This was always a beautiful sight to behold – a portable spout was placed into the gaping door (usually an end one) of the furnace and with its siren whooping the crane would manouevre the sizzling pot of iron over it, then delicately empty the pot into the furnace – bringing memories of bonfire night! Eric Johnson told us: “The chap in the foreground with his back towards the camera is Sid Carter, also note the sample pot”. Rodney Begg has advised: “I think this must have been taken on my shift (’C’ shift I think it was ), because I recognise the first hand with his back to the camera, he used to let me fettle for him as ’acting-temporary-fifth hand’! We were kept us busy around tapping time (taking a sample) and the sample lad ( a Theaker from Boosbeck, I think) used to curse if the sample was over-quenched and wouldn’t drill! Sid was always impatient – he would wait in the balance room/bait room pacing up an down while Stan (or Derek, the 2nd Chemist) did the analysis – as a lowly 3rd Chemist I was only allowed to do slags and iron samples!”.
Thanks to Eric Johnson and Rodney Begg for the updates.
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