by John Parker
Joe met Dave and took him on a tour of the laboratories. He was shown the partly constructed steam test rig, which was progressing well, before returning to Joe’s office to discuss the programme, in particular the type of specimen to be used. Joe felt that the evidence was mounting in favour of the failure of the Winford disc having been caused by stress corrosion, in fact he said that in his view there was no doubt. Accordingly, as his rig capacity was limited, he was in favour of using test specimens in a stressed condition. Dave agreed and had planned to do the same in his on-site steam rig. If the specimens for their separate tests were taken from the same disc material and were of similar design, they should obtain a direct comparison from both test rigs. After lunch, they settled down to consider specimen design.
It was Joe’s view that a lot, maybe all, of the evidence so far obtained was leading to the, he thought inevitable, conclusion that sodium hydroxide contamination was necessary to cause cracking in the medium strength low alloy steel from which the LP discs were made. It was possible that some sodium hydroxide, which was known to be present in the boiler water, had been inadvertently carried over with the steam into the turbine. This contamination may only have been present for a short time, but long enough for a small pit or crack to develop in the disc. Joe’s view was that such a defect, once formed, might later deepen during operation in normal ‘uncontaminated’ steam and penetrate into the disc at the keyway, where the stress was highest. It could become deep enough to cause failure under the operating stress of the steam turbine – increased during overspeed testing.
Dave listened carefully as Joe developed his point, nodding occasionally at the faultless logic. What Joe had in mind, given what he’d said, was the use of a specimen design that incorporated a preformed defect. In summary, he recommended using specimens containing a defect, in the form of a sharp crack, which would represent the sodium hydroxide damage that might have occurred in the actual discs. These specimens would be fitted with a bolt in such a way that a stress could be applied to the crack, the amount of stress could vary in the various specimens. Each specimen would be x-rayed before starting the test to obtain a picture of the starting crack. The specimens would be put into the test rig, through which high purity steam would be passed. Each specimen would be removed and x-rayed again to check for any increase in crack depth. Afterwards they would be returned for further exposure.
Finally, Joe had a pleasant surprise for Dave, as he had sufficient specimens, machined from the failed disc, for Dave’s on-site tests as well as his own. Dave was delighted, even more so to find that they were already loaded up to the required stress intensities and each had been x-rayed. All Dave had to do now was to get his own test rig installed at Winford. He hoped that it could be ready to go by early March.
*
Dave left Nuneaton and travelled the short distance into Birmingham. He had arranged to stay with his parents overnight in order to call in on his old workmates the following day.
He submitted to the customary inquisition as they sat around the tea table. His parents lived quietly these days and were glad to learn of their son’s progress. Mrs Harrison was unapologetic in her quest for information, as she was always keen to have something with which to impress her neighbours. Mr Harrison, though more diffident, was also proud of his son and enjoyed learning of his work. Later, as his parents settled down to watch television, Dave phoned Sue.
“Hello love, I’m glad you called,” greeted Sue, “how did your meeting go?”
“Fine, thanks. How’s everything back at base camp?”
“All quiet now and I’m relaxing after a couple of boisterous hours with the Potter kids here. Betty has just collected them. She’d been invited out for the day so I agreed to look after Sam and Rosy.”
“That’s good, but you will have to be careful that you don’t become a regular child minder,” cautioned Dave.
“Yes I will, but it would suit me if, between us, we could set up an occasional sharing system as it would mean that I could get out now and again with Pam and so forth. Incidentally, on that subject, I would like to go up to Somerset House to do more family research and there’s a chance for me to get up there in the next couple of weeks if it’s OK with you.”
“Sounds a good idea. Be a nice change.”
Sue seized the opportunity. “I’d hoped you wouldn’t mind as the chap who lent me a copy of his family history book – you remember?”
“Yes, Peter somebody?”
“Peter Fenner, that’s right. Well he’s offered me a seat in his car when he goes up to London for the day. Apparently he takes several of his family history circle regularly and they each go off and do their own thing. Although he has two regulars, the third seat is often free. It would be handy for me and economical too.”
“Sounds great,” enthused her husband.
“That’s where an arrangement with Betty Potter would be good, as she’d look after Jo and Katy and, together with Sam and Rosy, get their homework hour organised.”
“That would be ideal.”
“Thanks love. Now I’ve got some good news for you – well for both of us really, and no, before you ask, I’m not pregnant. Gritty popped in to let you know that your request for a contract-hire car has been approved. It seems that the cost is mainly borne by the Authority, so hopefully, we should be able to afford to keep our Morris as well.” Dave agreed that it was good news. He rejoined his parents feeling pleased with himself. It was likely that Sue would be much happier now, having the extra freedom the car would give. Hopefully he could put all his efforts into achieving his own ambitions without feeling too guilty. The future did indeed look bright.
