The mill was completely shut down. It was near Christmas and that was the time most mills in the south had what is known as a cold shutdown to do maintenance. Since it was a time to do major maintenance, there were many jobs. “Everyone was trying to get into the act” as Jimmy Durante would say. After the “real” mechanics, welders, electricians, etc were hired, almost anyone was hired. For the big mills and for my little town, it raised the population by about 20 percent for a few days; there were a thousand or more people hired. There were barbers, shoe salesmen, farmers, forestry workers, college folks in attendance and others hired for the shutdown jobs. All were there to make an extraordinary wage.
I was put with Al, a mechanic, and I was to be a helper. Al took me to an outside building that made chlorine. He told me that it was dangerous when running, but it was now shut down. He took me to the operator’s station and said to wait there, he had to go someplace, and he’d be back soon. Well “soon” turned into an hour, two hours, three hours, four hours etc. I wandered around talking to operators and mechanics to see if they had anything for me to do but they didn’t. I learned a little about the process; mainly that some of the cells would explode if not run correctly. I sat in the control room and waited for Al. Finally he came back after eight hours and said, “Do you want to work over?”
I began my second quarter at East Carolina College with my second course in chemistry. Mr. Dunning was the teacher, as he was in the first quarter. He made sure we all knew he was a Mister and not a doctor. He made sure we knew who was in charge and that we learned chemistry. He didn’t mind shaming those who didn’t learn or made some infraction. He didn’t hit anyone - that I saw. Many girls cried and I thought about doing so myself. In short, he was one of the best teachers I ever had. He cared.
One day, early on, he asked how many people were from Plymouth . Several hands went up. He then asked for a volunteer to give an oral report on the chlorine plant in Plymouth . I quickly looked away and slid down in my seat, ever so slightly. After a long tense pause, he said, “All right, I’ll select a volunteer” and got out his attendance book and selected…me. My heart went to overdrive but I could think of no excuse in that short time to get out of it. I had about two weeks to prepare.
I called the mill and finally got a process engineer who was in charge of the area and he agreed to show me the process. It was called the DeNora process (Italian) and was basically electrolysis of salt (NaCl) water. The salt solution flowed into several electrified cells. The chlorine gas came off at carbon electrodes on top of the cells and the sodium formed an amalgam with mercury flowing at the bottom of the cells. The chlorine had some hydrogen gas accompanying it which could cause an explosion if not handled correctly as it is highly flammable…I can’t wait for hydrogen powered cars. It was separated and sent to a hydrogen burner outside. As an aside, if the plant was shut down for any reason, the burner went down and had to be lighted again. It was lighted with a long pole with fire on the end. Only one particular employee would do it and he got a lot of overtime. The sodium was removed from the mercury and was combined with water and made into sodium hydroxide and used in the bleach plant.
I gave the presentation a few days later, with knees shaking, and I answered the questions suitably, I believe. Mr. Dunning thanked me and I made a really good grade that quarter. In the end, the whole process was very enjoyable including the speaking.
Getting back to the evening with Al, I asked him where we were going to work. He said, “The paper machine area.” When we arrived there, several of the younger folks came up to me and asked where I’d been working. My clothing was a little tattered and torn (normal) but spick and span as it was when I came to work. They however looked like they had jumped in a pool of oil and grease. They didn’t look happy. I did hand Al several tools during that eight- hour period but I went home afterward and slept really well.
At the end of January 1955, I joined the army.
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