One might ask “How does
a 17 year old end up working with beryllium?” Great question…and I have the
answer. Flash back to June of 1960. I was a smart kid and skipped a grade in
elementary school which made me only 17 at graduation. A strong work ethic was drilled into me
throughout my life, so of course I needed to get a job, quick! Sitting around over the summer to find myself would never do with my
parents, and I wasn’t quite ready for college.
I answered a newspaper ad that was placed by an employment
agency. The job was for a “Lab
Technician” which sounded intriguing and scientific; right up my alley. When I met with the agency and filled out the
application, I lied and said I was 18.
They told me that if I got the job with this particular company, I would
pay half of the agency’s fee and the company would pay the other half. So I went on the interview. There was no secret that beryllium was
involved because the company’s name included the word “beryllium” in it. I passed an entrance test.
Upon getting offered a position, I was told that the company
did work for the U.S. government and I would need to apply to get a secret
clearance. Yes! This was getting more exciting. Oh…I did come clean about my real age and got
a work permit. The work permit allowed a
minor under the age of 18 to work in a factory.
Good news then, maybe bad news now, but I got hired and worked in the
area that I was told “did research and made beryllium tubing for the space
industry”.
The department that I worked in made beryllium tubes of
different inside and outside diameters.
In simple terms – we took a piece of solid beryllium and heated it until
it was red hot. The beryllium had a hole
in the middle. We then placed that on a metal stick called a mandrel. A large hydraulic press pushed the hot,
softened beryllium through a die that forced the beryllium up through the die
creating a tube. I stood on top of the
press and guided the tubes out of the press. I wore gloves (probably made from
asbestos). The tubes were inspected by engineers to look
for defects and cracks. I then took the
tubes to an area that had acid pickling tanks.
I placed the beryllium tubes in an acid trough which made the beryllium
shiny and smooth by taking off the outer rough surface. I delivered the finished tubes to the same
engineers that inspected them originally.
Even in 1960, hazards related to beryllium were known. Berylliosis
as it was then called, now Chronic
Beryllium Disease was known and workers actually talked and joked about how
to avoid getting it. There were safety
procedures that were regularly followed at the factory. Every day when entering the building, we had
to change into work clothes that consisted of:
a shirt, pants, underwear, socks and shoes all provided by the
company. Our personal clothes went into
a locker. At the end of the work day, we
received 20 minutes of clean up time. A shower
was mandatory, and we left the factory clothes in a laundry bin and we changed
back into our personal clothes before leaving.
In the factory, wherever beryllium was processed, there were big vacuum
hoses intended to pull away beryllium fumes, gases, fragments and dust.
So what about the top secret government clearance? Shhh…if
I tell you I’ll have to …. Think back to 1960. It was the time of the Mercury Space program and
still the era of the Cold War. Our
factory made…nose cones for Polaris missiles and heat shields for the Mercury
space capsules.
There was 17 year old high school graduate, me, “Taking one small step or giant leap for
mankind” making a tube that went somewhere.
I still have no idea what the tubes I made were for. I guess, I wasn’t on a need to know basis. I worked in the factory for 18 months.
I went on with life, to college, the army, to college again,
family, corporate employment, grandchildren and would often tell the story of
my top secret government clearance job at the age of 17. Those were the days, cough, cough, breathe
and breathe! I loved that job!
The following are links to info about the Mercury Space
Program and Polaris missiles if you’re interested:
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