I got a job at the Linden Chlorine Plant for summer between Sophomore and Junior year. Kevin Gardner had the same job. We should change into work clothes at the plant. Green pants and shirt. Mercury vapor mask, helmet goggles, rubber boots and gloves. We also had real gas masks that we carried with us to use when there was a chlorine leak, which happened every couple of weeks. Then we had to run through the maze of plants and pipes to the parking lot with a loud siren sounding.
We had lots of jobs, but most of the summer we had to knock out a concrete wall of the factory with 16 lbs sledge hammers. Chlorine is made by running an electric current through salt water in a factory the size of a couple football fields. Mercury is used as a catalyst. (Some days we swept the mercury that leaked into bins. The mercury sort of rolls along.). There was a big thermometer on one wall of the plant. Because of the electricity running through the steel on either side of the salt water it was hot. How hot? The termometer only went up to 120 decrees and the arrow was always pinned at 120. And we were covered from head to toe.
Another time, Kevin and I were told to spend the day banging on huge metal silos, like what you might find at a farm, to dislodge salt that had caked on the inside. Absolutely crazy. We are slamming the sledge hammers into the sold steel silos, and absorbing the recoil and vibration, while standing on a little perch set up for us 20' high, FOR 8 HOURS!
The crew we worked with were characters...all of them. Stan was our foreman. I think Vietnam Vet. Very nice guy. Stan the Man.
One day OSHA came to check on the levels of mercury at the plant. The plant somehow had a heads up, so the day before we spent the day spraying some sulfur compound that knocked the mercury out of the air. Smelled like rotten eggs. Then when OSHA came, they selected some of us at random to wear tags to measure our exposure during the day to mercury. As soon as they left, those with tags were sent to the parking lot to put wheel barrows together all day. We came back to the plant before OSHA returned. OSHA took our tags and tested them. The recorded mercury was found to be at an acceptable level.
I had no idea you did this! When I left LA to come home and run the family business of aluminum and zinc die casting, much of what you described was familiar. Water was the enemy. Any liquid getting into the molten aluminum (1200 degrees) and molten zinc pots (800 degrees) could cause a mass explosion that could wipe out the entire plant and the city block too. I was always having to educate insurance agents because we had to turn of the overhead sprinklers which were required by regulations. I had to actually make them watch videos of real explosions and the workers covered in molten metal and/or running for their lives to drive the point home. Tough business, but necessary to be able to bring manufacturing back to our shores.
I got a job at the Linden Chlorine Plant for summer between Sophomore and Junior year. Kevin Gardner had the same job. We should change into work clothes at the plant. Green pants and shirt. Mercury vapor mask, helmet goggles, rubber boots and gloves. We also had real gas masks that we carried with us to use when there was a chlorine leak, which happened every couple of weeks. Then we had to run through the maze of plants and pipes to the parking lot with a loud siren sounding.
We had lots of jobs, but most of the summer we had to knock out a concrete wall of the factory with 16 lbs sledge hammers. Chlorine is made by running an electric current through salt water in a factory the size of a couple football fields. Mercury is used as a catalyst. (Some days we swept the mercury that leaked into bins. The mercury sort of rolls along.). There was a big thermometer on one wall of the plant. Because of the electricity running through the steel on either side of the salt water it was hot. How hot? The termometer only went up to 120 decrees and the arrow was always pinned at 120. And we were covered from head to toe.
Another time, Kevin and I were told to spend the day banging on huge metal silos, like what you might find at a farm, to dislodge salt that had caked on the inside. Absolutely crazy. We are slamming the sledge hammers into the sold steel silos, and absorbing the recoil and vibration, while standing on a little perch set up for us 20' high, FOR 8 HOURS!
The crew we worked with were characters...all of them. Stan was our foreman. I think Vietnam Vet. Very nice guy. Stan the Man.
One day OSHA came to check on the levels of mercury at the plant. The plant somehow had a heads up, so the day before we spent the day spraying some sulfur compound that knocked the mercury out of the air. Smelled like rotten eggs. Then when OSHA came, they selected some of us at random to wear tags to measure our exposure during the day to mercury. As soon as they left, those with tags were sent to the parking lot to put wheel barrows together all day. We came back to the plant before OSHA returned. OSHA took our tags and tested them. The recorded mercury was found to be at an acceptable level.
Absolutely crazy summer.
Wow! So nice the company was so concerned with your mercury exposure. thanks for sharing that story, Crow.
I had no idea you did this! When I left LA to come home and run the family business of aluminum and zinc die casting, much of what you described was familiar. Water was the enemy. Any liquid getting into the molten aluminum (1200 degrees) and molten zinc pots (800 degrees) could cause a mass explosion that could wipe out the entire plant and the city block too. I was always having to educate insurance agents because we had to turn of the overhead sprinklers which were required by regulations. I had to actually make them watch videos of real explosions and the workers covered in molten metal and/or running for their lives to drive the point home. Tough business, but necessary to be able to bring manufacturing back to our shores.
Wow, sounds very similar. Two big differences: 1.) I was low man on the totem pole. You were top dog. And 2) Your company survives.
Great read. Thanks.
Didn’t anyone wear dust masks? That sounds like an invitation to blacklung.
No masks that I remember. And yes, a lot of particulate matter.