N&W Concrete Water Tanks/Water Softening

[NW Mailing List]

Gerard,  good hearing from you;

Been traveling and wasn't able to chirp in on this conversation, but I'm
glad you beat me to it.  Since I'm always looking for good presenters for
our conventions, and since I remember the fine presentation you gave on C&O
water preparation systems at a COHS convention, I was going to recommend we
try to get you for an NWHS convention.  I know that this is in your
wheelhouse; hope Gordon, Jeff, and Bud, and everyone, come through with
information for you that can be presented.  I suspect that the reason you
had mediocre luck in the past is that this is an area that most of the
information is still buried.  Good luck.

Frank Bongiovanni

On Tue, Feb 17, 2015 at 2:23 AM, NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
wrote:

>
>
>
>
> I am somewhat confused about all the sudden interest and apparent
> explosion of information now available on N&W concrete water tanks. For the
> last five or so years plus I have been working on an academic project on
> the historical evolution of C&O water softening techniques, water tank
> design, Virginia geochemistry of ground water, and the application of
> chemistry to railroad water purification problems.
>
>
> Last year I asked for help with my project on this list serve as I had
> completed the work on the C&O and wanted to expand my research paper into a
> possible comparative work involving the N&W and the Virginian. Aside from
> very nice responses from Alex Schust and Jeff Hawkins no one responded to
> my queries whatsoever. I also visited the archive more than once and found
> the process very frustrating and was under the impression there was little
> or no information or documentation available. Although I think Mr. Gordon
> (?) found me a small notebook in the archive that was somewhat useful. Sad
> to say most professional historians find the archive in Roanoke tough
> sledding but that is a story for another day…
>
>
>
>  As I recall I also volunteered to submit something on this topic to *The
> Arrow* -which has just been mentioned by someone else today- and was also
> rebuffed. Having read the constant back and forth of messages on this topic
> over the past few weeks it is nice to know the information I seek is may be
> available. Whether I will be able to access any of it remains to be seen.
> This has all been, and continues to be, VERY frustrating! Wow.
>
>
>
> If possible I would ask that Mr. Hamilton and Mr. Hawkins (and anyone
> else?) could contact me offline (gfitzgerald111 at gmail.com ) to discuss
> the research materials they have in their possession on this topic. I would
> also be willing to meet with anyone who has materials on N&W concrete water
> tanks and the water-softening program at one of the next archive meetings.
>
>
>
>  Best,
>
>
>
> Gerard
>
>
>
> Gerard J. Fitzgerald
>
> Department of History and Art History
>
> George Mason University
>
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