A retired operator gave me a tip about silt curtains that actually worked

I was grabbing coffee in Mobile last month and got talking to this older guy who used to run a big cutter suction dredge on the river. He asked what I was working on, and I mentioned we were having trouble keeping our turbidity down in a tight channel. He leaned in and said, 'Son, you're probably anchoring your curtain wrong. Sink the bottom chain in a shallow 'S', don't just stretch it tight.' We tried it the next day, and our readings dropped by 15%. Has anyone else used that trick with the bottom chain?

3 comments

3 Comments

jackson.sarah2mo ago

That's a really good example of how the old way of doing things gets lost sometimes. It happens everywhere, not just on the water. You see it in my store when a retired carpenter comes in and shows a kid a faster way to hang a door. The simple tricks from years of hands-on work just aren't in the manuals. That dredge operator's tip about the chain having some slack to settle... it makes total sense when you hear it, but you'd never think of it sitting in an office.

james6722mo ago

Wait, I actually see it the opposite way. That old knowledge isn't really getting lost, it's just changing hands. The retired carpenter shows the kid, right? That means it's being passed on. The real problem is when people in offices don't listen to the folks with the grease under their nails. The manuals get updated eventually, but only if someone bothers to write the tip down.

sandra7151mo ago

Reminds me of this old timer who came into a buddy's auto shop with a 1970s pickup that had some weird rattle. The kid working there was about to tear the whole dash apart looking for a loose bolt. Old guy just leaned in, tapped the ash tray with his knuckle, and said try closing that all the way. Kid had left it open just a hair and it was vibrating against the frame. Simple stuff like that just isn't written down anywhere cause it sounds too stupid to put in a book.