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Factory/Plant Tours - Where Would You Go?
kingelvis asks: "I have been thinking of putting together a road trip with a theme - Traveling to factories, manufacturing plants, etc all over the country and taking their (free) tours. I've already thought of a few places; Boeing, Auto factories in Detriot, Ben & Jerry's, Jack Daniel's distillery, and so forth. I'm interested in everything from 747s to bottled water, so please respond with any public tour you can think of. Where are some cool places you'd recommend visiting to see how stuff gets made? "
I've got a standing offer for a tour of the Jelly Belly factory here in the SF bay area from a friend of mine. I should really take her up on it one of these days (and yes, JB does offer free - IIRC - public tours).
Unless, of course, scissors can't cut rock...
You can stop by my house. I live up in the hood in Chapel Hill, NC. It's a must see.
then find out what is in the city. other than that, pick your own category of stuff to check out thru-out the country. btw, the baseball park thing has already been done
I'm good with numbers -
...several of the cool places I visited as a kid are now closed to tours: Kellogg's cereals, various Detroit factories, etc. I remember when Kellogg's closed (in Battle Creek, Michigan), they said it was to prevent corporate espionage. The car factory in my home town (Grand Rapids, Michigan) closed to tours due to liability concerns. But I wish you will in your hunt ;)
Advice: on VPS providers
I've thought about going to makers of cards to see how things get made in that department. Anyone know if Creative, ATI, ASUS, ect. give tours?
Slow night, eh?
Try Dublin, TX. Check out Dr. Pepper's bottling plant there.
If you're passing by St. Louis, don't miss the free Anheuser-Busch brewery tour. St. Louis is the headquarters and has the oldest, largest brewery, but they have breweries that give tours around the country. For more info check out their website. Best part of going on the tour - free beer at the end.
Powerplants always have pretty interesting tours. Try and visit a couple of different types.. coal, nuclear, hydro, etc.
All Corvettes are made at the GM plant in Bowling Green, Kentucky. The plant tour is free and very cool. And the Corvette Museum is right next door. Be aware that the tour schedule can change with holidays and special events so you might want to call ahead. I have never (yet) done it, but I have heard that one option on buying a new Corvette is to take delivery at the plant or maybe the museum, I forget the details.
I recommend that you take a tour of the RIAA headquarters. You'll be able to see the process by which they manufacture their special, trademarked products known as "bands" and "musicians!" The RIAA's assembly line is something no factory tour would be complete without.
Motorola has/had a good tour in Schaumburg, IL. They even had a little museum that showed some of their history and some descriptions of their technology.
Also, most chemical companies have tours. In part, it's PR for the locals.
This seems like the way that shows like Insomniac get started.
Perhaps you should watch that show a few times and see where he goes. Nothing like a good tour of a brothel to add to your church group tour plan.
Wheeeee
Many dams offer tours of their inner workings, and it can be an interesting experience to walk around in the guts of such a huge structure. I know they don't really qualify as factories or plants (unless you consider them hydroelectric power plants), but they're certainly marvels of engineering and construction.
If you pass through Arkansas, consider touring the Greer's Ferry Dam. The tour was so nice, I took it twice in consecutive years. You'll never look at the outside of a dam the same again once you've been down inside!
Postal Sorting Facility!
They're the Post Office's Post Offices, huge super-hubs of mail and machines where mail comes in by the truckload and is divvied up for distribution to area Post Offices. Most large cities have at least one, and it's amazing to see inside. You'll never curse the mail carrier for being late again once you see the sheer volume of parcels being handled inside one of these facilities - it's a wonder the mail works at all, when there's so much of it. Imagine a huge warehouse with conveyor belts 5 or 6 levels deep, shooting mail every which way as it passes through OCR equipment, counting and sorting machines, etc.
I don't know whether or not they still offer public tours (does anyone know if these stopped after the anthrax scare?) but you could always call and ask!
My tour would be to see all of the publically displayed SR-71s.
All of the Ben & Jerry's factories are in Vermont. Personally, I've been on the tour at the factory in Springfield several times so I'll discuss that. You start out with a little multimedia presentation and then walk through some elevated paths above the work floor. After that you go and get free samples of whatever two flavors of ice cream that where produced the previous day.
Its a little more than my brief description, but it has always been fun. It'd probably be better to go during the summer so you can lounge around and enjoy a cone on the deck outside the factory.
