Wednesday, February 28 (1945)

Cold today and clearing. Ohio River reported high. Hired another draftsman. Watched Roberts cut in pressure header on freeze water. Somebody failed to close main level control line from city water blew torch out when they tried to cut a drain hole. Spent PM on odds and ends. Plott checked voltage on hot pumps at treatment plant. Voltage O.K. Very little else popping. Hear I may have to move out of M-6. Ho hum.

Tuesday, February 27 (1945)

Raining - kept on raining - spent almost entire day in trying to straighten out stuff left by Smith. Have almost too many plans. Started breaking in new inspector. Tried out vacuum valve. N.G. packing too hard and wouldn't seat. Tried higher pressure and collapsed float. Finally got cut over started on rack condensate. Little else of interest. Trouble in water treatment plant. Motors burning out.

Monday, February 26 (1945)

Got some laundry from home - and hankies. Nice day. Warm and balmy. Managed to get most of my various jobs delegated and received loads of stuff from Russell Smith. Now have hardly room to turn around in. Ferguson people had to give up all hope on fixing racks as to separation of condensate. Well have to do it. Hired one new inspector. Hear Marsh coming back. Wandered around for a little after supper. Located bowling alley and jitterbug assembly.

Sunday, February 25 (1945)

Woke early and slipped down to work. Had to modify design on condenser. Made up plan for lab. Miss Sampson working. Got a lot accomplished. Vacuum valve however looks like botched job. Little excitement wanted to go out in evening but wrote letters instead.

Saturday, February 24 (1945)

Hoar frost in the morning. Day warmed up beautifully. Worked like a dog all day on various matter connected with the plant. A condenser for cooling 100 000 gallon water seemed most difficult job f all. Tried to get some more personnel. Finally got clothes to clearer and laundry. Find new shoes badly worn. Hear we are short of dry ice. Tee hee.

February 23 (1945)

Day clear and frosty. Really beautiful. Would like to have climbed out and looked at the mountains. As it was nothing very exciting occurred. Worked hard getting fence situation lined up. Some trouble about pipe fitters. Later heard Ferguson maintenance contract turned down. So what? I don't know. Laboratory project up again. Home late. Roberts must be getting desperate. Today he tried to cool the pumps with dry ice!

Thursday, February 22 (1945)

Paper had promised heavy rain but it only rained moderately. Never the less everything in the AM was all aslop. Cleared later. Spent entire AM in fruitless chase after Roberts to get fence order made out. Never did it. Air condition men came to look over two laboratories. Will virtually be obliged to re model mechanical room of No. 2. There is so much junk to go in. At 1300 came back to guest house and checked out M6 drew a NE cr. room. If I don't get a room mate all hunky dory. Bad material leak on #6 late in afternoon. Garden leaves us. Went over new salary set up. Looks like a raise.

Wednesday, February 21 (1945)

Sloppy foggy day. Low clouds and stacks of mud. Most of day worked on cut over for new pump but R. finally decided he didn't want it. Tried to push making of relief valve but it doesn't push worth a damn. Hera I move to M.6. Very little else to write about. SP3 had to be shut down. to whack main valve. Long rag chew re auto valve on condensate tank. Home by bus, tired. Throat better. Got Cafeteria finally arranged.

Tuesday, Febrauary 20 (1945)

Have the sorest throat I can remember since chicken pox. Had to have it painted. Dragged around all day and tried not to show it. Got started on vacuum valve. Work goes very slowly. Technical committee turned down new test chamber and Woods will have to redraw it! Damn. Roberts still working on pumps - and I think getting nowhere in particular.

Monday, February 19 (1945)

Big thunderstorm in night messed up filling station job completely. Will have to use crushed rock. Transformer knocked out at 2AM. Took till 8AM to find who should fix it. Lab down over 12 hours. Started Hawkins out on fixing racks. Gave Wood job drawing automatic cutter in for pipe. Must make a vacuum relief for overhead freeze piping. Not much news. To bed early. We landed on Iwo Jima and Corregidor.