*
How dingy it all seemed. Dave was welcomed by his former lab colleagues, as he had been by the familiar faces that he’d passed on his way through the main workshops. He had forgotten just how noisy and frantic the place was. He had some good mates here. The lab was busy as ever and most of his former colleagues nodded a welcome or exchanged a quick handshake, before returning to their work. Dave didn’t resent this. He could remember the pressure they were under to turn around the work quickly.
A couple of his closest friends broke off what they were doing and led him into the quiet of the chemical balance room for a chat. They brought him up to date with the gossip concerning mutual friends and appeared keen to hear of his progress. The three of them had been together for many years. As new school leavers they had joined Fisher’s training scheme. They had embarked upon part-time day release courses at college and night school, desperately working through the various stages of the National and Higher National Certificate courses, followed by the professional institutions’ examinations, the dread of having to repeat a year ever present. But good times for all that. They had played in the company’s football and cricket teams and been especially active in the pursuit of girls and even now, as they relived some of the incidents, the hint of competition was still alive. After a cup of tea, Dave took his leave, promising to keep in touch.
Back in the car, Dave reflected upon those earlier times. His working life now was so different from that of the many people, bright people, working in numerous industrial labs around the Midlands. Even after obtaining their professional qualifications, the work for many was undemanding and repetitive. The chemists had maybe a hundred routine samples to analyse each day, whilst the metallurgists spent hours carrying out repetitive tensile strength or hardness tests on batches of components. All run like a production line really. Occasionally, an unusual job might turn up, perhaps a component failure to investigate but, for the most part it was a boring routine. Despite this he had been happy and contented and he admitted that, left to himself, he would probably have remained at Fisher’s all his working life – lack of ambition, imagination, or just plain inertia? He was pleased that, largely thanks to Sue, he had taken his opportunity. As a result he felt that now he had a chance to make his mark and was sure that very many of the lads at Fisher’s and
elsewhere could do equally well given the chance. He was, after all, just one of them. The industrial landscape of Bolton and Watt gave way to pastoral Shakespeare country as Dave made his way home.
11
An unusual calm hovered, albeit precariously, as Katy and Jo grudgingly completed another assignment and Sue buried herself in her book. Dave’s arrival was an excuse for all three to take a break.
Dave heard of their various activities, in particular Sue’s preparations for her family history trip, which was due within the next couple of weeks. She was intending to obtain copies of the birth certificates for her grandparents. These were held at Somerset House. It seemed, however, that it was necessary to carry out one’s own searches through the records. She was comforted in the knowledge that she would not be alone, as one of her fellow passengers on the trip was also visiting Somerset House and, as she was an old hand, would probably be able to get her started. Peter and the other woman were planning to visit The Society of Genealogists.
*
Dave learned that the manufacture of his test vessel was complete and being delivered to Winford. He made plans to travel down to the site with Gritty, to organise its assembly into the steam turbine pipework. As this would be a two day job arrangements were made for an overnight stay in Lyndhurst.
Dave asked Ian to store the pre-cracked specimens which he had received from Joe Griffiths. He also mentioned his own intention of including some extra specimens that did not contain cracks. The purpose of these was to determine whether cracks could initiate under normal ‘uncontaminated’ steam conditions without having any pre-existing defect present. He accepted that this was extremely unlikely, but it would eliminate any lingering doubts that cracks could form during normal turbine operation. He regarded this as good science.
What he required were specimens to be manufactured from the Winford LP disc material, in the form of long bolts, loaded into an open steel frame through which steam could flow. The specimens would be stressed using locking nuts. He sketched what he had in mind. Ian, being both intelligent and resourceful, would, Dave was confident, be able to get the frame with its loaded specimens organised by the time the on-site test vessel was ready.
Dave arranged to pick up Gritty en route to Winford. He started early. Gritty was waiting at his front gate, ever keen and reliable. They arrived at Winford and were in high spirits now that the long tedious preparation period was over, things were now on the move. But not for long.
“No chance of a fitter until after lunch,” Dave was told. So he and Gritty spent the morning checking the test site around the steam inlet to the LP section of Number 5 turbine, deciding where best to position the test vessel. They found a suitable space on the turbine operating floor.
It was four o’clock when the fitter arrived. Although this was annoying, as far as the experiment was concerned, a short delay was not a problem as the length of the test was likely to be several months. Dave’s concern was that Number 5 turbine which they’d been allocated for their experiment, was due to return to service the following evening and, as the Senior Maintenance Engineer had so succinctly announced, ‘It’s steam-to-set at five o’clock tomorrow even if you’re inside the bloody thing’.