Overall, its a nice cheap way to waste an afternoon if you're in the area. Although they're not factories, you'd probably want to visit some local agrarian type places like a farm, fruit orchard or (maple) sugar house.
More info can be found here.
The BMW factory in Greer, SC does tours although I am not sure if they are totally free. This is where they make all the Z4's at X5's. Fuji Film gives tours in their Greenwood, SC plant where they make all those disposable cameras.
j.goforth
I'd rather just watch a video of how stuff is made in factories. Fuck all the travel.
You might try visiting the Coors Brewery in Golden, CO. You'll get to see the world's largest single-site brewery as well as the nation's largest aluminum can manufacturing plant. Naturally, they give several free samples at the end of the tour. For those of you who scoff at Coors, they also produce Killian's Ale (originally an Irish recipe, but produced in the U.S.) and Keystone ('the never bitter,' cheapest possible beer) if one of those floats your boat.
Be warned, students of the nearby college frequently take 'the short tour', which skips the bottles and chemicals, going straight to the beer. At a college that's around 75% guys, this could be a hazardous experience for females.
You like splinters in your crotch? -Jon Caldara
Don't miss the U.S. Bureau of Engraving & Printing tour (watch them print U.S. currency). Sorry, no free samples. For some reason they built the U.S. Holocaust Museum right next door.
Louisville slugger plant if you are a baseball fan, Corvette plant if you like cars, and the distillery's if you are an alcoholic. If you wait till spring you can catch the horse farms/Keeneland around Lexington.
09f911029d74e35bd84156c5635688c0
I went to SanFran this summer, and I said...hey, why don't I drop in on Intel in Silicon Valley.
I took the train down, and dropped in...
They had some dinky ass little museum about how chips are made. And a single 20 inch tv screen showing 1 hallway in the actual production plant....
It was the lamest thing ever.
I had more fun pedal biking around the valley (and up the mountains) than at this excuse for a factory.
Maybe the only tourist attraction is the apple campus. But Silicon Valley is just basically overpriced suburbs...., nothing exotic.
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tour the Brewery there. It was great, however some rooms smelled like the "morning after a party" smell.
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Don't miss Kennekott. It's the largest open pit copper mine in North America. You get to see where all those nasty heavy metals in your PC come from plus some HUGE trucks and explosions and smelters, etc.
I wouldn't bother. I know someone who's seen a plant. There's basically a faucet, and water bottles go underneath it, and they get filled up.
The guy was in advertising though, and he described his involvement with the bottled water company as convincing idiots that paid $1 for a bottle of tap water that $2 was a fair price.
Tim
Omnia vestra castrorum habetur nobis.
I would highly recommend a book called "Watch It Made in the U.S.A.". I don't have the latest edition, but the previous edition has a lot of great detailed information (cost, freebies given, hours, nearby attractions, etc) for all kinds of tours.
Also, the Travel Channel's website has a list of the Best Factory Tours for Kids in the U.S. in case you want to act like a kid.
General Electric's Appliance Park
Louisville Slugger bat factory/museum
Ford truck assembly plant
National Corvette Museum/assembly plant (in nearby Bowling Green)
Howard Steamboat Museum/JeffBoat(U.S. largest inland shipbuilder)
Zimmerman Art Glass factory(Corydon, IN - 30min drive)
Falls City Ironworks
...and enough Kentucky bourbon distilleries to make a man giddy. Other than those, I can't think of any production facilities that encourage public tours. The McAlpine Locks & Dam (not sure if the power plant is open for tours) is a pretty interesting site, even if it isn't a factory.
See how electricity is made - specifically in pressurized water reactors. This exhibit covers pretty much every aspect of the power generation and transmission business - nice interactive displays and helpful guides and experts to answer questions! Also includes nature trails in some of the southeast's most fragile, preserved, ecosystems. Site below has 360 degree images of all displays and also has contact info and directions. Hutchinson Island, Florida http://www.fpl.com/learning/contents/energy_encoun ter_overview.shtml
I can think of two factories, but you might need to pull some strings to get into them. First...see a steel mill. They are loud, smelly and dirty but watching several hundred tons of melted metal being poured out of a huge ladle is something that just has to impress you. The other one is try to get into the General Motors Electomotive Division locomotive assembly facility in London, Ontario. Locomotives are something that we all see everyday, but usually from a distance. The process of building a train locomotive as absolutly astounding!!! The deisel engines on these things a HUGE! More than 400 cu in PER CYLINDER.....20 cylinders! Plus the final assembly involves lifting the entire finished locomotive using an overhead crane, and placing it on the tracks that lead out of the building.
