Big Ugly

 

Big Ugly was the nickname of the oiler who helped me operate the cement kilns in Calera.  Until the introduction of computers, kiln burning required keen eyesight, analytical thinking, and quick response by the burner.  It was one of the most pressured positions at a cement plant.  The oiler was critical to successful burning of the kilns.

The two kilns at Calera were 450 feet long and 12 feet in diameter. Each burned 3-6 tons of coal and 75-83 tons of raw mix per hour when operations were smooth.  This produced 40-45 tons of clinker.  Clinkers, mixed with gypsum, produces cement.  Kilns were basically 450 pipe bombs, very dangerous and potentially deadly.

I had been an oiler prior to becoming a burner.   An oiler’s responsibility is largely preventive maintenance.  He is the eyes and ears of the burner.  If an oiler can diagnosis a potential problem, a scheduled time of repair is much better than an emergency.

Once another burner was out taking a visual inspection of the burning process.  Burners did this on fifteen-minute intervals under normal operation.  Bad raw mix could make the inspections more frequent.  When the burner returned to the control room, fire blew from the inspection door and looked like a fire-breathing dragon.  Bumfuzzled, the burner tried to analyze the problem.

His alert oiler saw the fire and ran to the control room.  He told his burner that he saw an electrical trainee and a dufus engineer carrying on of the control modules to the electrical shop.  The control module was the control for one of the major vent fans that created airflow equilibrium in the kiln.  The imbalance created more fuel and air than the kiln could handle.  The burner quickly ran down two of the Three Stooges and returned the control for the burner to get control.  Larry and Curley did not think removing the module would hurt anything.

Another critical piece of equipment was the clinker breaker.  Clinkers are normally marvel sized, but they can be from a tiny speck to six feet balls.  I have shot a couple of four feet clinkers with the eight-gauge tripod gun used to shoot sulfur rings that form in the kiln.  Clinkers larger than 2-3 feet will choke the system and will not enter the clinker breaker.

Clinker breakers are large hammers that break clinkers into manageable sizes.  Even though they are hardened steel, they wear and constant inspections of the belts, a total of six, that drive the hammers are vital.  Should a clinker breaker choke, the belts could burn into and the breaker stop.  If this happens, an oiler has a mess and a burner must start the process of slowing the kiln or possibly a shutdown if the belts are not replaced quickly.

I was working overtime on another shift when the oiler told me that one belt had worked loose.  It did not pose a threat, but he wanted me to know.  Three evening later, my oiler run into the control room in a panic.  He was frantic.  He said that we had a belt loose and we need to call in maintenance men to fix it. 

I told him that I knew it and that it had been loose for three days.  He assured me that he checked it a dozen or more times each shift.  I said that he looked at it without seeing it.  I told him the Bible talked about seeing but not seeing.

I told Big Ugly that I had done it too as an oiler.

And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive (Matthew 13:14 KJV).

*And he (John) stooping down, and looking in, saw (blepi-casual glance) the linen clothes lying; yet went he not in.  Then cometh Simon Peter following him, and went into the sepulchre, and seeth (theori-thoughtful and calculated look) the linen clothes lie, And the napkin, that was about his head, not lying with the linen clothes, but wrapped together in a place by itself.  Then went in also that other disciple, which came first to the sepulchre, and he saw (eiden-conveys belief), and believed (John 20:8-5KJV).

* From Doctrine that Dances, Dr. Robert Smith Jr. (pp. 20-21)

Process

One of the buzzwords today is process.  Sometimes I wonder what all the hullabaloo is about process.  Everyday life is a process of understanding, developing, and growing.  Babies process from newborns not knowing how to do anything to in just a few months can walk, talk, and balk.

Those of us that have worked in plants know that the manufacturing of products is a process.  It is a long process to go from a log to a roll of bath tissue, paper towels, or paper.   It is the same with cement.  It is a long process to transform limestone, sand, iron ore, and aluminum into cement.  The list is of industries that process products are endless.  There are garment plants, welding and machine shops, electrical shops, etc.

At a very young age, I decided I wanted to be a mechanic.  Since we monetarily handicapped, a fancy way to say poor, we never owned many new things.  I remember helping daddy repair an engine, Danny Baker of Linden Baptist, tells me motor means an electric motor and I say an engine is what pulls a train.  Any who, daddy taught me how disassemble generators, starters, transmissions, and engines.  Sometimes I would tear a starter or generator apart and have daddy show me how to put it back together.  I cannot write in my articles what he said but the jest of it was; how in the world did you tear this apart?

As a preteen, I was repairing just about everything we owned.  I would study the parts as I removed them, hoping I would remember how to put them back together.  If only I had an iPhone back then.  It always amazed me that I could get the part back to working with fewer parts.  It seems that I always had leftover parts.

I remember that there were a few things that flew into what seemed a jillion pieces when tearing them apart.  It kinda complicates things when you do not know what went flying or you cannot find it.  Then, I had to use a similar part from another part.

I remember when I began working at the cement plant.  I knew nothing about cement although I had helped pour and finish concrete.  Concrete and cement are two different products.  Concrete is a mixture of cement, sand, and stone.  I wanted a job there because it paid big money.  I left a machine shop hoping to be a machinist at the cement plant.  I can assure you that if I were there today, I would not be a machinist.

