Pages

Praetorium Honoris

Saturday, August 21, 2021

Rings

So, earlier this week, juvat shared with us some historical stuff that his DIL had ("Hidden Treasure" at Chant du Départ: Hidden Treasure (oldafsarge.blogspot.com) and in the comments section I talked about a peculiar ring that my wife, Mrs. Andrew, has from her family, her good side of the family.

(This would be several pictures of THE RING, but Mrs. Andrew is busy futzing with it and not sending me any photos because she's trying to clean them up and isn't taking "It's okay, it's for a bunch of people who don't see well anyways" as an excuse so, well, I'll post the pics as soon as she sends them to me.  No, she's not persnickity at all...)

That is a ring, made from a stainless nut, supposedly, from the supply that was used on Little Boy, the first war dropped atomic bomb, the one that was an enriched uranium gun bomb (basically a gun fires one chunk into the other chunk of uranium and makes the boom.)  Or it was from the machines that separated all the uranium.  From Plant Y-12, in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.  

Y-12, you know, being the electromagnetic isotope separation plant that made enriched uranium.  It was part of the Clinton Engineer Works, built as part of the Manhattan Project.  What? You didn't know what Y-12 was?  I blame the socialist teachers for that.  No, seriously, once the secrecy veil was lifted, our accomplishments should have been lauded and held in high esteem by our educators for at least a couple hundred years.  


By Department of Energy Oak Ridge - http://www.oakridge.doe.gov/em/ssab/, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1931232

Seems Mrs. Andrew's mother's father was a machinist during WWII, at Plant Y12, in Oak Ridge, during the whole Manhattan Project. And, being proud of his work, once it was known what the work was, he made said ring out of said nut using the machinist tools he had access to.  Putting his last name, the year, the plant onto the ring.

Really friggin neat, I think.  So does Mrs. Andrew, who wears it proudly.  Problem is, well, all her mother's side of the family has either passed or are not good family, so what to do with said ring when, eventually, Mrs. Andrew passes.

My suggestion has been, for the last few years, to contact whatever museum or historical unit that is in Oak Ridge, TN, that deals with said neato stuff dealing with the Manhattan Project.  Or the museum at Los Alamos (if there is one) or some other museum (juvat suggested the National Museum of the Pacific War in lovely Friedricksberg, TX.)

So, well, she wants me to hang photos, I want her to contact museums, I still haven't finished fixing the sink.  Yes, we have issues with procrastination and 'getting to it.' 

Then there's the other ring, besides her wedding ring, that Mrs. Andrew wears.  My dad's wedding ring (I have huge fat knuckles) that comes from his mother's side of the family that was her great-grandfather's ring.  Old gold, more rose than bright yellow, just a plain thick ring. That came to me after my dad passed.  5 generations, and we have no kids.  So what to do?  

Fortunately, my Godson, who is also my #1 nephew, from oldest brother, is getting married, finally, to his fortunate maid, come March 2022. So ring will go to him for his wedding.  It's not a present from Mrs. Andrew and I, since it's more of a trust being passed down from one generation to another. 

What's kind of weird, but isn't for my family on either side (mom or dad) is that we've always had this hand-me-down attitude of generational stuff.  My eldest brother's house is chock full of post Civil War/Gilded Age furniture, including a huge corner china cabinet that was at one time a built-in (possibly pre-CivWar) that was made into a stand-alone.  End tables in the living room?  Gilded age with marble tops.  A sideboard and a huge expandable table (and chairs) that can fit 12 easy, and if one can stretch out the whole thing, will extend to 20' but eldest brother would have to have new leaves made for the spaces, else things would fall down.

We've lived with it, used it, taken care of it. We have a Singer sewing machine, one of the treadle models, that we've used before (punches through thick cloth or thin leather better than modern electric machines.)

My favorite pots are the ones my mother got, stainless steel, as a premium for buying a Kirby upright vacuum cleaner in the 50's.  Thick stainless, strong, holds heat well, cleans well.  Sure, some of it is damaged (the non-stainless handle attachment points rusting out so the handle falls off, one of these days I'll take it to someone who welds stainless and get them to weld a stainless nut or something) but the pots are still very useful and work with my nice induction cook plate (if you don't have an induction stove top or cook plate, well, it's like cooking with gas, that much of a quick response, without, you know, using gas. The apartment-provided stove can't get hot enough to heat a wok to good stir-fry temp but the induction cook plate, well, if I'm not careful, I can burn off the seasoning from my wok, but at that temperature it almost makes new seasoning by itself.)

