Here in Eugene, we are nearing the end of a cold snap that's lasted several days, a rarity. Having the temperatures dip below zero takes me back to my freshman year at North Idaho College when I worked weekends and during breaks from school at the Bunker Hill Zinc Plant in both the cell room and the anode shack. In the cell room, I was a stripper, of zinc off of plates (or cathodes) and in the anode shack I poured anodes with three other guys: Mike "Sparky" Jasberg, Mike "Magilla Gorilla"
Rieken, and Dale "Fail to Do" Fattu.
I don't remember exactly when the cold snap hit Kellogg. Was it in December of '72 or early in '73? I'm not sure. What I do remember is what a different place the cell room was to work in.
The cell room was called such because of its many banks of electrolytic cells. Passing through these highly charged cells was a sulfuric acid based solution with zinc particles in it. In the negative/positive electrical relationship created by the anode and cathode, the zinc particles stuck to the cathodes, which we called plates, and every eight hours these plates had to be pulled, put on a drainer to let the acid solution run off, and replaced with a new plate. Each cell had seven plates. Ten cells made a load. A day's work was eight loads a day. Guys who pulled more than eight loads got overtime pay and could leave early. It was an incentive program, or a gyppo deal.
We pulled the plates one at time, replaced each plate, moved the plates of zinc from the drainer to a battery operated flat bed truck, and, when we pulled a load, took the plates into the stripping room and stripped the zinc from each side of each plate and stacked the zinc on wood pallets.
During the summer, with all the electricity running through the cell room and with little ventilation, it was almost almost foggy in the cell room with sulfur clouds. The temperature in the cell room was about twenty degrees hotter than outside, so, on a 3-11 shift, if July/August temperatures got up into the nineties or hotter, the cell room's heat was well over 100 degrees.
But, in the winter, the temperature was much cooler. In fact, while other parts of the plant were really cold, I don't ever remember feeling really cold in the cell room. I remember thinking conditions in that hell hole were much better in the winter: the air quality was better, I could see better, and my clothes weren't drenched in sweat.
One day, however (and there might have been more), near zero or subzero temperatures caused a really lousy problem.
You see, when we brought our truck of plates into the stripping room, we used a fire-like hose to cool off the plates and wash off the acid solution that didn't drain off. The when we took our chisel and struck the plate of zinc on each side and pried the zinc off, we didn't splash acid solution on ourselves.
But, when the subzero temperatures struck, the water pipes at the cell room froze. I don't remember if it was just one morning or several when I brought eight loads of zinc covered plates into the cell room and had to strip them unwashed and still hot.
The cold air in the stripping room cooled the plates off all right, but it was awful stripping those plates with acid still on them. The smell was terrible and I was constantly having to wipe my safety glasses clean because of the solution flying off the plates onto the glasses.
As it was, working in such an acidy environment, we always had to take our work clothes to the shower with us to wash the acid out of them and leave them to dry overnight. If we didn't do this, our work clothes would be eaten up the next day.
So without the water to wash our plates, our work clothes got even more acid on them.
I don't remember being burned in the face by these unwashed plates.
I just remember how grateful I was when the water pipes were thawed and when I could clean those plates again.
With all the inconvenience this cold snap is causing in Eugene, and it's significant, nothing I'm experiencing is as dirty, smelly, or as dangerous as stripping zinc off those unwashed plates was.
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