Trustee From the Toolroom (36 page)

'On the cloth. That's as far as I've gone so far.' Keith moved over and picked up the tilting table. 'You've made a good job of that,' he said, examining it. 'A Ibeautiful job. How did you get the burnishing so flat and even?'

'Lapped it on a sheet of plate glass with oil and fine-grit carborundum,' said Mr Hirzhorn. 'Then I finished off with metal polish.'

'On the plate glass?'

'That's right. I thought this was the part folks would be always looking at, so it ought to be finished good.' Keith nodded. It was better finished than on most of the examples of the clock that he had seen. He picked up the lions and the rocking arm, examined them, and laid . down. 'You're getting on quite well,' he said. 'These the four plates ?'

'That's so. They've to be burnished, but I won't do that till all the holes are drilled.' He hesitated. 'They don't get seen so much,' he said. ' I thought I'd do them on a polish-mop.'

"Keith nodded.' That's quite good enough. These bevels - did you make them yourself?'

'No,' Mr Hirzhorn admitted. 'I got Clem Harrison to have them made for me. I do spur wheels, but I never did a bevel wheel.'

'They aren't so difficult,' Keith said, 'but they do take time. I often get mine made in a shop where they've got proper tools for it.' He turned over the parts. 'You're getting on quite well,' he said. 'I should think you must be about halfway through. What's the next part to be tackled?'

'Bobbins and armatures,' said Mr Hirzhorn. 'I never wound a coil before, and I don't know how I'm going to make out. Forty-six gauge is mighty fine wire to handle when you can't see so well.'

' I know,' said Keith. ' It's better not to handle it at all. It's so easy to get kinks. I made a coil winder for mine. It's quite a simple thing. The wire passes from the spool through soft-wood grips tightened by a spring, to give the tension. Then that traverses along the slow feed — the pitch just bigger than the wire diameter. Reverse direction with the tumbler reverse at the end of each row. Like this.' He' seized a piece of paper and began to sketch, Mr Hirzhorn watching intently. Suddenly he stopped drawing. ' Look -you don't have to make one. Get on with the 95-and 20-tooth wheels next, and the maintaining gear. As soon as I get back to England I'll put my coil winder in the post to you, airmail.' He moved to the South Bend lathe and examined it. ' You'll have to make a little plate fitting and put it on the tool post, here. I shan't be using it. You can post it back to me when you've done with it.'

'Say, that's mighty kind of you,' said Mr Hirzhorn. 'I've been kind of frightened of those coils, and yet I want to learn to do them. You know how it is."

Keith nodded. 'They aren't difficult,' he said. 'Use the coil winder, and pick a gauge of wire to suit a slow feed on the lathe, and run in back gear at your slowest speed. There's no magic in forty-six gauge.' He examined the gearbox on the lathe. 'Look, this one here gives an advance of four thous per rev. Forty-four gauge is 3.2 thousandths diameter. I should use this gear with forty-four gauge wire. You won't have any difficulty. Mine took about an hour to make each coil.'

An hour later Julie came down to the workshop. She came in unnoticed by the men and stood behind them for a little, watching and listening. The visit of this English engineer was a good thing; there was no doubt of that. She had been troubled from time to time that the circumstances of his life compelled her grandfather to pursue his hobby and his interest alone. Every evening he went down into the workshop alone. She could not share his interest with him, nor could his wife. It seemed all wrong to her that he had nobody to play with, but that's the way things were. She knew it for a solitary occupation, in that he wanted to make the whole clock himself, but his pleasure in Keith Stewart's visit pleased her very much indeed.

She said quietly, 'Drinks are on the table, Mr Hirzhorn.'

The two men started, and turned to her. Sol Hirzhorn said, 'They can't be,' and looked at his watch. 'Oh, well...'

They went obediently upstairs with her and washed their hands in the cloakroom. Over the drinks before the big log fire Sol Hirzhorn said, 'I was wondering if you'd care to take a look at one of the mills tomorrow, Mr Stewart. Ever seen a lumber mill in operation?'

' I don't know anything about the lumber industry at all,' Keith said.' It's all new to me. I'd like to very much indeed. But I don't want to take your time.'

