So years ago, right out of college, I worked for a company called TheraTech up at the UoU research park. In retrospect, it was a really cool job and, after a very rocky start (my first lead at the job took exception to me being LDS and having gone to BYU), I ended up smashing it with a few very successful projects and then lept from there to Boeing Flight Test, which was my dream job. Something I always knew I would do since high school.
At TheraTech, I left my first area in Quality and ended up as Lead over Pilot Scale Mfg R&D with a budget of about $500,000 which was not bad for a $22M a year company. It was a little overwhelming going from college grad to having more responsibility than I could handle. I felt I was at my limits which caused a lot of sleepless nights and felt great when I was able to smash something. One day, my boss approached me and asked me to solve a coating problem. At TheraTech, we were developing proprietary transdermal drug delivery via skin patches. The drug was in the adhesive that was attached to a polyester backer (much like a band-aid). The trick was to get the adhesive at just the right coating thickness to deliver a prescribed amount of drug and to keep it in tolerance. We fiddled with different patch sizes and coating thicknesses while being cognizant of allergic reactions to adhesives and drugs. That stuff was all on the clinical side. They would just reach out to us and tell us what they were looking for. Much of my work was just day-to-day stuff and directing several associate engineers while working with the other pilot scale staff. The one nut that Pilot Scale and Plant Scale could never crack was how to get the coating thickness consistent across a web that was 12" wide. The drug/adhesive matrix was homogeneously mixed in special explosion-proof mixers and then pressure was put to the mixing pot to drive the mixture through a coating die and onto the polyester web and then compressed through a set of pinch rollers and then dried to drive off the Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs). This left just the drug with the adhesive with a low solvent content, that would prevent skin rashes, etc. Then, just like a bandaid, the backing material was peeled away and the patient could apply the substrate with the adhesive/drug formula onto the skin to deliver the drug to the body.
Great little system! The problem was that, at Production Scale, the linear dies (shaped like a coat hanger) would deliver drug to the substrate in a parabolic shape with much more adhesive in the middle of the coating profile, than on the outsides. This required the line to stop, then have samples removed, and run them over to a lab for quick analysis (there was no way to do a real-time analysis using gamma ray back-scatter or other methods that were not fully matured in the 1990's). Once the desired drug profile was verified, then the line could start up and 100,000 patches could be produced in a shift. All of which required continuous testing throughout the run to verify that the systolic pumps were still delivering drugs at the target delivery rates.
So, with a kid fresh out of college and the new rising star in this small company of less than 20 engineers, I was tapped to go to Boston to have a bunch of national and world experts on fluid dynamics from MIT, Yale and Harvard lecture for a week on the mathematics and principles of fluid mechanics. Of course, even though I had a math minor after making it through engineering school, it was all well over my head. It was Masters or Phd level stuff - and I really sucked wind at the Undergrad level fluid dynamics courses at BYU.... I still took notes and prayed for guidance even though most of what I was hearing was gobbledygook and Greek to me. Towards the end of the Conference, I started to get excited, because the stuff I was seeing on a whiteboard, was forming a picture in my mind. I knew that our linear (straight line - shaped like a coat hanger) die, was making a parabolic presentation on the laminate when we would turn on the pump with drug thicknesses heavy in the middle and almost non-existent (starved out) at the ends. In my mind's eye, I saw a novel solution where the die fluid cavity would be parabolic in shape (not linear like the coat hanger) and the output on the substrate would be linear. I had no math to back it other than generalities. I headed home and put a linear coat hanger die on the machine and created several consistent profiles on a polyester web. I then put them into a curve-fitting program which produced a 2D mathematical equation. I then used this mathematical curve fit equestion and cranked out a few thousand points into a spreadsheet, which I then tweaked to make the data into a 3D model that resembled a Texas longhorn, which I promptly dubbed the "cow horn die". This file was then given to the machinist who used a 1/8" ball end mill to produce the die out of aluminum, since it was experimental. The production side used non-magnetic stainless steel for durabilities and some other proprietary reasons. The aluminum was easy to machine and I got the quick and dirty die back from the machine shop for under $5,000. A real bargain on a massive, seat of the pants gamble on a hunch I had been given (likely from heaven - I felt very guided). We made a batch of goo and plugged in the die to the coating machine and I was breathless.
