any of them.

I think they stopped making the silent mercury light switches quite a few years ago.

One other use of mercury is in fluorescent light bulbs (even CFL's). In high school, we learned that the mercury vaporizes when an arc forms in the end of the tube. I still remember our teacher telling us to look at the ends of the bulb for darkness. It shows how many times the light has been turned on - the starter has a limited life, so if the bulb has a lot of darkness near the end, it's going to need replacing soon.

Iv'e been making hats for many years, and as my numerous posts will testify I'm absolutely fine.

Yep! Basically all i do is to analyze problems and develop solutions. We have had PHds in here that could or would not adapt to the environment and left after giving a poor performance. They would be my boss and i had to instruct them in how and what to do.

To paraphrase Darwin " any species that does not adapt to a changing environment will cease to exist".

High School Grad.

Joined the USMC when I was 17, MOS 6077

Got out of the service and learned Mill Wright / Welding work in the field on the job.

Went back to college, five years [while still working full time in a fab shop] at community college catching up to recent high school graduates.

Transferred to Lake Superior State University and earned a BSME emphasis in Machine Design.

Took and passed the FE, still want to finish getting a PE.

I am fortunate that I can actually build and weld the things I design for the people on the shop floor.

quite satisfying, isn't it. ^{(that's a statement, not a question.)}

Totally agreed! In my case, I leave most of the welding to others, but I do machine a lot of my own parts and build my own electronics.

Wow, similar experiences

I leave the welding up to others because my eyesight .... well, eyesight was never that good, but at one time it could pass the 6G test.... I like to keep the bar low....

And I did some printed circuit boards..... back in the 90's. Electronics was a hobby.

As far as Machining, I always loved that.

You welders are amazing! I never picked up the skill. I did do quite a bit of soldering (soft and hard).

I did try my hand at laser welding precious metals, platinum in particular. I really enjoyed working with that machine. I was thinking about using the laser welder to repair rolled gold plating, but I never got to it.

I brush up my knowledge by trying to explain examples to my 5 year old who always asks tons of questions of "WHY?" which then makes me create an answer for his level of understanding which works sometimes.

Wasn't it Einstein that said (paraphrasing, here) that if you can't explain an an idea to a layperson, you haven't fully grasped it (the idea), yourself?

I frequently have observed that I never fully understood a concept until after I explained it to someone else. Expressing the concept to someone else in my own words makes it much clearer than when I learned it from someone else in their words, or even when it was my own new concept that had not yet been disclosed to anyone else.

It almost like a piece of a puzzle. After your explain it.... it's like a light going off.... er,.... on.

It also help in retention

I have run into exactly the same thing. I was explaining to a helper about the necessity to have a certain type of scaffold in place, so that ,once a structural piece had been put in place, we could then continue on with the next cycle, without having to tear down and re-stage more support pieces. When he asked how, I was forced to re-think the sequence , and low and behold, had to re-do the idea so as to be workable. I told him to always ask me why and how, and told him why. We had many laughs about that over the years, including his question, "why" I was going to be married!

And how much of Einstein's works are we STILL arguing about because he didn't explain them clearly enough?

And if we extend that concept beyond the realm of science into law, or religion, it kind of makes the priests and lawyers look bad. (Well, makes the lawyers look WORSE. The only thing that makes a lawyer look good is the inside of a coffin. [Not a protected class, like women, or minorities, or people with disabilities. We can still pick on lawyers all we want with jokes, they're like the ONLY class that hasn't become protected.])

They are also the only class that fully understands the laws of libel and slander and your only defense is if you are too poor to be worth suing.

But *DO* they fully understand the laws of libel and slander? Can they explain them in plain english to a layperson?

The best professors I had were exceptional at explaining incredibly complex concepts.

I remember taking a course on Electromagetics. My professor was a bit hard to understand, due to this accent (German), but when he explained things to us, it made so much sense. At the start of the semester, I was very worried about the class, but after the first few weeks, I enjoyed it tremendously.

My professor passed away a few years ago, but I'll always remember what a great job he did.

Seems to be a common thread, what school(s) don't really make much of a difference, it's what you learn before and after that matters. Purpose of schooling is to make you think, not memorize and to get a foot in the door.