Sunday, February 18 (1945)

Took an easy day. Down as usual and spent most of the AM studying and talking to Bedoe. Plant seemed to be running well. Ran into Roberts about noon. He wants Ferguson men to handle changes in rack piping. Home early. Dragged in trunk. Put on decent clothes.

Saturday, February 17 (1945)

Outtran the power house and had to slow down a bit. Not much other excitement. Tried to get cafeteria boss to say how he wanted new room laid out. He seems confused. Tried to get a lot done bu actually accomplished very little. Tried to get subgrade ready for road at filling station but it was too muckey.

Friday, February 16 (1945)

Roommate a little more considerate and I got a nice sleep. Down to plant to a very busy day. Had to get propane tank ? up. More work at cafeteria. Bake oven, etc. Also ice house. Laboratory hood not working right. Met Roseman or whatever they call him. Stinker. Work still easing a little. Got all flange leaks tightened up. One big leak giving me a lot of trouble on no 10. Can't stop it. 18 units going and two more nearly ready. Hot diggity.

Thursday, February 15 (1945)

Roommate wanted to read all night so got little sleep. Nose stopped. Neck and ears ached rheumatic no fun. things at plant about as usual. Leaks slightly less. A lot of minor jobs here and there, such as stopping ride sway in piping, etc. On the whole day was a little quieter than usual. Plant looked better. Felt very tired and nearly fell asleep about noon. Douched with glyco and felt better in evening. Doc. Garden is leaving us, so he says. Where does that leave me?

Wednesday, February 14 (1945)

Tough but not so touch as yesterday. Muddy under foot and a care in the ditch down a 20' embankment at Wheat School. Roberts trying to negotiate for returns of blow down water to power house. Had to go across the river and be re-fingerprinted. In PM finally worked up plan for separating condensate. Got approval. Hired two new men. Think Nellit has quite. Feel a little better but still pretty rocky. Mary sent me a very big overcoat. No roommate. Oh yes there is.

Tuesday, February 13 (1945)

It evidently rained last night and how. All the streams were clear over their banks and the culverts were chock full. Spent day trying to design condenser. Felt like merry hell but managed to keep going. Finally got a pretty good design. Roberts and Mastin evidently had a tough night and weren't in. As a result, Col. Fox called me and demanded immediate action relative to condensate losses. I knew they'd had some but could see much to do about it till we got condenser. Roberts got in at noon and I unloaded it. Seems Miss Bruce and Hardin worked almost all night last night. On way home got a glimpse of Cumberland Mtns. Fine.

Monday, February 12 (1945)

They finally shut down. Found things pretty well messed up but gangs getting to work. Primarily cause of shit down was leaking gasket on deserperlater line. Began raining. Roberts directed me to design a condenser to catch blow down. Quite a mess. Started on it. Many trivial interruptions. Hear J.A. Jones ordered to go on 10 hrs. Home in rain.

Saturday, Febraury 10 (1945)

Beautiful balmy spring day. Sun bright and mud dried. Leaks were very bad everywhere and there is talk of another shutdown. Hear Millet slipped off to Philadelphia without seeing me at all. Wonder if he's quitting home early. Feel rotten. Believe I've caught cold again. Another room mate.

Saturday, February 10 (1945)

Worked like hell all day. Started in to check over discrepancies in condensate system under racks. Did it but but took till 5:20. No lunch. Some trouble at power house, and steam valves popped all over the place. Otherwise very little trouble or excitement except had to put Westgate more or less in his place. Tried to buy Mary valentine. $1.00! ouch

Friday, February 9 (1945)

Shut down should have ended at 16 hrs yesterday. Then at 18 then 24. When I came in at 07:45 first steam was just beginning to shriek through the pipes. Had quite a circus getting at what had gone wrong. Finally found new leaks had opened up about midnight. With little or no warning to mechanical force and much disorganization had followed. Pumps started about noon. Two wide open leaks on 8&9 Can't do a damn thing. Found my trunks still short on box of books.