The old man shook his head. ' I want to go and see this mill myself. We've got an engineering problem there needs sorting out. I think we'll go into the office first of all while I look through the mail, 'n you can meet the boys - my two sons. Emmanuel and Joseph. They do most of the work now. And then we'll go on to the mill. Julie!'

'Mr Hirzhorn?'

'Julie, we'll want the car at half past eight tomorrow, for the office. You'd better come along. Then ring the aviation section, say I'll
be coming to the airport and I'll want the helicopter at ten o'clock for the Flume River mill. Maybe
we'll drop in at the Eight Mile Cut in the afternoon, so Mr Stewart sees the whole process.'

' Okay, Mr Hirzhorn. Will you want Jim Rockawin along ?'

'No. We'll leave him out this time. But say, if Manny's free I think he might come. Call Manny after the airport, and if he's home I'd like to speak with him.'

She moved the telephone to the small table by his side and put it by the glass, and went into her office, closing the door. Five minutes later the buzzer sounded quietly, and the old man picked up the receiver. 'The helicopter will be ready at ten o'clock,' she said. 'I have Mr Emmanuel on the line now. Will I put him through ?'

' Sure.' There was a click and Mr Hirzhorn said, ' Manny? Say, Manny, I've got Mr Stewart with me now, the British engineer that I was telling you about. That's right. I'm coming in the office, see the mail first thing and let him meet you and Joe. After that I'm taking him to see Flume River. Would you be able to come along?'

' I think so, Dad.' There was a short pause. ' Bill Schultz of Euclid, he's coming in the morning about the new trucks, but it's all financial. It's more up Joe's alley than mine. I'll call Joe presently. If that's okay with him, I could come.'

'That's fine,' said Mr Hirzhorn. 'I'd like you to be there if you can make it. Time we made up our minds. I kind of thought that telling Mr Stewart all about it might help to make up our own minds. You know what I mean?'

'Sure, Dad. I'll call Joe, and if he doesn't think he'd like to handle it I'll maybe call Bill Schultz and put him off a day. It's not that urgent.'

'Okay, Manny. Give my love to Rachel. See you in the morning.' He put down the receiver.

They dined simply in a great dining room rather top ornately furnished, full of oil paintings and clocks, served by the manservant, Julie dining with them. 'My wife, Sarah, she'll be sorry to miss seeing you,' said Mr Hirzhorn once.' She gets this sciatica each winter in the cold and wet, and nothing seems much good except the sunshine and the warmth. She used to go down into California, but she likes Florida best. I go and see her there once in a month or six weeks, but there's nothing to do there.' He smiled. 'No business and no workshop. I like it here. She likes it, too, excepting when it's cold. She'll be back around the end of April, soon as it fines up.'

They went to bed early, and Keith slept well in the deepest, softest bed that he had ever slept in, in the intense stillness of Wauna. By ten minutes to nine next morning he was in the head office in Tacoma meeting the two sons, Emmanuel and Joseph, treated as a very honoured guest. They left Julie in the office and went on at half past nine to the Seattle—Tacoma airport; by ten o'clock they were outside the private hangar labelled
hirzhorn enterprises inc.
with the helicopter standing on the tarmac in a little drifted snow, saying good morning to the pilot. 'We'll want to go to the Flume River mill,' said Mr Hirzhorn. 'We'll be there for lunch. Then if there's time we'll look in at the Eight Mile Cut. We'll be going back to Wauna after that, but it might be close on dark. Maybe we'd better go home in the Cessna.'

'Okay, Mr Hirzhorn,' said the pilot. He spoke to a ground engineer and the father and son got into the machine in the back seat, putting Keith beside the pilot. The pilot got in after them, the doors closed, the engine started, the rotor revved up. Presently the pilot moved the big lever in his right hand gently up and they were in the air and moving ahead slowly. He put the helicopter in a climb and they set out towards the east and north.

The flight was a delight to Keith, who had never been in a helicopter before. It took about fifty minutes over mountains and up shallow valleys filled with the unending forest. In the end a river showed up ahead of them and buildings marked by a great plume of smoke and steam, a railroad, and a small town beside. Mr Hirzhorn reached forward and touched the pilot on the shoulder. 'Circle round a bit,' he said. 'I want Mr Stewart to take in the whole set-up before we land.' . The pilot nodded and put the aircraft into a right hand
turn around the plant at about a thousand feet, while Manny explained the lay-out to Keith; the logs coming down the river, the log pond, the jack ladder from the log pond to the mill, the drying kilns, the lumber stores along the railroad tracks. Then they had seen all that was to be seen from the air, and they came in to land softly on an open space reserved in the car park.

