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RUSSELL BERGER'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY - Part 2

Young Adulthood

Words and phrases in italics were in parentheses in the original.
Otherwise, the text is intended to faithfully reflect the original.

June 1969

In September I will be 70 yrs old. Maybe I aim being a little naieve, but I would like to relate my early years growing up. My Father engineered the whole thing. I.E. He not only persuaded me, he also persuaded the man who hired me. I'm not sure that was a conspiracy, but needless to say, I had my doubts.

I am trying to say, that was how I got started in a job that was interesting, frustrating, and down-right hard work.

After all these years, I am still astonished that I over came such handicaps, as limited schooling, short of stature, and no background of family ties to Plumbers

My first job after quitting school in Shamokin, was Kaufmann's Drapery work room. I got valuable experience getting around the city & working with older people instead of classmates. I was free from books!

Plumber's are subjected to many demands, but I consider this as strictly a service. It takes many people with different skills and art and professions, to make a successful economy. I still mantain that producers of the nation are: Miners of coal & minerals, Lumberjacks, Oil drillers. Farmers & Rancher's. Maybe Teachers.

Of course Nature supplies the raw Materials. All the Tradesmen Manufacturers, Professions, Government, Engineering only provide a service. I have always thought we were providing a service.

My first day in the plumbing shop! was September 28, 1914, there was a heavy frost that morning. I cannot describe it acuretly, but it was only one room and it was chilly. It had the odor of oakum, oil and gasoline. My boss told me who the plumber and Laborer was and showed me the work bench and the drawers where the tools were kept. Later the boss gave a carton with a closet seat in it and told me where to deliver it.

For the next 7 1/2 years, I lugged pipe, & tool bags & furnaces, pushed wheelbarrows, pulled sleds, worked with plumbers & laborers in homes, churches, and schools & saloons, I painted pipes & radiators, cut & threaded pipes, Learned how to caulk Joints & wipe Joints and use a soldering Iron, I also struggled with radiators, bath tubs. Laundry trays, and heavy soil pipe, I studied plumbing codes, how to figure angles, how to bend Lead & Brass pipe. How to wipe joints by pouring molten solder on the pipe and shaping it with a cloth pad. Copper Streamline tubing was introduced to the trade about 1930 and simplified the whole Industry. In 1937 3" soil stacks became standard for up to 12 Fixtures. This took a lot of drudgery out of new work. (But it made bosses put on more pressure on labor to cut down on time.)

I got ahead of my story Early in the business I had to get used to Plumbing Inspectors, Gas Inspectors, Home owners, Contractors, the struggle with Transportation, and last but not least with Local 27's business agent Ed Welsh.

The hazards on the Job were quite apparent. The early days had no compensation laws You just had to be careful. Most houses were two & three stories high, nine to ten ft. ceilings Hardly any contractors used sub-floors, and no stairways until the plumber & steamfitter roughed-in, because gas lines were installed in every room, and sometimes gas lights.

When working on sewer's in the basement carpenters & bricklayers often got careless with tools, blocks of wood, and bricks. I once spilled lead on a brlcklayer when I happened to be on top. TonyBarberi was the laborer where I first started, we didn't work to-gether very often. Martin Gorham and I worked together often.

Gas lines in a building are subjected to rigid regulations by the Fire Underwriters. They must hold an 18 lb air pressure for 20 Minutes and not be inclosed in a cold air returns to warm air furnaces. Learning the plumbing trade is a long, tedious, application of patience & endurance. I quit several times.

Encouragement was needed and there were several people that I don't think Dad quite understood, but he sympathized.

When the Union finally accepted me for the apprentice ship, I thought I was on the way March 1917 but the toughest part was the winter of 1917-1918. Frost went four feet deep. Frozen lines in the street, and basements was a night-mare. Up until now, my experiences dealt with learning a trade and the frustrations of the work-day world.

Mr. McRoberts (our neighbor) persuaded me to apply for a job at the Colonial Ice Co. at 17th & Muriel Sts. (S S.) [South Side Pittsburgh] it was July 1918 and hot! I worked 6 days (6 P.M. to 6 AM.) as an oiler and filler of grease cups. I lea.rned how 300 lb ice blocks were made out of exhaust steam traveling through condensing coils.

I decided there must be eight hour Jobs to be had somewhere. The war was one year old and I suspected that the Army would contact me so I better get into war work. Pipe fitters were needed in an Oakdale Chemical plant. Almost 19 yrs old I could be a fitter's helper. After working all night I rode my bicycle to Oakdale in the hot sun. I didn't contact anybody, just looked through the fence, the sight sickened me. I made up my mind to try again some where else. (Incidently another plant in that vicinity blew up that year)

