It was in those good, old, glorious years after World War II, when shortages were common, that the flexible liner was born. The year was about 1948 and the place--where else?--was the dusty deserts of California. An engineer, working in quality control in a chemical factory, had a constantly baffling problem, with which, I am sure, quite a few of you are familiar. He was responsible for checking every batch of H3PO4 made in production. His problem was that many of the samples taken "disappeared" before they could be accepted or rejected. The most familiar, too often heard reason was that the sample-bottles had broken. In his frustration he started putting the bottles in plastic bags. To his surprise, the plastic bags held up very well--saving the production-samples even if the bottles broke. When one of the rubber-lined tanks developed a leak, he suggested placing a plastic bag inside it--until repair could be done. This way the tank still could be used--as important a consideration in 1948 as it is in 1978.