I see people, daily, shedding their ancestral stuff and going with modern garbage.  Which I understand.  It's nice to minimize junk in the house, and junk in one's life.  But, well, how much is too far?

Ancestral stuff.  It's what allows us to keep in touch with our ancestors. I feel sorry for people that don't have ancestral stuff.

29 comments:

  1. All the things we neither need nor want passed down through the generations from before Woolworths and Sears and Levin and, well I could go on. By the time you inherit the stock pot of your great grandmother's mother, you don't know what it's for, it doesn't fit in the kitchen and the awful, horrible, hideously uncomfortable furniture that belonged in some sort of Roman arena the better to torture the slaves, well, nobody really wants that stuff. NOBODY. It's a little hard for the last generation born before the War to wrap around their heads the idea that the baby-boomers bought their own furniture long ago, like it or replaced it and while a ring may fit into their lives, the dreadful commode or couch, not so much. I have all of the Civil War letters of my cousin and the books my father could not let go of to a rubbish tip or the furnace. I had my great uncle's ring from two centuries ago now and I gave it to the one I love. We live too long to shower our progeny or theirs even with our stuff. Yeah, maybe living 30 years in and around SOCAL ruined me for antique furniture and crystal palace living rooms in which no child dares to tread. That's all gone here and now. OTOH, I can glance across the room and see the shelves loaded down with the books I used as frigates to other worlds and times since I brought them home a few years ago as the family manor was reduced and sold. I don't delve into them so much as I thought I would, cursed intertubes being what they are.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's one thing if it's stuff you use. Which is the stuff that I mean. Gilded age end tables being used as end tables. That sideboard being used as a sideboard. The nice family china in the china cabinet that gets used for holiday dinners and stuff.

      We'd have snobby people come to the house and freak out that we're, you know, actually using it.

      Useless anchors? Time to ditch them.

      Like, well, someone complaining about the accumulated tools, when their jewelry and makeup system is far more extensive and gets used less. Fortunately not Mrs. Andrew. But we fill our lives with stuff, lots of stuff, lots of new stuff and ancestral stuff that has no real meaning. Used to be, a person had one chest worth of clothes, max, unless they were really hoity-toity. Now? I know people who've bought houses just so they could convert an extra bedroom into a closet for their clothes.

      As to books, well, darned computer is easier to read and use than my collection of books. So much easier, can scale the image, change fonts and all the other fun things that computers do.

      Delete
  2. I struggle with that still. I have a sentimentality for things I remember. My house is too small to be a museum of what I remember, but I do have some items from my youth. My cousin's gold star pin, my dad's tie tack and cuff links, some books, a few pictures, some art from my grandma and aunts. They are familiar and pleasing, as I've seen them since I was a pup. I have a Marine uniform circa 1968, and all his letters home. Even some brass I policed up after the salute. The memories are what I have mostly now. And that day in June 1968 is burned in my mind as if it happened yesterday. It is a treasured memory. Most of the faces I see there are long gone...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Nothing wrong with, well, a family shrine. I've got my dad's Apollo lander tie pin. And other stuff. Keeps him close to me. And I'll pass that to #1 Nephew probably before his wedding, too.

      The Japanese have a small place in their houses and some apartments for things like that. Keep the items, keeps the spirits close in a good way. The Jews believe a person is 'around' as long as his/her name/person is remembered.

      Nothing wrong with either concept.

      Admittedly, one can go overboard, like keeping a room full of a dead child's stuff, and adding a present every year. I know one person who does that. Won't move because of the child. One can take the memories to other locations.

      Ah, well, to each their own.

      Delete
  3. When I use my father's precision measuring tools I can feel a direct connection between his hands and mine. Sometimes that causes the pollen effect, but mostly it causes a happy sort of glow.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Being able to touch the past in a good way is, well, good. A friend has one of those carpenter's chests passed down from his great-grandfather, and he uses it. Teaches his son and daughter the ways of hand tools. They've built amazing things. And he's got his father's power tools, same thing. And his cordless tools, same same.

