Arne visits the Chrinitoid

Hi Tom,
I read your 2004 article in the Rensselaer Alumni magazine and have perused your website on the subject. You said to snap a picture and send it your way if anyone was in the neighborhood.  Consider it done!

My observations:

1. It seemed to me that the welded seams across the face of the rectangles were much more noticeable than I recall when it was on campus. 
2. In the ~20 minutes or so while I was there, neither of the planes ever rotated more than about 30 degrees from vertical (with the longer ‘half’ pointing down).  That suggested to me that the planes were a little out of balance.  It wasn’t terribly windy when I was there, and it was raining off and on.  I guess it’s possible that enough rain sticks onto the surfaces to cause the longer halves to be heavier enough that they would dangle down like that. 

It was good to see it again though!   Also, I was able to see a couple of pictures of it using Google street view.

Regards,
Arne Johnson, class of ‘83

Vin Ree writes...

Hi Tom. I am Vin Ree, BS Physics, RPI Class of 1985.  Yeah, it was sad that The Chrinitoid has disappeared and I am very happy to have discovered that you hunted it down and created your In Search of The Chrinitoid site.  I haven’t checked but maybe you should start a Facebook page for The Chrinitoid!

However, I think you need to update the current website since satellite image has changed and blocks The Chrinitoid.

I had to do some manipulating with Google Maps, but The Chrinitoid is located at:

47.369959 degrees North, 8.534296 degrees East.

However, below is a nice Google Street View of The Chrinitoid and another map.  You can go into Google Maps yourself and get a different and better angle in Street View, but I wanted to capture the canal in the picture.  I don’t think anyone would have a problem if you edited this pic and added it to your site.

Enjoy!  And, since it’ll be the 30th anniversary since The Chrinitoid was removed from campus, perhaps you should write an update article for the alumni magazine!

BTW, while I have no evidence (I think you’d have to check back issues of The Polytechnic), I strongly believe that I had read in the Poly that Rickey wanted RPI to buy The Chrinitoid for $75,000.  RPI balked, so Rickey took it off campus.  It’s a shame too – we lost both The Chrinitoid and George Low that summer.

Also, about that 26 SEP 1984 Polytechnic front page picture of The Chrinitoid on your website.  The photographer, Masaki Minato, was Class of 1986 Chemistry or Chem Eng.  I knew his older brother Kazuki who was Class of 85 Physics with me.  We were roommates our junior and senior years and Masaki would stop over all the time.  I am Facebook friends with Kazuki and a former girlfriend of his, Rachel Hefner ‘86, so if you need to get in touch with Masaki, I should be able to hook you up although he’s rather public on the web.  For all I know, he still has the original pic or negative that was used in that Poly photo.

Thanks again for all of your efforts!

Vin Ree J