> On May 24, 2019, at 12:35 PM, Mark Matlock via cctalk <[email protected]>
> wrote:
>
> The discussion on raised floors in data centers reminded me of an
> interesting past experience. My company had installed its first supervisory
> process control system in an enzyme plant. ...
>
> The only bad thing about the location of the data center was that it was
> directly under some tanks that were installed on the roof. One tank was for
> concentrated sulfuric acid which was used to adjust pH in the fermenters....
>
> After all this, miraculously everything seemed ok, but about once every 6
> weeks or so that PDP-11/44 would develop some issue and the DEC field service
> guy (it was under contract) would come out and swap a board or two, marveling
> at how he had never seen boards that were so corroded.
No kidding...
I've seen microphotographs of corroded circuit boards showing the impact of
nasty environments. Sulphur dioxide fumes are notorious. The examples we were
given supposedly came from one of two kinds of shops: rubber tire factories, or
car design studios.
The latter was a surprise. It turns out traditional (and still used) car body
design is done by making full scale models from clay, and the particular clay
used for this has a very high sulphur content.
paul
