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Page Ten
BADIN bulletin
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REES WINNING THE RUNNING HIGH JUMP
structed at the Alcoa Works, Maryville,
Tenn.
We were assisted through all of this
work by Mr. Earl Morgan, who acted
as material-man, looking after our sup
plies and shipments for over four years;
Mr. B. E. McElhaney, who carried on
much of the line construction under Mr.
Scott; and Mr. C. E. Graham, who looked
after a great deal of wiring and motor
installationJn the plant and Falls power
house. Mr. W. H. Davis assisted mate
rially in the erection of machinery in the
rotary stations, and later took charge of
the motor maintenance and the repair
shop. Mr. L. B. Ward also did a large
part of the electrical work in the Falls
powerhouse, theater, hospital, business
block, etc., in town. Mr. G. N. Trexler
has looked after much of the house wir
ing and telephone work; and Mr. F. J.
Mitchem, who took up the erection of
the steel towers on the Falls line,.when
the steel workers left for vacation,‘later
completed the line, and assisted in erect
ing machinery in the Falls powerhouse.
—H. S. B.
“Temporary Rotary Station”
Rotary Station 19! We used to call
it the “Temporary Rotary Station.” Just
to see it sitting there—a kind of a blot
on the landscape—you wouldn’t think
what a history it has had in its four
short years of life. There’s nothing ex
citing about the looks of it now, but, be
lieve me, the time was when folks pulled
their hats down over their ears as they
passed by it, and some of them took care
n>z to pass by it at all.
The first sight I had of the old shack
was back in April, 1916. There wasn’t
much to it then; some big square con
crete pits in the ground, and a bunch
of tapering concrete posts (we put the
disconnecting switches on them after
wards) that looked like little monuments
in a cemetery. Right on top of it all,
P’loyd Culp and a gang of carpenters
were building the roof trusses. They
looked big enough for an armory—but
we didn’t know then how much artillery
work was to go on under them.
I remember standing on a high bank
right behind where the lightning ar
resters are now—that’s all been graded
away; in fact, the landscape around
there has been changed considerably
from what it was in those days—and
having my first chat with “Farmer”
Scott. He wasn’t “Farmer” Scott then;
just Scotty, the Bad Man—everybody
on the job was after his blood, but some
how didn’t seem to get it. He had just
found “Florida” asleep in the crane at
the “Skeleton Building,” which used to
be on the hill where the coal pile is noW,
and was vigorously regretting the fa^t
that he and “Florida” were not in the
war, where a man could be stood up
against a wall and shot full of holes
when all other means of correction failed-
Somehow or other that idea of war stuck
around old 19 for a long time. I guess
most of the fellows who made a shif^
there felt like they were going into ^
battle when they walked in the door,
I might mention that “Florida” stuck
through it all until he finally did jo^’^
the Navy, and went to war sure enough-
It wasn’t much of a job to get the
framework of old 19 put up, nor to
the sides and the first roof on. I say
first roof, for I guess the old bird has
about six roof coatings on. It seems to
me that after every storm for six month®
we’d give that roof a coat of cheese
cloth and tar, then we’d take down all
the buckets and pails we had hangii’^
around on the rafters—until the
rain—then we’d put them up again, '^he
roof wasn’t the only place it leakef^
either. The pit under the floor, whef®
all the cables run, leaked like a torpedoe^^
ship, except that instead of coming
one hole it came in all over—the cemen''
floor was like a sieve. We got some
out of that, though, for when we got to
looking for a barrel of Truscon Water*
proofing Cement that Biddix had
over from watei'proofing some pits
the Carbon Plant, the Storeroom told
that it had been mistaken for a ban’el
of lime and sent up to the Filter Pla^^
for use in the drinking water! Win^^
Bill said it was drinking that stuff th^^
waterproofed him. We finally got son^®
cement, however, and plastered up
the
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ELECTRICAL CONSTRUCTION AND MAINTENANCE FORCE