My future at that company literally hinged on the $20,000 I had blown on this Conference and hunch. Had it not worked, I would have been quietly moved to a desk job and the glamour would have dissipated. We switched on the machine and then the pump and wallah! The profile was perfectly flat and NOT starved out at the edges. We cut samples from the web and, instead of just having a single usable sample in the middle of the web, we were able to use the product across the entire web! Over the course of a production run, tens of thousands of dollars could be saved. This could amount to millions over the course of a year in a full production mode. Especially with testosterone patches, where just a gram of the drug is prohibitively expensive, so scrap rates were a massive cost center. We scaled it up on a SS extrusion die for the larger production webs with bang on results. It was near the end of the year when victory was declared. My bonus was huge and my salary nearly doubled the next pay review. I was in heaven. Gratitude for inspiration. Credit given to the Word of Wisdom and the Law of Tithing. Promises of treasures of knowledge given; windows of heaven literally opened. That was a 20-30K bump in a single year, but it paid dividends at Boeing because I was able to come in high and ride that increased pay rate over the next 20 years. It was definitely a six figure windfall right before I left TheraTech to go to my dream job of fooling around with airplanes.
In this case, it was a matter of taking a hunch and then proving (not by mathematics - but by raw output data) that something has merit. Proof in the pudding - literally. Even though (I am sure), brilliant arguments were made for why a particular fluid dynamic theory would produce such and such an effect in a coating profile, none had any effect on me other than day-dreaming after 30 hours of the Phd's droning on and having an epiphany there in a hotel conference center. I go with my gut on a spiritual level. This is why I was right about the efficacy and safety of the waxseen. Pure and utter garbage. The same thing applies to the DoC garbage view that Joseph was murdered in a plot by Brigham and JT. Pure, utter garbage. I do not need to read the opposing arguments to come to that conclusion. I already have the Spirit telling me to tell those spouting it, to "Get thee hence" without further contamination from the filth... Just as the Savior did when He was being tempted by the father of all lies and utter garbage.
I had a Boeing co-worker who was bible thumper. A good fellow and family man. We shared the back seat of a 45 minute bus ride home every day and had many good talks about religion, etc until he found out my true identity as LDS... Before he withdrew, he shared the following with me: He was sent on an MRB assignment at a 777 mod center in Singapore. He was away from his family for six months. One evening in the hotel, he was approached by a beautiful young lady (late 20's - and he in his mid-50's). They chatted at the bar and I am sure he had a few drinks and was not using his best judgment (he later told me that our WoW was way out of line and not biblical, even though his addiction to alcohol had led to this indiscretion... go figure). One thing led to another and she convinced him to just take her up to his room to "talk". Well, one thing led to another and they were naked on the bed. He ended up committing full adultery with her. I think it was unpaid adultery....
In a rational mind, most people would know where this situation might end up. He had compromised his judgment, possibly compounded by loneliness and lack of female touch over several months away from Momma. He could have nipped things in the bud and told the honey trap to "Get thee hence" and saved his crushing guilt and alcoholism that he had been driven to over that guilt. Yes, there is safety in the WoW, in the garment as a reminder of covenants to a spouse and to God and in making and honoring covenants in regard to the Law of Chastity, Natasha. But what do I know? I am just a "follower of Rusty".... No, actually I follow God's Plan of Happiness and it is just that and it leads just there....
So to the commenter that was trying to support the spawn of satan that came out with the film maligning God's servants and this Latter-day work and it's mission; your arguments are weak and have no merit, your pudding has no proof and get thee behind me where you belong.
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