As for me, U. of S., you can figure that one out. But, more important was what I learned prior to university and after graduating. I have had very few mentors and was forced to learn, although it was very enjoyable. Who else can say they have been involved in several industries like civil engineering, agriculture, railway, structural steel, bio-agriculture and automotive. All seemingly not related, but enough common areas to make a connection. I like to think I succeeded(or at least made a little bit of a difference) in all of them.

Very old adage that comes to mind, "those that can, do, those that can't, teach".

Biggest "problem" I had was I was the last in the line of 4 brothers attending the same university, all in engineering, and because of the family resemblance, a lot of the profs already knew who I was, and, consequently, I got called on to answer a lot of questions as my brothers must have made some kind of impression before I got there.

As for what the final degree was for each of us, none of us finally ended up in a field that was directly related to our degrees. Just goes to show.

I've kept that old adage in mind through 32 years of (mainly) teaching and another 20 years of (mainly) engineering. There are plenty of examples of people who seem to prove it, but there are a lot more people who are genuinely excellent teachers.

Unfortunately, I've also seen some very poor engineering from places where you would not expect it. Perhaps my most blatant example was a well-known company that asked us to make a particular turbine engine part. If we had made the part as specified, it would have been impossible to assemble that part to its mating part.

I'm sure that every profession has it's "good" and "bad" people. Fortunately, for a lot of them, bad decisions or actions will not put anyone in danger or peril.

Maybe not in the immediate physical sense but damaging all the same. The only countervailing force against fatheads that want to "make it so" is good information. At least one cheery fact is that the behaviour of matter and energy can't be bent to any idealogical agenda.

What a great description of what problem solving is. I love the part about being aware and recognizing the problem early.

This doesn't relate only to engineering - consider where we'd be if our regulators acted on the banking crisis a few years earlier.

Graduated from Southwood Secondary School, Cambridge Ontario.

Honours- Grade 12, 5 or 6 certificates including highest average for the school year. Highest overall marks in Physics and English, split the Math award with another kid. Can't remember what the other 1 or 2 were for right now. I did get a number of other awards through the years preceding.

Of all this, the best education was probably 2 years of co-op work in Auto body & Auto mech. Why? Because that's where I was lucky enough to find out the difference between School and the work world, before being launched into it.

As I have a grudging gratitude for my training ( I grudge gratitude at every opportunity ), I don't mind giving a plug for

George Brown College ( Toronto, 1989 )

Graduation was just the beginning of my education, though.

Here is a partial list:

Bell&Howell Schools (Electronics)

Rice University (Math)

Texas Tech U (Math, Music Theory, Music Composition)

West Texas A&M (Math and Statistics, and actually got a BS)

Texas Tech U (Grad School in Systems Engineering Management)

Arizona State (Laser Optics)

Georgia Tech (Statistics, Design of Experiments)

Defense Acquisition University (They tell me I have earned the equivalent of a Masters in Systems Engineering)

Lots and lots of OJT. Nearing retirement and wondering what courses I will take next. (There's so much to learn!)

Good point! I didn't list any of the 8 or 10 schools I attended over the years to try to keep up to date after my 7 years of 'standard' university education. Nor did I mention the thousands of hours of experimenting and building stuff at home, starting when I was around 6, and so far continuing for almost 70 years.

Up to date is right. The courses I took always didn't applied to my feild so to speak, I always took courses that I feel would indirectly compliment it, or most something I felt I would enjoy. A different way of thinking.

I have to say this, prior to college, I always enjoyed reading SciFi books. But when I started to go to college, I stopped reading them for one reason. And that was a lot of scientist and engineers wrote these books, and they would take science theory and fact, and give it a twist. That confused me, I could not recall if I read something in a text book or SciFi book that I just stopped reading SciFi.

In college, I had to take a couple 300 level English courses. The two I chose were science fiction courses. One was general SciFi and the other was specifically Robert Heinlein. The classes were easy A's!

[There's so much to learn].. Along that tone, my thought is...The smarter you are the more you realize how dumb you are.

My uncle (who was very successful) once told me that I could be the best engineer, but if I couldn't communicate effectively, I wouldn't be a good engineer. I take that to heart, every time I feel I'm not being understood (or when I don't understand others).

