Boil’s Laws—The Sample Carrier [Comic]

Richard Byrnes

Rich Byrnes is a native New Yorker who attended Manhattan College where he obtained a Bachelors Degree in Chemical Engineering in 1983. After graduation, he was Commissioned as an Officer in the United States Navy Nuclear Submarine Program, and attended the Naval Nuclear Power School achieving a Masters level Education in Nuclear Engineering. Rich served overseas operating out of Holy Loch Scotland on active duty, and was assigned to Nuclear Ballistic Missile Submarines. After leaving the Navy, he joined the DuPont Company in Wilmington, DE where he filled Management roles in R&D, Production, Maintenance & Construction, Project, and Technology Development at their sites in Deepwater NJ, Wilmington DE, and LaPorte TX. Rich then accepted a role as Plant Manager at King Industries, a privately held Specialty Chemical, Coatings and Lubricant Additives Company in Norwalk CT.

He is now their Director of Engineering responsible for their Process Improvement and Business Development Capital Projects, and the Corporate Process Safety Management Program. Although not formally trained in art, Rich's interest in this field started at a very young age, learning from the works of the masters in comic books, newspapers, and magazines. His work has been published in his high school & college year books, Antique Collectors Magazine, and most recently for the VFW and the Sikorsky/Connecticut Fallen Heroes Committee. Rich resides in Shelton Connecticut and is married to Christina, formally of Yonkers NY, and has two daughters, Nicole who is college bound and Jessica who is now attending High School. Full page images from my comic Boil's Law can be seen at http://chenected.aiche.org/boil’s-law-comics/ 

Welcome to the fifth comic in the Boil's Laws comic strip series, brought to ChEnected by artist and chemical engineer-Rich Byrnes. It's entitled "The Sample Carrier." You can see a larger version or by clicking on the comic below. See the first in the series here or read about the inspiration behind Boils Laws here.

Have you ever done something to "look busy" for the boss?

Comments

Submitted by Rich Byrnes (not verified) on Wed, 12/01/2010 - 20:39

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The idea for the sample carrier came to me as I reflected upon my long walks from the process buildings to the central labs years ago. We used the sampler carriers to shuttle process samples to the lab. A colleague of mine commented that we always "looked busy" whenever we were towing the sample carrier with us even if they were empty. Also, a process operator once noted, he knew I carried a clipboard with me at all times so it would appear to others that I was always conducting official business. Of course I denied this claim and offered the simple explanation of how else would I carry the large number of notes required to document all the “stuff” they would tell me.

Submitted by Robert S (not verified) on Sat, 12/04/2010 - 10:17

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P&IDs are always great for looking busy. Open a set and stare at the page for a while. Turn occasionally to confirm that you are awake. Or so I hear. When we arrive at a site for troubleshooting I always hope to see operators carry sample carriers. It sure helps when studying a process, but more often that not they are empty.

Submitted by Rich Byrnes (not verified) on Sat, 12/04/2010 - 14:02

In reply to by Robert S (not verified)

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I love your P&ID comment, I often have to stare at the page for a while just to figure out all the "stuff" on the drawing, the trick is not to fall asleep before you get the process figured out. I keep stacks of P&IDs on my table, I confess that it does make me "look busy", and folks are impressed, however the story I'm sticking with is paper copies are handy for mark-ups, and I have no other place to store them for easy access. Regarding sampling you are so correct, sampling and analytical data is essential for true understanding of any process, all too often in my career I have had to say "too bad we don't have enough historical analytical data" when faced with troubleshooting current issues. Thanks for sharing your experiences... Rich