Saint Brieux Saskatchewan Canada, has only 500 people and manufacturing facilities including:
metal forging of ag parts at my work and rotational plastic molding and at my neighbours employer "Bourgault is adding almost one acre of manufacturing area. This expansion will provide room for a Tanaka heavy plate laser that can cut up to 1¼" plate steel with unbelievable precision. The laser will be the first of it's kind in Canada. The expansion, along with new welding robots and other CNC equipment implemented earlier in 2002, will allow Bourgault to increase total manufacturing output." Other cool stuff within 60 miles
Doepkers
and Schulte Sales and more lakes and golf.
Camping and a lake in town with fishing and a 9 hole golf grass green course. Free Tours, camping fishing and golf. Bring your tent, and book your vacation well in advance because our centenial is next summer!
1.Hershey, Pennsylvania. Tour the Hershey chocolate factory to see how they make all that tasty chocolate. Hit the amusement park while your there to kill the rest of the day.
2. The best tour I've ever done in my life is the Disney World Backstage Tour. You pick the park you want to do the tour in because each park has their own tour. I have only done the main Disney park which after listening to the description of each tour sounded the coolest. You get into a group of about 10-15 people and walk around the park listening to the guide talk about the history of the park and about how the park is run. The guide speaks about Disney's philosophy and what it's like to be a Disney employee. But the best part of the tour is when you get to actually go backstage. You start off in the huge underground tunnels that connect the park (the park is built on a huge mound of dirt).You'll see wardrobe, storage, cast members,floats,etc. You also get on the rides in the park (you go to the front of the line on each time) and get the history of each ride. It really goes on and on. The tour is 12 and over (some age cutoff that is low) because you will see the characters with their heads off so if you have kids under 12 or so it will be a no go for you. Really a great tour. I plan on going on the other tours (MGM,EPCOT,Animal) the next time I go back there.
3. Also the SeaWorld backstage tour is great.
--hey man, I grew up in michigan and I went to the kelloggs plant too! Schooltrip-cereal=neat! We also went to some meat plant I forget the name of now, tried a buncha sausages out. Kids like museums and zoos, but they like to EAT too! heh heh heh When I was a teenager we used to sneak over to zug island in the detroit river at night. Kinda like a real life sci fi doom end of the world city of the future. I guess a working steel mill or a foundry would be a good addition to the guys industry tour. And a working mine if you can find one. I remember going by some mine, think it was lima ohio, had this WHOPPER piece of equipment there, a dragline maybe, just humongous.
The place where the Cape Cod chips are made.
Yes, it is a dinky little tour, but it does not take that much to make the chip, and it is amusing to see the frying kettles.
Oh and make sure to pick up a bag of dark Russet chips...that is what the real chip tastes like.
badness 10000
It's not a factory, but taking a tour of the fusion reactor at General Atomics in San Diego is something I can't recommend enough for anyone able to appreciate it.
Not exactly a factory, but I highly recommend touring EBR-I (Experimental Breeder Reactor I) if you are anywhere near the INEEL Facility in Idaho. This is the coolest facility I've toured *ever*. For those of you who don't know, this is the place where electricity was first generated by nuclear power.
Steel mill, coke oven, basic oxygen furnance, maybe a blast furnance still--something there puts up a 24/7 column of flame that you can see for miles.
They seem to have tours about once a year--appropriate attire (serious shoes, long pants, sleeves, hard hat, safety googles) is required and they don't allow cameras.
Any power plant. I'm not sure how much you'd see on a tour, but there's some neat tech in these. (My dad works at one so I've seen everything there is...) It's mostly 'low' tech, other than things like control systems. But the scale and the amount of power going through is neat.
