Page 11 - Frank Murphy and the Open Hearth

ISSUE : Issue 52

Published by Ronald Caplan on 1989/8/1

plant. And they were the first helpers we ever had here, were Americans. (And they brought that knowledge.) They brought the knowledge with them and they passed it on to eve? rybody else. (And it was a matter of passing on. In other words, am I correct that there weren't classes?) No classes. You learned it--you either learned it, or you didn't learn it. No books. No nothing. Watching it. That's the way you learned. I was in the fortunate position of getting with a first helper that was very, very , good--Sid MacGillivray. God have mercy on him--he's dead, now. And I had the jolj of floating with him. That would be taking a shift off of every furnace. You know, we went to the 6-day week. We were working 7 days a week. But when we went to the 6-day week, I went with Sid MacGillivray, float? ing. And I worked on every furnace in the Open Hearth. And I knew every heat--he was a wonderful teacher. And he would say, "Now, Frank, this is what's happening here. And this is what...." So, when it came my turn to take a steady furnace, they wouldn't give me a steady furnace. They wanted me to stay floating. And the reason why--I knew all the furnac? es . I could go to Number 3 furnace and look at it, and turn the gas or turn the oil or whatever the hell was on it, and adjust it to suit the situation. Where if they had a new man on there, he couldn't do this. Every furnace was different, worked dif? ferently. Every one of them. You couldn't take Number 1 furnace and adjust it, and go down to Number 6 and do the same thing Workers in the Open Hearth Department, 1942, including superintendent, first, second, and third helpers, and charging car operator. Front, I. to r.: M. R. Campbell, Steve Dakai, Harold "Buster" Dawe, Jack MacAulay, Drover, Angus MacDonald. Back: Frank MacArthur, Ed Hartigan, Dick Rogers, Tom Peddle, Charlie MacDonald, John MacDonald, Ned Walsh, Joe MacLean, John Tobin, Leo O'Leary. at Number 6. (Even though they were all built the same.) Yeah, all built the same. But they all had their little kinks or queeks, whatever you want to call it--they all had their little things--what you had to learn, how to get your temperature up. It was an education in itself, steelmaking. (The first helpers, did they associate to' gether, or did they consider themselves a group?) Yeah. He was a little bit on a pedestal, the first helper. He was king? pin- -Huey Long, you know. "You do what I Welcome to your fiomz away from fiotne! These signs invite you to come mal

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