High School: I did okay - nothing special and I take full responsibility. I didn't want to do homework, so I didn't (let me correct that, I never took any books home and did whatever homework I was going to do in school).

College: I attended the Illinois Institute of Technology and graduated with a BS/EE, with an emphasis on Power and Communication Electronics. I went full time for four years and did pretty well. After slacking off in high school, I figured it was my last chance to prove myself. It took a lot of work and sacrifices, but it was worth it.

Grad School: I attended the University of LaVerne and graduated with a MBA with an emphasis on Business Ethics and Finance. Grad school wasn't very difficult. The toughest thing was juggling a full time job with a lot of travel, a small business, a new house, a relationship and a child. I also had to take some pre-requisite business classes, which I did at the local Jr. College. Those classes were very easy, but finding time to make it to class was a struggle (attendance was part of the grade).

Years and years of seminars, workshops and certificate programs. These are the courses that took the theoretical knowledge and put it to use.

College gave me a few things: The confidence to know that I have the tenacity to complete a degree, knowledge about how to do things the right way and understanding how to learn and solve problems.

Grad School gave me confidence that I could be successful in a number of things at once and it taught me how to manage my life - put first things first.

Achmed Institute of Technology in messachusyets.

What you wrote is exactly what I was thinking. I like how you describe the downfalls to not getting a formal education.

I know a very intelligent man, a self starter and a great entrepreneur, however he did not receive a formal education.

He was the CEO of the last company I worked for and he had to market our company to CEO's in the banking industry. At the time, many deals were made and lost on the golf course. You can be assured that the Monday talk at the country club was about the USC or UCLA game and about each one's alma mater. CEO's in the banking industry almost always have MBA's, so each person could have two schools to brag about. You can imagine how well things went when our CEO was asked about where he went to school and he had to stumble through "no, I didn't go to college, but ..."

He is a very likable man, but you know that there were many deals lost, because he wasn't part of the "boy's club".

Here's a question about how you (or your company) hires young engineers.

If you're hiring a 21-22 year old for a engineering job, what do you look for? I'm pretty sure you would require an engineering degree, but what about former military or people without a degree, but hands on experience?

Also, do you consider things like alma mater, GPA, volunteer work, etc?

Even though I've hired many personal assistants and salesmen, I have never hired anyone for an engineering position, so I can only guess what's important.

Read a few of the answers, seems like the common thread is "What really counts is talent or aptitute, and hard work has to be part of it." I think my usual answer seems to fit.

I learned to think like an engineer growing up on the farm due to the need to be self sufficient and innovative in fixing and adapting equipment. In engineering classes I learned the science and math that supports that thinking.

On a farm, having a little mcgyver in you helps..... The term Mcgyver I wonder when one will see that in websters dictionary

The cool people who are very often the hierarchical superiors of those whose efforts fetch up in unforgiving physical reality do not use or approve of the term mcgyver, so it is an unlikely candidate for induction into Websters.

Yes, I agree, The term Mcgyve is cool.

I've done some very brag-worthy stuff. Then I found CR4. Even more to my shame, half the people here could talk me under the table. Wahhhh.

I blow a great big raspberry to the formally educated, some of the best posts are by people who are just time-served.

BSc, MSc, Phd, and I'm not sure it counts but I have some Boy Scout badges. OK, I quit the Phd, but I did practice my origami whilst trying to earn a crust. Eeerm (we are going for bragging rights here ?), I got a tenner for winning a crossword once........

Most evenings I like to watch the quiz shows on Brit TV, and I'm pretty good. Obviously not in front of an audiance, it's a lot more preasure.

Latest accommpilshment (apart from spelling) nis taking on the nightmare that is my garden. Hardly impressive, but with inability to distinguiosh between a rose and a parsnip that's not bad.

I modestly sugest I win, but there wil be no shortage of competition.

I have some Boy Scout badges.

Me too. Wanna swap? Degree for Eagle scout ?

That sounds like a fair offer, but no deal. I've been turned down by various groups, and like Groucho Marx I'm fairly pleased about it.

I once clung onto a pair of trainers ('sneakers' in American lingo) that had got to that nice comfortable stage. Smelly, but comfortable. It took my wife a good couple of years to grab and burn them when I was out one day. Revenge was sweet - my 'accidental' putting salt instead of sugar in her tea has guaranteed that I never get asked again.

