Throwback Thursday - The Notebooks

Image from Morguefile.com

To clear up some confusion, the Notebook passages posted on Throwback Thursday were written by my father and found by me after he passed away. They were his attempt to tell the family history. He was in his late 80s or early 90s when he wrote them. Today's chapter:

On my return I went looking for work and answered an ad with a company named Manning, Maxwell, and Moore in Roxbury. The job markets were opening like there was no tomorrow. I walked in the building to the hiring office filled out the forms and was hired on the spot after the form was looked over.

The company manufactured merchant and naval valves for both type vessels including submarine valves and other things these vessels needed and also for steam engines. I was told to report to the second floor and was going to be a Chaser.

And my resume also included my college work and my work at the Club.

At that period of time with war going on in Europe and other parts of the world, the country was putting itself in a position of being ready for war.

The Draft was in effect and the service for draftees was one year. Along the way the service time was extended from 12 months to 18 months. Of course, this did not sit well with the draftees, and some were already getting close to being discharged and looking forward to becoming civilians.

I was assigned to a trainer when I reported to the manager of the unit I was in. And my job was to follow the progress of order forms from other manufacturers. In the field of manufacturing the highest priority went to A thru G. This would bring me from the top, the most important of orders. And they were issued mostly by the government. Essential to the military units.

This system was applied to clothing, food, and everything else. Everything was rationed. People received ration books, etc. But like everything else there was always those who were cheating.

My job under the trainer was to follow the progress of the order and alphabetical letter it was given by the government.

The material for the valves was brass and also with a pressure power. Each valve was tested in the testing department. Whether it was naval, surface, or submarine, and trains as well the engines including the bells.

The government was moving and preparing for war. It was just a matter of time.

In the manufacturing procedure it was common for valves to be defective. These were then sent to melting unit and would become valves again.The smelting as it was called was done in the smelting division where it was then poured in to sand molds. When cooled they would be sent to testing. If all the valves were passed for the order number it had, they would be sent to the shipping department. If one failed the order would be set aside. Nothing was shipped out unless it was a complete order.

If an order had a valve or two that failed it would be set to one side and await for the valve or valves that met the test and they would be shipped out.

The 2 1/2 inch valves were the most popular and a back up would occur on orders since the valves that failed.

The Swedish manager of the testing unit stated that was the reason for backups. The remelting increased the odds of failure.