NORAD in Colorado Springs, CO or Offutt AFB in Omaha, NE. Norad has some neato tech, and the 'building' is way cool. Offutt AFB has a bit more modern tech (I used to work there, maybe I'm biased), but is basicly the same thing. Both are very high security, so call in advance (at least a couple weeks, maybe a month) so they can do a background check. But it's worth it to see the coolest vax clusters on the planet. (You won't get to actually see them, just the output, but it's still cool. Again, maybe I'm biased, they were my babies for several years) The SAC museum is in Omaha too if you like bombers and stuff.
Any type of steel or metalurgical plant. Those places boggle my mind. (usually located near power plants for cheap electric, at least around my home town)
Chemical plants. Not sure what the security is like near these but it's neet to see how stuff is all heated and mixed together to produce whatever it is they're making. I've been to chevron, dow, and dupont plants (all near my home town also - they call the mid ohio valley, 'chemical valley' for a reason). I'm suprised I don't have an extra limb or something.
Maybe I'm a geek, but I'd like to see some microchips getting made and some surface mount boards getting assembled.
Anyplace that uses robotics is cool. My uncle gave me a tour of the biotech company he built the robots for. If you can get the tour guide or the geeky looking guy standing around at the factory to explain some of details of the tech, do it. I had no idea how far robots had come.
Think about something a little more old fashoned. A hand made wood working shop, a metal shop. Then work your way up to more modern things like windows, and lumber mills.
Get your Laverne and Shirley on at a brewery. Hit someplace that makes snack food or candy. From watching shows on food tv I've noticed they seem alot like chemical plants...
Hmm I'm hungry now. Have a good trip tho.
IBP has a tour in the Dakota City, NE beef plant. I believe that you may need to get permission to tour, but it is well worth it. You get to see every part of the animal dismembered, boxed, and shipped. And see what truely goes into "beef" hot dogs.
You may need an interpreter to speak with the staff, but be careful! The knives that they need to move in a single repetitive motion all day long in freezing temperatures are not toys!
It is a state of the art facility, but be sure to wear rubber boots, and plug your nose. It is also a bit noisy, and young children are not permitted.
(In Golden, Colorado)
I have been on this tour twice, and it was pretty good. Free beer at the end, of course, but the coolest part is probably watching the packing floor where they do all the canning and boxing.
Don't know if it has been said or not, but a tour of a printing plant (ie, large newspaper or magazine publisher) can be very interesting...
Reason is the Path to God - Anon
LLNL offers tours Tuesdays and Thursdays, including:There are some restrictions and rules about visiting, read the linked page for details.
Vista:XPSP2::ME:98SE
Forget bottled water. Drinking fountains are what it is all about. You should contact Halsey Taylor and see if they give tours.
This sig intentionally left justified.
Transmeta and meet Linus!
Travel to Michigan and meet Mr and Mrs CmdrTaco.
Every once and a while they take a bunch of people out to the facilities they built, then blew up at the Nevada nuclear testing sites. That's what I'd check out.
you may have more fun asking about the incidents described in these sites:
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http://www.mouseplanet.com/david/
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http://www.urbanle
http://www.disneypix.com/forum/index.php?s=16
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http://www.conservativenews.org/InDepth/arch
if you ever visit Delaware. Or the place where they make boxes.
I once had a tour of a linerboard mill as part of a teen career-options program (I wanted to be a ChemE at the time). Linerboard is the paper on the outside of cardboard. The place is noisy and smelly, but it was neat to see trees go in one end of the plant as chips and paper come out of the other end in rolls.
Is it weird in here, or is it just me?
I worked in Springfield Vt's manufacturing plant. It was neat at first, but then it became like any other job. I stood at a conveyer belt and put peace pops into boxes for 8 hours a day. Real thrilling. But the process was kind of interesting. There was a giant vat that the cream and other ingredients were mixed in, then onto a machine that turned them into a somewhat frozen state and ploped them onto a belt. Then sticks were placed in the ice cream, and it went through a long freezer to shock cool them. After spending 10 or so minutes in this freezer, they came out, and were picked up and dipped into molten chocolate. The chocolate dried quickly, and off into the wrapper they went. Then out of that machine and down to me, where i stuck them in boxes.
It was decent work for VT, and not too stressful. Plus they made us eat ice cream every day for quality assurance. Sounds nice, but try eating a peace pop every day for 3 months, you get absolutely sick of them very quickly.
I think there is a plant up in Waterburry VT where you can see ice cream being made, and it is kind of neat to watch for a few minutes.