I'm going to go sit in the garden and see if I can miss the eclipse - you'll have a hard time topping me for bragging rights on that one !

The local major university called my boss, an alumnus of theirs, and asked if he had anyone who could come out and give a lecture on Electron Microscopy and how it is used in the Semiconductor industry. He sent me. The professor introduced me to her class as Dr Ward, and I proceeded with my lecture without correcting her. I thought it went well and we had a good Q&A session afterward. I didn't even have a Bachelor's at the time, but I figured it would be counterproductive to mention that fact.

That was a good thing you didn't mention it before hand.

That what they would get any preconceived notions.

I did actually get into the garden today, and I even cooked the evening meal. Betiwxit that I did some 'bringing home the bacon' things and spent several hours on the phone. Also managed to check over a young nieces homework.

Is there a prize here ? I know I''ll not get it, but that was much my day. A very fun topic to raise, I'm slightly envious that I'd not thought of it. A very inspired thought to ask in general what we all do during the day. It's one of the best questions I've seen on CR4.

You need to get your hormones checked. Multi-skilling is getting the better of you, and I'm afraid it can only get worse........examine your immediate environment for oestrogen sources, and isolate immediately!

Time for me to service the mechanism on my lazy-boy, ansd then refresh myself out of the refrigerator. You have a good day now, OK ?

There's nothing wrong in me getting a hold of my feminine side.

I've been know to call the front of a boat 'the pointy end', feel no shame in pushing the vac around the house, and have even sported a dress at times.

OK, the dress had some sort of tartan pattern, but several fairly big blokes were wearing the same and any sane bloke would have followed suit. The vac was slightly shameful, but I didn't turn it on- the thing was just a useful prop when I got home late one night. As per the Freak Brothers cartoon, I spent an hour wondering why the damn egg, that turned out to be half a peach, would not fry. 'Pointy bit of the boat' is harder to explain, mainly because all the women on that day out were killing themselves with laughter - I'd not even been taking the pee, it was just one of those moments when the correct word escaped me.

You keep beer in the fridge ? Trust me on just this one thing, chilled beer is an abomination. Don't try the 'it's lager' defense, that only makes things worse. More so because I have none right now and some prat on TV is describing how good the eclipse will be today. I'm sure it will be good, if there isn't 100% cloud cover. A week of clear sky, and today it goes all cloudy.

Experience is the best teacher. Not that Teachers & Professors have nothing to do. There are best teachers who can make you understand complicated things via simplified explanations. They are friends, parents, caring teachers, practical experts.

Not that every teacher could make their students successful, but who could inspire one to find out the answer by systematic approach.

Basic Sciences of all fields are there in books, literature, wikipedia & search engines. It is up to one to learn the best & apply successfully.

Our surroundings & problems are our best teachers & how best we put upon the thinking faculty of our brain matters much.

We inherit this knowledge via our ancestors who are the pioneers of knowledge carry over.

Education makes people refined, scientific & powerful.

We need to have the best blend of knowledge, purpose, the right means,sound understanding, communication skills,perseverance followed by positive thinking. Good education & environment favors the above.

Body cells may perish but the spirit of wisdom & knowledge keeps growing till death & gets transformed into the subtle form beyond.

I am a graduate of the school Alabama Wolford School; at one time they gave me simply amazing knowledge and changed my worldview. You can also say that https://graduateway.com/tag/psychology/ also put a lot of effort into my writing skills that I use in my journalistic work. School gives us a lot in life, right?

It sure does!

I believe that college should challenge us. There are many aspects of "challenging" us. Learn to think, research, use logic, take tests (yes, it's a skill), lab work, communicating and learning social skills (peers, professors, girls, etc.), being on time, challenging the status quo, etc, etc, etc.

The one thing I have noticed is that you can almost always tell someone who has a formal education vs one that hasn't. Not that there's anything wrong with being self taught - my goodness, that's impressive. It's the way they approach problems and their method of thinking.

