[Elecraft] Real 2" x 4" Lumber

[Phil Wheeler]

A fun retrospective, Jim -- except for the corn part!

Phil W7OX

On 8/11/16 10:29 AM, Jim Brown wrote:
> Indeed the finished dimension of lumber HAS 
> changed. Renovating the wood frame home I owned 
> in Chicago, built around the turn of the 
> century, after the Great Chicago Fire, I found 
> REAL 2" x 4" and 2" x 6" lumber.
>
> I also removed at least 100 ft of gas pipe used 
> for lighting. When first wired for electricity, 
> wiring was run through those pipes and light 
> fixtures replaced the gas lights. Obviously, 
> they were first disconnected from the gas line, 
> which was still used for heat. :)
>
> Another thing that's changed is the sweet corn 
> that we can buy in the market -- it's now much 
> sweeter with little real corn taste. As long as 
> I've been eating it, corn was always hybridized 
> for taste, but it always tasted like corn. What 
> we get now is hybridized and genetically 
> engineered stuff that resists the chemicals used 
> to kill weeds.  It  looks like corn, but tastes 
> like a sugar bowl.  Small farmers used to 
> harvest their own seeds to plant next year's 
> crop, and to grow corn that tasted the way they 
> and their customers wanted. But when that 
> chemical resistant stuff was invented something 
> like 10 years ago, Monsanto, the big seed 
> company that invented it, sued those farmers, 
> claiming that some of their patented stuff had 
> cross-fertilized those corn plants, and within a 
> few years, that phony corn is all we can buy. I 
> used to buy a half dozen ears, steam them, and 
> eat them for lunch. I haven't been able to do 
> that for years.
>
> 73, Jim K9YC
>
>  On Thu,8/11/2016 9:17 AM, Charlie T, K3ICH wrote:
>> Bad analogy.  The 2 X 4 inch measurement of a 
>> piece of construction lumber
>> is before planning, or rough cut lumber.  The 
>> finished dimension is more
>> like 3½ X 1½ which hasn't changed.