They're just about the only worthwhile thing to see in West Virginia, but they're a treat. There are still people that sit down with a pole and a lump of glass and a furnace and stick the glass in the thing, and then work with a spinning, glowing, very hot mass of glass. Sparks, flames, glowing colors, and really nice looking finished work. They're realized how much people like watching them, and at one of the ones I've seen, they have an observation deck and a parking lot and a gift shop, simply because of all the people that come through.
May we never see th
For the college ACM chapter to which I belong (and am president), we have an annual habit of touring the Leinenkugle Brewery and Cray facility in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin. It's a few hour drive for us in northern Minnesota, but it's worth it and makes a great day out for a bunch of college nerds! :)
:)
We may not do it this year, problems with making the trip to Cray. Not sure if they give tours anymore, bring a bit down and out... but it's quite the tour!
Plus, you get the benefit of drinking decent beer. I saw someone else reccomend a tour of the Busch and Budweister plants- I say "plants" because they could hardly be called breweries! Leine's may not be as good as Moose Drool, but it sure as hell isn't the torture like most of the stuff AB makes...
If you're up in the Duluth area, there is also the Lake Superior Brewing brewery that deserves a tour- some really tasty beer! Hell, their Kayak Kölsch is pretty light, yet full of real flavor for those of you who may venture north but are used to drinking piss instead of the good stuff...
Working toward a usable PDA environment in the spirit of Newton OS: Dynapad
If you're into military aviation at all, the USAF museum in dayton is one of the most disgustingly cool places on the planet.
Not only do they have an SR-71, but they also have the XB-70(The mach 3 strategic bomber, one crashed) When I was there, the whole SR-71 was parked under one of the wings of the XB-70. Also there is the YF-12(or is it yf-11? I can never remember) Anyways it's the interceptor that became the SR-71.
Also there is a YF-22, X-15, A-10, just about every army air corps aircraft from ww2, and numerous rare ww2 fighters(Notably the me262 and me163). Not to mention the slew of weapons, engines, and so forth.
IIRC, it's has more aircraft on display than any other museum in the world.
http://www.wpafb.af.mil/museum/
Has a complete list of everything at the museum, and info on much that they don't have.
The Tillamook County Creamery Association's cheese factory gives free tours. You get to sample all manner of dairy products, too.
It's in Tillamook, Oregon on the Oregon Coast.
Give me my freedom, and I'll take care of my own security, thank you.
Been on this one many times on school trips. You actually get to see a lot of cool stuff.
Spoon not. Fork, or fork not. There is no spoon.
If you're anywhere near New Orleans, definitely visit the Tabasco factory in Avery Island (about 2 hours away). They've got a great tour and a really interesting history. Also it's a really nice drive, and the whole surrounding area smells like Tabasco sauce! (big plus for me.) It would also complement the Jack Daniels tour you're considering.
I'm getting hungry now.
Krispy Kreme
This is the department of homeland seurity. You are under arrest!
Sure you just want to "see how stuff gets made." So you can blow it all up, right?
Syntax error: loose != lose, affect != effect, then!=than
Middlebury, Indiana has a Jayco (RV builders) has a plant that you can take tours in. When I was there, they let you get pretty close and see campers in various states of construction. Many of the workers there are Amish, which can be jarring when you see a fellow with suspenders and a long beard riding to work in his horse-drawn buggy.
More info: http://www.jayco.com/html/about/about_visit.php
Factories are fun - and are everywhere. Some I have visited:
Pulp and paper plants: the chipper where they throw tree trunks into a hole and they are munched into little bits at a scary rate is the most impressive bit. Don't fall in. Look for a high degree of automation after that - try to see the contrl room.
Foam/polystryene: ridiculously simple process - combine chemicals and watch as foam expands to fit into whatever mold shape is present.
Extrusion molding: a cone of soft plastic slowly lowers, a mold is clamped over it, air injected and voila, a laundry detergent bottle. (loads of rejects with this but the plastic is endlessly recyclable)
Injection molding: test-tube of hard plastic are turned into 2 litre coke bottles with very high pressure. Impressivly automated, which means you often can't see much. Usually located next to a
Centrifugal molding: put plastic material in a large round mold, spin it fast for a while and apply heat. Open it up and there you have a (usually cylindrical) round trash can or similar.
