[time-nuts] Vintage Quartz Crystal Manufacturing

Richard (Rick) Karlquist richard at karlquist.com
Sun Sep 25 23:28:04 EDT 2016



On 9/25/2016 6:53 AM, Bob Camp wrote:
> Hi

> If you dropped in to a crystal manufacturing plant at any point over the next 30 years after that film
> was made, the styles of dress had changed. The crystal holders had changed. Most of the processes
> were still the same and some of the gear was still the same ….
>
> Bob
>

Certainly, this applied to HP.  Much of the equipment went back to
the 1959-1963 era, even as the line was closed down circa 2000.
Some equipment even used vacuum tubes.  Similarly, the cesium
beam tube burn in-fixtures were labeled "Varian" and went back
to 1960.  AFAIK, these were in use up to ~2005 when Agilent
sold (or maybe gave away) the business.  Can you say "cash cow"?
Supposedly one of the reasons for Agilent exiting the business
was that the equipment was so long in the tooth that they would
have to finally replace it, at an unacceptable capex cost.
Also, whenever you do this, you stand a good chance of losing
the recipe.

Rick


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