The Mad Scientist: Local Mine Memories

by Jack Ward Skinner

The title brings to mind a picture of a person in a white coat with horn-rimmed glasses, and a head of white hair, sticking out in all directions. Aka. The Albert Einstein types.

In my case, I would need to add the suffix, “ly”, to the word ‘mad’. Then phrase it, ‘madly in love with my job’. You see, I was madly in love with my job as a lab technician. Now, where am I going with this?

An article in the May 9, 2019 issue of the Democrat News stated that the new mining company, coming in to the old National Lead Mine area, would be hiring. It listed all the jobs that they would hire. One of them indicated lab work. And I began dreaming of the old days.

Yes, my first thought was, “I’m going to apply!”. Now, I am retired, not retarded (unverified), so this flash thought only lasted for half a second. But the remembrance took me back to 1958, when I did work in the lab there.

My Dad was working in the Mill and told be that there was an opening in the Laboratory. I went to the main office, to the Personnel Department. Stuart Landrum was in charge there, and Bill Graham was his assistant; they did the hiring. I knew Bill from school days, so I interviewed with him. A few days later, I got the call that I had been hired. Thus, began one of the best jobs I ever had.

The lab was a fairly new building, having been built at the same time as the new Refinery, the Roaster, and the 400-feet tall smoke stack. There was a gate with a guard shack that everyone had to pass through. I had to introduce myself to the guard, and he checked me on the list and waved me through. I entered the lab building and reported to the office, which was on the right as you entered.

Vernon Estes was the boss, and P.J. DeGuire was his assistant; I had, also, known P.J. from school. Vernon Estes put my fears of starting a new job at ease. He was very professional, but friendly, as well. He gave me a brief summary of what all took place in the lab. Then, he took me around and introduced me to the various men who worked there.

I met Jack Whitener, Fred Dees, Dale Berry, Carleton Mooney, John Stroup and some others that were shift workers. Those names mentioned were the all-day shift workers. There were 8 other lab workers that worked 3 shifts around the clock, 2 per shift, with one pair off. In later years, there would be some others hired after me, such as Larry Grossman, Danny Rolens, and Lanny Strauser.

Each person had a specific analysis to perform, and each had their own station, with exhaust hood, to work at. Mr. Estes started me off with Carleton Mooney, who worked on analyzing Iron content. I was given a lab manual, which was, sort of, like a cake recipe. It explained how you would mix a little of this, a dab of that, throw in some of those, and cook it. Only! Only this was not “your mamma’s” cooking. There was no term called ‘a pinch’. Or even ‘a dab’. Instead, the measurements were all in the metric system. This was pretty new to me. Volume was measured in cubic centimeters, weight was in grams, and liquids were measured in milliliters.

The normal, daily procedure was to first, get out your tray of beakers and wash them thoroughly, then dry them. Then, you would take your tray of beakers to the Balance Room. By the time that I left this job, they were getting some electric balances, but most were the old fashion kind where you put little brass weights on a pan on one side, and measure out the ore powder onto a pan on the other side. You did this until the needle in the center indicated you had the pans balanced, or the same weight on both sides. Then, you placed the measured ore sample into a beaker.

The samples were brought in about half way through the first hour. Most samples were collected and placed in small, paper envelopes that were labeled, according to where they had been collected. The envelopes were passed around to each lab technician, who would weigh out their allotment for their particular test. Some ran tests for lead, some for iron, some for cobalt, some for copper, and some for nickel and zinc.

My first job with Carleton Mooney was to find the content of Iron in each sample. I learned this procedure rather quickly, and, before long, I was working on my own. Then, after a few months, I was placed on analyzing cobalt and copper content. This analysis was done in a separate room, with its own hot plate and hood, and special electrical instruments to measure the samples.

After weighing out my samples, I would put an exact amount of hydrochloric acid and nitric acid into the beaker with the sample. Then, it would be placed on a hot plate in an exhaust hood to boil. More acids were introduced at times, to digest all the ore possible. When digested, I would pour the liquid through a filter to catch any residue. The liquid, running on through the filter, was caught in a volumetric tube. Then, each tube was placed in a Colorimeter, which would measure the amount of cobalt and copper that was present in the sample.

The results were recorded in a log book and taken to the office. Then, all the equipment had to be rinsed out and made ready for the next day.

It was a fun place to work. It was a great bunch of guys to work with. You even had to be careful about pranks. A favorite was at the sinks. Each sink had an “up-side-down”, letter “J” type of faucet. Each faucet had a short section of hose on it, so the stream of water could be directed to every part of the sink. The prank was to stick a cork in the end of the hose, the cut a thin slice in the hose with a razor blade. The unsuspecting victim would come up, turn the water on, and a stream would hit him in the chest. This worked very well until one day when one of the mine bosses came in to wash his hands. Oops!

Another popular activity occurred at lunch. There was a Coke machine in the lab, and the workers carried their lunches to a table, and most got a bottle of Coke with their lunch. These were glass bottles, and, stamped on the bottom of each bottle was the location of where the bottle was made. For those playing, ten cents was thrown into a pile, and the person who had the Coke bottle from farthest away, won the pot. I guess that proves that, if you want to gamble, you can find just about anything to do it with.

In the spring of 1961, the mines closed. It was a sad time, because I really liked that job and, probably would have stayed there the rest of my life. Like graduating from school, and seldom ever seeing your classmates again, the people of the lab left, and went their separate ways, as well.

After being unemployed for a short while, a worked a few months at a store in Fredericktown, then went to work for Monsanto in St. Louis. This was the beginnings of my leaving the town that I had grown up in. The work at Monsanto was not stable, so I quit and moved to Cape Girardeau to enter college.

I entered the teaching profession, and, though I never had cared for Science in high school, the influence of working in the National Lead Lab, lead me to major in Science. As a result, I taught Earth Science for over 20 years. I still love that subject, and the times that I shared with that old gang in the lab.

Several years ago, I drove back over to the old mine site. A young man lived in a trailer near the entrance. I got his permission to go through the gate. I went inside the old lab. It brought back a lot of memories. But, by then, the roof had caved in, in places. Windows were broken out. The floor was littered with trash. That once nice, new building was dying. Later, it was torn down, along with the roaster building and the huge refinery building. The tall smoke stack was the first to go.

But now, there is hope! “From the ashes” may come this new mining company. New buildings will arise. New activity will take place. Once again, men, and maybe even women, will be scurrying here and there.And, I wish the new mining adventure a lot of success. And I promise that I will not contaminate the work force by applying for a lab job. Although, on second thought………

The Mad Scientist: Local Mine Memories