Soda Factory: where soda is created from water, CO2 and proprietory syrup. Highly automated - and great pictures of all those bottles/cans whizzing around conveyer belts
Tin Can factories: 2 kinds: aluminium - cans are extruded from aluminium and printed on after that. (you try printing on a round, fragile can). Steel (think older beer cans and food tins): Steel is printed on and then rolled up and welded on a "soutronic welder". then the ends are put on. Impressive display.
Ice cream factories: and other food processing plants - usually a flow process with lots of tanks and pipes so you don't see a lot. B&J's was well set up so you could see the mixing of plain ice-cream, the adding of ingredients and the packing. Plus there were ice creams at the end.
Car factories: I have not seen one, but it would be fun to follow your car from chassis to completion, through paint-shop, production line and final quality checks. Just don't go on a Monday morning as you may get depressed. Be sure to ask questions about logistics (arrival of parts etc.) - this is one area the car industry is showing the way.
Computer factories/assemby plants: I have also not seen one, but these guys (i.e. Dell) have flexible manufacturing well sorted out - each computer can be different from the last.
I suggest going on any brewery tour you can find. I've been on four of them. All of them being fun and informitive. You will never forget the smell and you can't beat free beer. Here are some links to breweries.
Just an FYI to anyone considering a factory tour of the Oakdale, CA Hershey plant... They are no longer giving factory tours out here. I don't know about other Hershey plants, but this one stopped because of "security concerns after Sept. 11th." Very disappointing to my 3 yeard old to say the least!
As a student at LFM http://lfm.mit.edu, we did tours at the following places:
HP Medical (now Agilent) in New Hampshire - the cool part was watching a wave soldering station and a very fast pick-and-place surface mount maching
Polaroid in MA - there was an awesome plastic injection molding machine for those little drawers in the film packs, plus the processing of the springs was cool.
Eastman Gelatine in Peabody, MA - not for the weak of stomach - they make gelatin, kosher, from cattle bones. We went through the whole process, which includes some pretty cool chemical vats. Watching the stuff ooze out in the last step was pretty cool.
Kodak in Rochester - we saw the manufacture of single use cameras. Some pretty cool machines that place the film in the camera, but most of it is manual. We also saw them make the kiosks that go into Wal-Mart for scanning and printing as well as the digital camera assembly. At their museum, you can look down into where most of the motion pictures are stored today.
Detroit - I'm from here and have toured the following plants: Lansing Grand River (not operational yet), Hamtramck (Full-size Caddies and Buicks), Orion (Full-Size Buick). Ford Windsor Engine plant. All very cool, but since I'm automotive it's all old hat.
Ford Explorer - Kentucky - at the time it was the fastest (87 per hour) assembly plant in the US. They don't start the Explorers until the last step of the process, unlike GM that has them idling for the last (seems like) half hour of the assembly process.
Alcoa - near Evansville, IN. Another very cool tour. Didn't get to see too much of the process, but what we saw (where the oxide is removed and the final rolling as well as some quality testing) was cool. That plant has about the best union-management relationship I've seen.
Dell - Austin TX. Not too much to see there, although interesting for geeks. There are some interesting things, such as how they handle their suppliers and how they do testing (they balked when I told them how they could save time and money using Linux for burn-in). We saw an Optiplex plant and a Workstation/Server plant.
Garrett Turbocharger - LA. If you can, watch them finish the test on a turbo unit. They pump air through it until it explodes to make sure it isn't dangerous. They have a laser welder that is very cool to watch. Interesting to see their precision since the tolerances on turbos are so tight.
Intel in Phoenix, AZ - You won't be able to do this tour, but very cool to see them make chips and discuss various clean room rules (sneezing, throwing up, etc.) Also, testing machines and very interesting to watch security measures (pre 9/11, even)
Boeing. You, of course have to do this tour. We saw the 777 line, but also toured the test facility where they were finishing up testing on one of the ISS modules, and toured where they make the wing spar (one solid piece of aluminum that is milled down)
They have one in Kitimat, BC, owned by Alcan. The thing uses several hundred megawatts of electricity from the Kemano damn, built just for it in the 1950's. The strength of the magnetic fields inside the plant are astounding. On a previous tour, the people inside the bus managed to stack 37 paperclips end to end. Note that you can't visit if you have a pace-maker, and digital devices don't fare well (leave the digital cam at home). Visit http://www.sno.net/alcan/tours.htm for more info. Also, within walking distance is Methanex, an ammonia and methanol plant. Lots of pipes everywhere, but few moving parts to look at. Most things are run by Sun machines. June - August: Monday and Wednesday 10:00am (1.5 hours), reservations required, no children under 12, phone 250 639-9292. Close by is Eurocan Pulp & Paper. Your basic, small sized kraft paper mill. Neat if you haven't seen one before. Also, on the tour, we walked by a room that had radioactive hazard signs all over it, but we rushed by it, and when I asked the guide about it, she didn't know what i was talking about. I guess they had some cesium isotope for x-raying pipes or something. Phone 250 632-6111.