One final observation I've made is that all of the great entrepreneurs I've known DO NOT have a formal education. My conclusion is that the goal of a formal education is to learn how to think like our professors - "in the box" thinking. Right vs Wrong. When I left college, I excelled in "in the box" thinking. Sure, I still did plenty of stupid things and I challenged many of the wrong people, but when it came to my profession, I was "in the box". I like to think that I've been able to shed that limitation, but I have to realize that I've been molded and I'm too late in life to break it. I'm okay with it, so college was good to me.

I once responded to this thread with the simple claim of having graduated from the University of Washington in 1970. However, the OP invited "a lot of" bragging.

Now that some interest has been revived, here is some of my "brag wall."

University graduation with College Honors (I've forgotten the criteria)
Graduation Magna cum laude.
Phi Beta Kappa (liberal arts honorary)
Mi Mu Epsilon (mathematics honorary)
Phi Eta Sigma (education honorary)

Win/place/show in four junior/ high school spelling bees
Two Scrabble tournament first places

One 2nd-place pool trophy (8-ball)

Ordinarily one might hesitate to mention such things, but I do so now because of having been called a nitwit by someone on CR4 who actually is one.

"Which School Did you Graduate From?"

From one that would frown were I to end a sentence with a preposition. To borrow words from someone who used words so well; 'It is the type of nonsense up with which I will not put'.

Winston Churchill, I believe.

"Getting Windows ready, don't turn off your computer"

Bill Gates!

If there is anyone who has access to some old "Scientific American" magazines one of the best pictures they ever published was included in an article on the mining of mercury in Spain. The picture is of a Spanish mercury miner laying on a large pan filled with mercury (pan large enough for a full grown person to fit in). It appears that he is laying on top of the mercury which he actually is. Since the density of Hg is 13.2 gm/ml and the approx. density of people is near that of water, 1 gm/ml, only 1/13.2 of his body will sink into the Hg.

If someone would research this picture I and probably others would appreciate it. I think it was published during the 60's or 70's.

Mercury is often used in the mining of several metals. The mercury is combined with them and the resultant amalgam heated to a hot temperature. The Hg vaporizes and is recovered for future use. The metal is then left in the heating container called a retort. Years ago, when amalgam fillings were the only type available, some dentists would remove the old fillings that were being replaced and save them. When they got enough of them they would heat the amalgam in a retort (functionally like a condenser). The mercury would vaporize and rise to the top of the retort and then travel down the side pipe where it would condense and collect in a glass container. They then either used the Hg in future amalgam fillings or would sell it to interested buyers.

Retort

There once was a dentist who started manufacturing dental amalgam components for sale to distributors and dentists. I was involved with the purchase of the corp and the relocation of the manufacturing site. When he was still practicing dentistry he would "recover" Hg in this manner. When he went into manufacturing he would have dentists save the old amalgam, buy it from them, extract the Hg in a retort and use it in the mixing capsules that were shaken in the mixer shaker. This was a significant money maker for him.

Shipment of bulk Hg is usually in 1 metric ton steel containers. They are round and stand about knee high with a total volume capacity of about 23-25 gallons. They are seldom moved by anything other than a fork lift.

Someone try to find the picture, please!

Good Luck, Old Salt

I remember that article and photo. I think I was in High school when I read it, which would put it in the late '50s, but I wouldn't put any money on that dating. I tried searching SA's archives; that search returned several thousand possibilities. I only looked at the first 30 or 40 titles, but didn't find the article.

Thank you very much for your efforts on my behalf and all the rest of the participants.

As you have demonstrated, some of the best subjects available during the tenure of learning in life are the positive psychological results you can obtain from the laboratory studies of "Random Acts of Kindness" and "Inertia". Knowledge of this subject is obtained in the lab and not the lecture hall.

Good Luck, Old Salt

I've attended many schools, institutes and training facilities but the two places where I have been most educated are life and CR4.

I think you have the order reversed. CR4 and a distant second, life.

Although my major was in "LIFE" from a very informative "World University", my PhD degree has been from the most impressionable educational institution, "The College of Hard Knocks". You can't help but learn from it!

Old Salt

You don't know my crazy life before CR4. Believe me sir I learned a lot!

I stand corrected!

These days I find that I sit corrected more often than I stand.

I did my graduation from university of Wollongong in Dubai one of the Top Universities in Dubai, UAE

Thanks for sharing!