"billb" > wrote in message
news:MFEBc.8877$tC5.4134@fed1read02...
> > Surely someone in the Penn State chemistry or physics lab could
> help you
> > with this problem.
>
> ask a janitor, they're usually adept at real life problems.
>
> --
> billb
>
>
Oh so true. When I was working on my Ph.D in Biophysics at U of H, I had an
aluminum coffee pot in my office. It had got to where it was percolating
but shutting itself off without really heating the water. A fellow student
and I were discussing all sorts of wild theories of why this might happen.
A maintenance man was in the office doing something at the time and he
commented without even looking at the pot "The lid is in too far so the hot
water falls back down the tube and the thermostat is shutting off too soon."
I looked at the pot and sure enough the lid was pushed in. I popped it back
up and it worked perfectly. I felt like a Ph.D Idiot. I guess I was a Ph.D
Idiot. It was humbling.

Sorry guys but nothing to do with winemaking.

Ray