Page Eight BADIN BULLETIN
THOUSANDS UPON THOUSANDS OF CARBON RODS
A striking example of what, the Carbon Plant thinks of the usefulness of (the Machine Shop—
apparently it is believed to make a good storehouse!
chanical Engineer, and took over the
shop in the fall of that same year. Mr.
Allen’s administration brings us down to
the present time. The principal jobs the
machine shop has handled during this
year in the carbon plant have been the
re-location of the Elmes Press between
the Jumbo presses and its necessary
conveyor, the installation of a pan grin
der for research work, and the installa
tion of a battery of tumbling barrels in
building 50-A in place of the present
cleaning equipment. Potroom 38 was
built during the month of April and
May, 1920.
Beaver Dam Ferry of fame and story
was completed after severe mental and
physical effort on the part of the depart
ment, and installed in the latter part of
March, somewhere up on Beaver Dam
Creek, above Nash’s sheep pasture.
Experimental pots have provided busy
work for idle fingers off and on through
out the year, and they have also caused
the temporary opening of the Temporary
Rotary Station. The sudden demands
for help at,Potroom 19 are apt to come
hard and heavy ’most any time of the day
or night. And 'most any time of the
day or night you go there you will find
potmen and Pittsburghers, plumbers and
pencil-pushers grouped around the pot
like women around the Fuller baby cab
when the twins are out for an airing.
And both groups, have the same whisper
ing comments—“How are they going?”
—“Just fine!” “Got a good color?”—“Yes’’
“How hot was the bath?” “Ought to have
a little more juice.’”—“How about weigh
ing this little pig?”—and so on ad. lib.,
ad. infinitum.
The machine shop has been hard hit
twice in the present year—once in front
with the budget, and once in the back
with 2,000,000 pounds of carbon which
were stored right in the living-room.
The budget could be seen coming though
its force was unsuspected—but that
2/)00,lD00 pounds of carbon! It
stalled off once, but somehow manage^»
Daniel like, to escape from the lioi^“
den of busted hunches. The first thin.?
the shop knows it didn’t know nuthmi
and there was this pile of’ carbon in
midst. Now that it’s done, and you
see it and cuss it every day, you don^
mind it so badly. But with the budget)
it’s different—it has a way of sneaking
up on you once a month and suffocating
you with figures. And the Cost Depart'
ment and the budgeteers do such diz^y
things with those same figures!
learned when young that figures do not
lie. The 'shop learned still more
cently, with the help of the budget,
it costs them more to operate a boil®*^
when it was shut down than when it
operating. Used more coal and ever/
thing! When this phase of the budg^^
was discussed, the budgeteers straight
ened it out to their satisfaction.
maybe those figures didn’t lie, but
bet they were shimmying; and no telling
what they’ll do ten years ,from now. ^
The shop force at present is comp®®®
of about sixty-five men. Mr. Allen
in charge, with Mr. E. M. Evans
master mechanic, John Cashatt as shop
foreman, Tom Chambers in charg® °
the^ pipe work, and M. S. Ragsdale
charge of the rigging gang. They
to keep everybody happy, and the whe®
going—Ting-a-ling, ting-a-ling—“Hel^^
yes—this is the shop, Ed—whasat-'^
The four roll crusher is on the
Aw h !”
INTERIOR OF MACHINE SHOP