>
> On Feb 27, 2008, at 11:52 PM, Rich Satterlee wrote:
>
> (long, but bear with me)
>
> This is an actual Engineering lecture in Thermodyamics.  I can  
> testify to it
> because I was there.  It was an undergraduate lecture and under the EE
> catalog I was required to take thermodynamics.
>
> The professor at Fresno State (more formally California State  
> University,
> Fresno) our professor for this class was also an HVAC consultant.  
> This was
> termed "Professor Bevel's Chicken Shit Lecture" and was part of many
> semester classes at Fresno State.
>
> One of his clients was Foster Farms Chickens (a big retail label in  
> California).
>
> Anyway, seems like Foster Farms had a problem with their chickens.
>
> When the temperature in the chicken coops got to hot the chicken  
> shit used
> to generate ammonia gas.  That wasn't so bad, but the ammonia gas  
> used to
> etch the cornias of the chickens and then they would go blind and  
> not find
> the food to eat and not gain weight.  This was not so good for the  
> chickens
> and especially not good for Foster Farms.
>
> As a reference to the problem (one of many, I'm sure) is:
> http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/PS031
>
> It's amazing what you can find on the internet, but I digress.....
>
> The professor was called in as a paid consultant.  Well, he found that
> putting a sprinkler system on top of the chicken coops would wet  
> down the
> tops of the roof of the chicken houses and then the water would  
> evaporate,
> cool down the chicken house, the temperature would not be high  
> enough for
> the chicken shit to generate excessive ammonia gas, the cornias of the
> chickens eyes wouldn't get etched, they wouldn't go blind, they  
> could find
> their food and gain weight.  This made the chickens very happy.  It  
> also
> made Foster Farms very happy as well.  So the professor billed  
> Foster Farms
> (he tried billing the chickens, but they wouldn't pay).
> And everybody was happy.
>
> Well, that's not the real part of the story.  That was just the setup.
>
> After a couple of years, the folks at Foster Farms noticed that  
> they didn't
> have to use as much water as they did originally to keep the  
> chicken coops
> cool.  So they called him up and asked him why.  Well, turns out the
> water in the Fresno area (in fact most of the southern San Joaquin  
> valley
> is pretty alkaline, which was sprayed on the roofs of the chicken  
> coops
> (remember the chicken coops.  They hold the chickens inside).  The  
> alkali
> of the water turned the roofs of the chicken coops white, which the  
> white
> reflected more heat, and hence, they didn't have to use as much  
> water with
> the white roofs.
>
> Now, here's the kicker.
>
> My instructor then billed Foster Farms *AGAIN*
>
> I learned alot about engineering from that class.  Maybe not too much
> about thermodynamics, but a whole lot of engineering.........
>
>   Cheers,
>
>    Rich S.

Sounds like you learned a lot about chicken beaks or bills or   
billing or something.
cc


>
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