      One can treat a broken or useless tool for its memories and its value, like a plane with too much wear in the body or such. That, along with the provenance, makes it a generational memory. Now, the 24 others that still work? Use them. And if said broken plane is a useful one, find or make a replacement.

      Things are meant to be used. They have... well, in some societies, the tools have spirits. It's why we talk to them, handle them, look at them. Kind of like, well, pet fish but useful. They need to be used, else they get shabby and stop working.

      Delete
    2. Very well said, and now there's more pollen.

      Delete
    3. Thank you. Yep, there are days I tear up over memories. Which is a good thing.

      Delete
  4. Be aware if offering that ring to a Fed lab that they might question the righteousness of it existing in the first place, since it is quite possible that nut was "procured" without official permission...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'll just say I'm a non-binary transmutation something something and they'll let 5 terrorists go instead of arresting me.

      Yes, procured without permission, machined without permission. At least it's not a laptop or hard drive full of secrets and stuff.

      Actual value, probably zero even to the Feds. Curiosity value? That's what makes it interesting.

      Delete
    2. I once had someone offer me an Oak Ridge "souvenir" that was made out of kinda "glow in the dark" stuff. Told a buddy, who told his buddy, and the nice guys in suits paid a visit and he "donated" it back to the govt.
      But, for s simple nut, it would be nutty for them to have any official interest, so I think you are safe. In any case, I won't tell my buddy.
      JB

      Delete
    3. Yikes. Glowing things are a 'no bueno.' So, yeah, good call on that.

      But nuts? BigGov ain't gonna bust my door down over that. Especially since grandfather wasn't the only one to do it.

      And, apparently, the home electric tool thingy got a big push from women factory workers smuggling powertools home for use at home during WWII. Weird, but makes sense.

      Delete
  5. I really hope you find a good place for your family treasures!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. So do I. And I need to shed some stuff. Now that #1 Nephew is growing up, finally, I'll be sending stuff his way.

      Need to find someone to gift or sell the armor and stuff to. Now that's a bunch of useless stuff, no room to display it, no real need for it, never have been one for a 'Love Me' wall or such. Memories are in my head. Though if I could actually get photos of me in armor fighting that actually show me, well, that would be neat. Current photos I can identify my shoe... or the back of my helmet, kind of a medievalish "Where's Beans?" game.

      Delete
  6. Nice post Beans.

    While I don't have many heirlooms hanging about, The Missus Herself won't tolerate a non-useful item in the house, there are a couple.

    My "treasures" are all in my mind, memories. Passing them along is nearly useless, someone else's memory won't stick. Besides which, each generation makes their own memories.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You can't force your memories on other people. Useful stuff, on the other hand, is different. If a 100 or 200 year old or older table or chair or dresser still works, and the person wants it, that's different.

      But cluttering up one's life with useless oddities and things? Yeah, get rid of it. If it's trash, it's trash. If it's historical and has provenance with it, see about selling or gifting to someone who would appreciate it.

      As I said above, a little ancestor worship isn't bad, like your uncle's helmet. Taking it to extreme? Not sitting on something because it's old? That's... weird.

      Glad you survived the return voyage. Can't wait to hear about it.

      Delete
  7. Beans, we are starting to work our way through this now with my parents and their house, as it is readily apparent that they will never going back. My father had a penchant for antiques and my mother's family tended to give their family memorabilia to them as they were the ones that were interested. So beyond just the normal things of living that a couple collects after 20 years in a location (after they did a purge from their previous 40 year house), we have a house of antiques, some that have memories and some that have no more memories than they were at my father's house.

    A few pieces will get taken of course as they are memorable, but much of it has no more value as effectively I am last one of my generation that will know what it is and where it is from or care about any of that.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yup. That is an issue with the younger generation. And it's pretty worldwide. One of the youtube channels I've been watching is an Australian married to a nice Japanese lady and they bought a ghost house (abandoned house) in the country and are renovating it. Seems that the younger people are just abandoning their parents' and grandparents' houses, both the property and all the stuff in it. Sad to see all that useful stuff, from clothes to appliances and cars and housewares, just get thrown away.

      It hurts to see it, but what are you going to do? The kids don't care, they'd rather have expensive crap from IKEA or WalMart that falls apart at the least little humidity, because it's new therefore better than a chair that's survived being carried across the country and back, and, by the way, is a whole lot more comfortable.

