Avoid the “onion in the varnish” syndrome (loosing reasons why things were done)

Wenn schon, dann das komplette Zitat - bei nur sechs Guhgel-Treffern dürfte es sonst vielleicht schwierig werden ;-)

humpf

In The Periodic Table, Primo Levi tells a story that happened when he was working in a varnish factory. He was a chemist, and he was fascinated by the fact that the varnish recipe included a raw onion. What could it be for? No one knew; it was just part of the recipe. So he investigated, and eventually discovered that they had started throwing the onion in years ago to test the temperature of the varnish: if it was hot enough, the onion would fry.

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Eine figürliche Übersetzung scheint nicht bekannt zu sein. Danke.