He who laughs last is stuck in a time dilation bubble.
Since you would be going to a building full of Postal workers, remember these three words:
Bullet Proof Vest
Take the Hershey Highway.
Starrett Instruments in Athol Ma has a tour - call first. If you want to see how precision measuring tools are made
-- 73 de KG2V For the Children - RKBA! "You are what you do when it counts" - the Masso
Now is the time to take a tour of JPL [http://www.jpl.nasa.gov] because the twin MER spacecraft/rovers [http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/mer] are viewable from the SAF (Spacecraft Assembly Facility) viewing gallery. I've noticed that they're running tours seven days a week too. Better make it soon because we're shipping S/N 001 to the cape in February. I think S/N 002 goes in March. Here's the link for tour information: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/pso/pt.cfm. Here's a link to a photo of MER S/N 002 next to the Sojourner flight spare. These would have been taken in early November. -Kevin
http://www.jackdaniels.co.uk/oldno7/facts.asp#numb er13
A few years back, I got to go on the only Fermilab particle accelerator tour in like 15 years. I just happened to call on the day they were offering the tour. Unbelievable. It was great. They had all kinds of tour busses and stuff to take you around to the different parts. That place is insane!
Heil Sig! -Rob
Powerplants always have pretty interesting tours. Try and visit a couple of different types.. coal, nuclear, hydro, etc.
Research reactors are good, too. Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL) used to offer tours of three nuclear reactors just 3 hours up the road from Ottawa, in Chalk River.
You were actually allowed to stand on the NRX nuclear reactor there, while it was running, and look down into the calandria to see the pretty blue glow. It was nice and warm up there, with a thrumming under your feet from all the pumps and support equipment running.
Of course, all tourists were outfitted with dosimeters and screened thoroughly before and after.
I worked there as a co-op student one summer, it was great fun. The NRX was my favorite, but I think it's decommissioned now.
Fire and Meat. Yummy.
Surprising that one of the largest plants in the state might just have some environmental problems. Even 3M's 3E program fails at times, and they wind up in their own scandals.
Personally, I found the large accidental dump of sour mash into Clear Creek a year ago to be a bit more noticable example of the company's irresponsibility, not the drafting of legislation which held back what was already completely lax enforcement. Luckily, the dump caused little death of wildlife. Clear Creek is a great waterway, in most parts, but the upstream mines manage to kill off most of the fish long before they reach the shores of Golden.
You like splinters in your crotch? -Jon Caldara
A number of years ago, my family was passing through North Carolina and we took a tour of one of the major tabacco companies' cigarette factories. Very cool, and if you smoke you might be able to pick up a few cartons cheap.
Actually, it's spot on. And that's actually damned high for a technical institution. In fact, the percentage of our faculty which is female is remarkably high for an engineering institution. Put that in your pipe and smoke it.
If you go to CU Boulder, where our dropouts mostly wind up, you'll find a much higher female population, but most of them are in liberal arts areas. That's not to say anything against women or Boulder in general. Women are great, and it's still a bit of a mystery why women have poured into most previously male-dominated industries such as medical, construction, and so on, but engineers are still predominately male. Further, Boulder offers a wider variety of courses and degrees than Mines possibly could, and has an entirely different atmosphere. But the course work is decidedly less rigorous.
Can't tell you I've ever smelled anything from the plant. On overcast days, the inversion takes over, and the whole town (all of Denver, not just Golden/Denver West) gets a rather horrid smell from all sorts of emissions in the greater Denver area. Just the same, even the people who attend UIUC don't notice the smell after a week or two.
You like splinters in your crotch? -Jon Caldara
Area 51.