“Right you are gents,” said the fitter on his arrival, “where’s the permit?” It was following this remark that a naive Dave was instructed on the ‘permit to work’ system which every power station operates. In brief, he learned that it was a safety system organised by the permit office, who issued permits, locks and keys to the person undertaking the work. The plant item covered by the permit was disabled and could not be operated until the permit had been returned. So Dave needed a permit for his work on the LP steam system. The fact that Dave couldn’t fault the logic did little to soothe his temper. The final straw was the queue of people awaiting attention in the permit office. Naturally this was always busiest during overhaul periods. So as Dave and Gritty made their way to their digs in Lyndhurst, they could reflect that all they had achieved in one full day was finally obtaining a permit to do some work.
*
Sue was delighted when Peter called to ask if she was free the following day as they were having to bring their London trip forward. One of the ladies had a hospital appointment on the original day, he explained. Sue, having confirmed that Betty Potter could take Jo and Katy after school, had agreed.
*
It was an early start, but Sue found no difficulty in getting out of bed. Her interest in family history had been building; gradually dominating her thoughts. Even during sleep the subject had not been completely erased with the result that, before becoming fully conscious, a ghostly vision of an imagined ancestor hovered around her bed, beckoning; urging her awake.
It was a pleasant drive up to London with an abundance of chatter on all things genealogical between the two elderly women. Peter had been quiet, which may have been due to the need to concentrate on negotiating the rush-hour traffic. However, during a lull in the conversation, he explained to Sue that he would park the car under the Hammersmith flyover and they would pick up the tube from there.
All four took the District Line, with Peter and Beryl getting off at Gloucester Road, as they were visiting the Society of Genealogists’ library, whilst Sue and Kathleen stayed on until Temple. The two of them climbed the hill up to the Strand and turned left to Somerset House. This building housed the birth, marriage and death certificates of all residents of England and Wales who had been registered since July 1837.
It came as a shock to Sue that she would not be searching through certificates, but through indexes and she was disappointed to learn that she would not have anything to take home with her that day. Any copies she ordered would be posted on to her.
*
Dave’s patience was sorely tried early on his second day at Winford. He had thought that, having obtained the permit to work and having his fitter and mate, all would be well, but then another obstacle – the safety man – made further difficulties. The test vessel, he was informed, could not be sited where they had planned – ‘a clear hazard if ever he’d seen one’. Therefore, it would have to be positioned further away between two existing steam pipes, out of the main walkway. An additional requirement was that the test vessel and all its associated pipework, would have to be insulated to protect other workers, as these items would be hot when operating. Having thus spoken, he consulted his clipboard, scanned down its itemised list, before moving on to spoil someone else’s morning.
After some head scratching and intakes of breath, Dave’s fitter measured up the various pipe runs and identified suitable valve positions before returning to his workshop to begin cutting pipe to size. Later, he informed Dave, he would be back to sort out the routing and bending of the pipe sections required to bring the sampled steam, from the overhead LP turbine steam inlet supply, down to the test vessel’s new location. Gritty and Dave were left to survey the test vessel and consider how best to position it in the area now required by the safety officer.
“It’s going to be a tight squeeze,” Gritty observed, and Dave agreed. Between them they attempted to manoeuvre the vessel, which, in effect, was a large diameter, stainless steel cylinder with flanges top and bottom, several pipe entry bosses and fixing lugs. It was cumbersome and surprisingly heavy.
*
“I do believe they are getting heavier,” observed Sue to her companion as she carried another large volume and set it down with a thump on the sloping shelf. The other woman smiled in silent agreement.
The indexes of births, through which Sue was searching, were large, heavy, leather-bound volumes stretching seemingly endlessly along the shelving which lined the walls. The three separate sections, births, marriages and deaths, were divided up by narrow balconies. Each section began in July 1837 and ran chronologically up to the present day, every year being divided into quarters.
Sue began her search of the indexes looking for her grandfather, Harry Boughton. As she knew his age was twen
ty three from his marriage certificate in early 1902, she started with the January – March Volume for 1879, but without success, so she had to progress through the rest of that year and then into 1880 – another four heavy volumes – with no sign of Harry Boughton. Oh dear, this wasn’t going to be as straightforward as she had imagined. Sue decided to try the years either side of the two years she had searched through and then, in the second volume, April – June of 1878, she found his entry. Despite feeling self-conscious, she experienced much joy at this, her first find. As she was to learn, this reaction never seemed to diminish, each success producing the same jolt of pleasure. Sue completed the application form for a copy of the original certificate, noting down his name, the place of registration (Aston), the volume, date and quarter plus an index reference number.
