The fourth in a continuing series (Click the ‘Tales From Topside’ category heading above to see the rest). Doug Podgorny was area manager ovens up until the very end. With 25 years between the coke plant and mill, he watched things start to unravel but had to stick around to see it through. Never before has this story been told, first hand. Stick around for more.
Losing a job isn’t the most stressful experience in life but it is top five on most lists. Intellectually, I knew I’d be fine. Emotional reconciliation however would require the grieving process. It’s one of those things where time distorts. I can’t tell you if hours or days passed before my work phone lit up. I don’t remember who was on the other end but the message was clear. Apparently a local congressman, in a bid to save the Acme jobs, had brokered a deal with some group to finance the coke plant operation. Time to dial back the grief process from anger to denial and get back to work.
Being the excellent planners that we were, out came the plan to bring the battery back from dying idle. The chief issue during this process is the “lean” collector main. We didn’t want the fresh charges to carry any sparks into the main so the first ten or so ovens charged into a lean main were always “charged to the air” . Essentially this means that the oven was left dampered off the main, the riser cap was left open, side blower in standpipe using steam to provide a modest suction off the oven and the lids were removed.
The larry car spotted over the oven and sequentially dropped coal into the oven. The best way to describe “charging to the air” is simply to envision everything engulfed in dense black smoke surrounded by intermittent fire. The charge goes in as fast as the coal falls and the center is cut short to keep the flame down and get the lids on as fast as possible. Once the lids are on the oven , the steam is removed and the oven put back on the main. The dense black / brownish smoke is now being collected and sent on its way. Repeat the process nine more times. And then regular environmentally compliant charging would continue. Because it was a safety issue, “charging to the atmosphere” got an exemption in a few circumstances.
At this point I’m gonna claim twenty years passing and say again that I’m not sure how many hours or days we operated until another ominous ring of the phone. Not sure who made the call either. What was important was the news that the congressman’s deal fell through and we would purge the place and shut down the plant asap. Talk about a roller coaster! Or should I say steam roller? Unfounded rumors had it that Acme Steel wanted the whole steel business shuttered and would not sell the coke plant on their own. Breaking the news to the crews wasn’t any easier but most were pretty skeptical anyway. Everything was in place, crews briefed. The final purge and shut down went flawlessly. It was done!
In the process of packing up the few things I would take with, I uncovered a box of “roman candles” . We always kept a carton on hand in case the collector main bleeder stacks failed to auto-ignite. There were only a handful of us left but we assembled on the coke side bench and grabbed bunches of candles. We stood on the bench and lit up the sky yelling out our good byes and plenty of expletives deleted. There were at least 21 candles exploded. I can’t speak for everybody, but even today the thoughts of all the blood, sweat, tears and frozen extremities I and others at the coke plant had given to Acme to keep the place alive, come to mind. Working at Acme had provided most of us a decent living so we counted our blessings. At least we were able to give the battery a proper farewell “salute”.