^They spent two hours in the sawmill seeing the whole process as the logs four feet in diameter were sawn into planks and taken away for kiln-drying or stacking, while the offcuts were turned into pulpwood for newsprint. The Hansel de-barker, ripping the bark off the logs by jets of water, interested Keith very much. The saws, both bullsaws and bandsaws, were well within his experience though on a "vastly larger scale than any he had seen before. He spent some time in the saw-sharpening shop talking to the head sawyer about set and cutting angles for the various types of wood to be cut, information that he stored away in his mind. The flying carriages, operated by four-inch roller chains running over great sprockets appalled him, but he did not say so at the time.

They lunched with the manager and the secretary at a table reserved for them in the canteen. No drinks were served, for the whole plant was dry. Emmanuel apologized to Keith for this omission. 'We're kind of strict on that,' he said. "This is a company town. We've got most everything else that folks would want — a dance hall and a movie theatre and eight stores - but not a liquor shop. We find that liquor and a sawmill don't go well together.'

'Do you have many accidents?' Keith asked. He had been shown a very comprehensive little first-aid room,

" Not more than what's average to the industry,' Manny replied. 'You get gangs felling the tall timber in the forests, or walking around on logs in the log pond, or dealing with quick-moving saws like what you saw - you'll get more accidents than in the automotive industry, for example. We try to keep them down.'

'There hasn't been a fatality in this plant since it was set up,' said the manager. 'That's seven-years.'

'That's so,' said Manny. 'That's partly due to Lou here. But he's got a modern plant to help him. We had three at Viper Bend in the last year.'

Sol Hirzhorn leaned forward, and they all deferred to |; him. 'Say, Mr Stewart,' he said. 'You've been around a bit. What do you think of safety in this plant, coming to it fresh ? Now that you've seen it ?' '

Keith paused before answering, thinking over all that he had seen that morning, ' I don't think you could do much -better with the saws,' he said at last. 'With big saws running 1 at that speed, you'll always get the bloke who gets careless as the years go by, and puts his hand in one. You can't help that - except by cutting out the drink, as you do. The thing I didn't like were all those chains.'

Emmanuel and Lou glanced at each other. The old man I asked,' You mean the roller chains that work the carriages ?.'

'That's right. I saw that they were well lubricated. How I'; do they get greased? You don't keep stopping the plant?'

' They get greased nights and midday when the plant's I-stopped for dinner,' said Lou, the manager. 'They'll have i; greasers working on them now. In between, a guy goes around with a slush can and a brush upon a five-foot stick, ;and puts it on with that.'

'Does that stick ever get caught up? Some of those chains pwere going thirty miles an hour.'

'Sometimes. Not very often.' 'Does the greaser ever get caught up with it?'

'Not here,' said Lou definitely. 'Not in the seven years I that I've been manager.'

Sol Hirzhorn said, ' Say, Mr Stewart, do you know anything about Chuck Ferris? Ferris Hydraulics, in this mill?'

Keith faced him. 'No, I don't,' he said. 'I know that Mr Ferris has a contract he's negotiating with you. I asked Mr Rockawin if he'd tell me what it was, in case I put my foot it and said the wrong thing. But he wouldn't tell me. He said it was your business.'

There was general laughter. Sol Hirzhorn said, 'Good for Jim. Manny, would you be able to come back to Wauna this evening? I don't think we'd lose anything by telling Mr
Stewart what's proposed, now that he's seen the plant."

'Sure, Dad.' He thought for a moment. 'I'll call the office, and have them send the plans out to the house. They can call Rachel, too - tell her I'll be late.'

They left in the helicopter after lunch and flew for twenty minutes eastward up the river. They came to the Eight Mile Cut, a timber camp, and put down on a level platform built of logs with a plank decking specially for the helicopter. They got into a truck with the young manager and were driven a mile or two through the devastated forest to where the felling was going on.