      Delete
  8. Memories of family are very special, and occasionally memories from work are as well. The former would be when I first saw the woman who would later be by wife, holding my two sons immediately after their birth, and many others. The latter would include a trip that was arranged for a group of us to tour the Y-12 plant and the remaining operational calutron facility that by that time was purifying isotopes of many different elements for research purposes. (pardon me for geeking out for a moment) The calutrons were huge mass spectrometers that used a high magnetic field to separate the elemental isotopes - while there were at that time some room sized magnetic sector mass specs used for chemical analysis, the caultrons were three stories tall. Their scale was really impressive - their 30 kV ion source power tube was about 3 feet tall, and the high vacuum pumps were about 6 or 7 feet tall, about 3 or 4 feet in diameter and originally filled with mercury.
    The magnets themselves were 2 stories tall, and the most interesting tidbit was that since copper was so unavailable due to its other uses for the war effort, General Groves, who had a carte blanche from FDR to get whatever he needed, sent a bunch of trucks to Ft. Knox and withdrew the entire silver reserve of the US, then had it made into wire which was wrapped around the iron cores of the magnets. After the war, the wire was stripped off and returned to Ft. Knox. The remaining calutrons were re-wrapped using copper wires.
    Many of the pure isotopes they produced for medical research were hugely expensive ($30,000 for a milligram) and were often just 'rented' - the researchers had to collect the bodily waste of the test subjects and separate the isotopes back out and return them to Oak Ridge. Anyway, being in the facility which created the U235 used in some of the first A-Bomb experiments was pretty cool and damned humbling as well.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. (Don McCollor)...I recall a story about the silver for the magnets. The Project representative met with a Treasury official, showing him the Triple A priority. The official agreed and asked how much the Project would need. The reply was that they could start with about 2000 tons. The Treasury official icily informed him that "We measure silver in troy ounces"...

      Delete
    2. When they said ALL of the silver, they meant it. And losses when returned were minimal. Amazing story.

      Delete
  9. Book recommendation:
    "The Girls of Atomic City: The Untold Story of the Women Who Helped Win World War II" by Denise Kiernan. Extremely interesting to see the effort from those doing the actual work, but not knowing even vaguely what they were working. Recruitment, living condition, transformation from rural agriculture to high tech high security overnight, social activities, details of the (boring and repetitive) work they were doing, security, etc. I listened to the audio version and my wife and I both enjoyed it. Every bit as important to the war effort as Rosie the Riveters, but no one appreciated their work at the time.
    Of course there were men working there too, and their role is mentioned as well, but not the focus.
    John Blackshoe

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The Girls ran the equipment. Kept it all working within tolerances. And did so much.

      The guys? Machinists and muscles. Mrs. Andrew has grandfathers that were both machinists, one in Y-12 and one in K-25. One grandmother who was a machine worker.

      Oak Ridge was basically a self-contained town. Very hush-hush. Really neat. And the community swimming pool is the 3rd largest in the nation, and spring fed. Brrr.....

      Delete
  10. Replies
    1. Thanks. Wife is still futzing with the photos. Women. Sheesh.. (Thonk - the sound of an elbow 'accidentally impacting the Beans' melon-head, and the sound is 'ripe'!)(No, Mrs. Andrew does not physically abuse Beans, she's far too classy for that. But she can and does employ Guilt as a weapon.)

      Delete
  11. Thanks, all. Oak Ridge is a wonder, that should be heralded as to what can be done when the need arises. Silver from the treasury, with very little lost. Secrets kept for years, some stuff still unknown. And the Girls of Atomic City outproduced the scientists when using the equipment. Very interesting story. Seems the Girls kept the machines running when the machines were working within tolerances. The scientists kept shutting down the line to figure out why variances within the specifications were occurring.

    Sorry wasn't able to answer everyone's comments, but got busy making pizza and then trying to figure out why the dog's farts were gassing us out of the apartment (no, really, really bad dog farts, like reeeaaaaalllllyyyy bad dog farts.)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. And I decided I wanted to comment to everyone's comments anyways. Just ignore me. I don't know what I'm doing half the time.

      Delete
  12. https://amse.org/ is the American Museum of Science and Energy here in Oak Ridge. The ring might find a happy home there.

    ReplyDelete

Just be polite... that's all I ask. (For Buck)
Can't be nice, go somewhere else...

NOTE: Comments on posts over 5 days old go into moderation, automatically.