Machinists helpers were needed at 26th & Liberty ave and after inquiry I found only 12 hrs night turn was available. About 2:30 P.M. I was fascinated watching a big fly wheel in the engine room of the Air Reduction Co. Some one saw that I was trying to get a better look at the activity inside and asked me if I was looking for a job. I said I was interested if there were 8 hour days. I started at 3130 P.M. and worked until 11:30 P.M. I worked there until May 1919
.
Only nature makes oxygen, but it takes engineering skill to separate it from the other gases. This plant was using a German type system called Hildebrand. There must be several simpler systems to-day, but I think this was rather unique, production was continuous (24 hrs a day.) Four people worked 8 Hr shifts Two complete systems were, more or less, in constant use. Three separators made it possible for two systems to operate while one was thawing. Air is washed and then sent through a series of drying tubes (10) that contained baked calcium Cloride and Caustic Soda. before being compressed to about 1800 lbs. or more. 350 H.P. motors furnished the power to the compressors. An expansion valve in the separator constantly controlled by the engineer kept the oxigen flowing into a baloon for storage.

It sounds simple, but it was quite complicated. When a gas is compressed and expanded suddenly the temperature drops so low the gas turns to liquid. In this case, it was called liquid air I saw demonstrations of liquid air changing rubber into a brittle substance that would brea.k like glass! And steel wire burn like sparlers.

The next step, was to get the oxygen to separate from nitrogen and other gases. While this was going on, the separa.tors were slowly filling up with frost, since the air contained some moisture, that is why a third separator was needed. It took about a week of thawing to put it back in service. The oxigen in the baloon was compressed in cylinders to 1875 lbs.

Service men returning from the war, put me out of work, but my experience around noisey machinery was enough to last me for a long time. The plumbing trade seemed as more attractive now. I had spent a lot of time in a trade school, so if I could get a decent wage, I would finish the trade.

I was paying board & dating girls and needed spending money, I would soon be 20 years. I got books from the Library and started to study for my city plumber's examination. The trolley car was the common modes of travel, and walking was quite common tool Girls didn't expect us to have cars then. Telephones weren't plentiful either.

The bosses' brother persuaded me to join the protected Home Circle. It was very enjoyable. This was when I was Eighteen and before I worked at Air Reduction, but now I took more interest in the activities. Going to Lodge meetings was quite the thing then, it made you feel grown up. After meetings there was entertainment and lunch, dancing often, and a chance to meet girls.

At this time of my life, from 1920 on, it is difficult to put first things first. I remember the plumber's examination. It was May, about 40 fellows in the room, the doors were locked at 9:00 A.M. Jerry Driscoll, our teacher in plumbing school, Ed welsh, business agent for Local 27, and one other man gave us the works. I sweated untill about 4:00 P.M. It was a frustrating experience. Even to-day some of the questions don't seem to have answers.

June 1920, has to be the highlight of my life. That month I met the woman,who became my wife and I passed the plumbers examination for my journeyman's License.

Almost six years since I started working in a. plumbing shop. The boss would change his attitude toward me. I would expect a tool bag with new tools, bend springs and wiping tools & caulking chisels. Maybe more pay! I started courting in earnest, by Christmas I was engaged: Nothing was going to stop me now. In Jan. 1921 my boss was taken iII with an infection. He decided to dult the business and move to a farm in Ohio.

My plans or should I say our plans were threatened. I made application to take the Master Plumbers examination. I was loafing for the first time since I started to work. Easter Monday I met Jack Costello and pored out my tale of woe, he suggested I contact Wendell Bennett, who had taken over some of my bosses' jobs. Mr Bennett hired me for 75cts an hour, I had been getting $1.00 an hr.

Since our wedding was planned for June I had to cut down on spending and start to look for rooms to rent. I had a little over 2 1/2 months till the wedding. It never occurred-to me to postpone it. What youth won't put up with?

I want to point out, right here, you need Friends and I mean some, who will help, as well as give advice. I had been cultivating these precious things all along, but they can be had when you least expect them. You can be led astray also. I will explain later.

Getting rooms to rent, in Brookline, was a problem. It's funny I never tried any other places, I guess because working so long in Brookline, I knew just about everybody. Mr Maurer was a street car man, who let me (us) have two rooms and use of the bath and we paid half Tele, & light & g»s. The heat in winter was from a coal furnace, all for $20.00 a month! There were adjustments to make, on both sides, but we got along for a year. Mean while, Bennett kept me busy until late summer 1921.

The plumbers & steamfitters were on strike from June 1, so I was walking a tight rope. Since I was still an apprentice, and not a member of the Union, my boss lent me to another shop that was having trouble getting plumbers because of the Lock-out. That is what I meant about freinds giving you a bum steer.

Well, I weathered the storm and the Union (Loca.l 27) gave me membership in May 1922. I went to Bennett's shop on a Monday morning and demanded $9.00 a day or I would leave and contact another shop. I had a lot of confidence then, but experience was lacking. I was a plumber, alright, but the plumbers, who have been knocking around from shop to shop & job to job give a young mechanic a rough time.

I called Knoxville Pig Co., and was hired. I wont try to recall in detail what transpired in the months that followed. Jumping from $6 a day to $9 gave us a chance to live better, so we moved across the street, three rooms on the first floor with the same facilities we had before.

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