At the plant, I was placed on an oiler’s job on the cement kiln.  Kiln operators made the most money of all hourly employees.  I love the cable show “How it’s Made.” I love to see how things are made.  I did with the process of the cement kilns.  The operator was glad to teach me.  He provided me with an understanding of the “cooking of cement.”  He told the production manager, his good friend, about me wanting to “burn” the kilns.  The production manager, who had been an oiler at one time, told me to grasp a good understanding of burning the kilns and gave me a book, The Art of Kiln Burning.

I told the production manager that I did not know if I have enough time to learn the operation of the kilns.  He said that he knew how much work I had and that I understood what was necessary and was not and to spend a couple of hours a day training.  I told him that I did not want to leave undone work for the next shift.  He said, “Let me worry about that.”

I knew that everyone in the plant feared the production manager.  His nickname was “Killer.”  Knowing that, I realized if he wanted me to understand the operation of the kilns, it would be best for me.  I understood the consequences of being on his list.  My burner loved it because he could take breaks.  I was mortified burning two 400 feet pipe bombs.  While breaking, my burner would cut off a piece of equipment to see if I understood the total operating procedure.  If I did not understand the gravity of the situation, he would explain how vital it was and the quicker I recognized the problem, the better it would be.  My burner became a supervisor and I eventually became a kiln burner, operating them for several years. 

When I bided into maintenance, I had to train my replacement on the kilns.  I made sure that those that had not been oilers had more training, understanding the dangers and consequences of burning the kilns.

When I was a young man, Roy Moxley, a machinist and my father-in-law, told me that a person could do anything once they understand it.  I have experienced that.  Now having been in ministry for thirty-eight years, I have a better understanding on life.  Sometimes that is.  Evil is fast taking over our lives and it is important and imperative that we understand the dangers and consequences of evil and reverence for the Lord.

I like Job’s rebuttal to his so-called friends in response since Job has fallen on hard times.

 

And unto man he said, Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding (Job 28:28).

 

The truth today is; there is a limit to power and skill.  We can learn many things and can harness the basic energy of the universe, but we cannot find wisdom in science.

"Like Rats Scurrying From A Corncrib Fire"

Charley was a shift supervisor at the cement plant.  He had this nervous energy.  He would have trouble being a supervisor now days considering all the labor laws, restrictions, and government policies protecting employees.  Charley was not a bad supervisor, but it is a very different working world today as opposed to the late 1970’s.

Charley was terrified of his boss, a man nicknamed “Killer.”  I thought Killer was short for Killingsworth, but word was it was because Killingsworth tried to commit suicide.

Charley transferred his fear of Killer to his crew.  When Killer wanted something done, Charley was a nervous wreck trying to push his crew.

 I remember one incident where we had bricked the burning zone of one of the cement kilns.  Killer was notorious for staying ahead of schedule for winter maintenance shutdowns.  He told Charley to have us light a fire in the kiln burner pipe to start curing the new brick as soon as maintenance pulled (closed) the hood of the kiln.  This process was burning natural gas and slow rotation of the kiln.

Well, the frantic Charley nervously pushed the kiln burner and his two oilers, one oiler being me, to light her up.  M C, the other oiler, and I tied a rag on a long metal rod, sprayed it with WD 40, lit it with a cigarette lighter, and shoved it in the kiln in front of the burner pipe. 

With the lighted rag in front of the burner pipe, the kiln burner opened the natural gas valve on a six-inch line.  That may not mean much, but for informational clarity, a six-inch gas line makes a loud blowing sound like a rocket taking off.  M C and I had liftoff.

Charley did not know that Killer and several laborers were under the burner pipe repairing the discharge hearth of the kiln.  M C and I watched as these men scrambled from the hearth like rats scurrying from a corn crib fire.  The door of the hearth was ten feet off the ground and one ladder.  Had it not been so serious, it would have been comical and Killer was fighting mad.  He had a right to be.  He, along with the other men, could have perished in a fire if there had been a back draught or excess gas in the kiln.  Lighting a kiln was always very dangerous.

Killer chewed on M C and me for a while.  We explained that were only following orders.  He wanted to know if we knew they were in the kiln.  We said we did but he gave the order to Charley and if he gave the order, and he was in the kiln, that he must have known that it was okay to light the fire or he would not have given Charley the order to light it.  M C and I never lit another kiln without being sure it had no one in it.  It was not unusual to work on the hearth when the kiln was lit, but it was lit when no one was in it, only afterwards.  M C and I felt sorry for Charley when Killer got on him.

Charley was a fine Christian man.  Older employees knew him before his conversation.  They said that when Charley accepted Christ as savior that the next week he brought a one-ton truckload of tools and equipment back to the plant.  He had taken shovels, wheelbarrows, air hoses, welding machines, and acetylene torches and hoses to name a few.

Charley lived a converted life.  Everyone in the plant knew it, especially Killer.  I never understood why Charley never stood up to Killer.  I always marveled at Charley’s testimony and confession of stealing the truckload of equipment from the plant.  To me that took courage to confess and even more courage to bring the stuff back, especially when they told him he did not have to bring it back.  That kind of courage could stand against Killer.

And Zacchaeus stood, and said unto the Lord; Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have taken any thing from any man by false accusation, I restore him fourfold.  And Jesus said unto him, This day is salvation come to this house, forsomuch as he also is a son of Abraham (Luke 19:8-9 KJV)