Leland J. Kennedy Memoir - University of Illinois Springfield

A: Wrll they had sample boys. A sample boy was - it was on the seniority system, and
he washed - a lot of the samples came in in bottles. And they'd ship a lot of oil products
in bottles, just quart bottles for samples. It was a sample testing laboratory that tested various
competitors' products and they'd all - it seemed like 75 percent of them came in bottles
and we just had a bottle washing machine that would feed in hot water or lukewarm water
and rinse them out, and then we'd put them on a dryer. And you never lacked for
work. (chuckles)
Q: Well.
A: They saw to that, you never lacked for work.
Q: How soon did you move up to being a sample carrier'!
A: Well pretty quick. I was just going to say about - well I only worked - the bottle
washer was strictly a day job. And I got prornotcd to sample carrier - I started in July,
and hell, 1 was carrying samples by Labor Day I'm sure. I'm sure I started the middle or
latter part of August. We worked three shifts, eight to four, four to twelve, and twelve
to eight, and my first duties as a sampler was going to work on the graveyard. And I know
there was a big tank across from the laboratory. The first tank I sampled was that tank.
Q: Now how did you go about that? Did you just open the tank and dish it out?
A: Well you had a belt to carry your quart bottle in, a sample-carrying belt. And just clumb
up the tank. You had to be pretty agile, be careful, most tanks now have a guard, top and
bottom you know. If you notice when you go out to a refinery, you'll see - of course most
of them have steps. Now some of them did have, some had steps, but most of the tanks
we sampled in my career as a sample carrier the only place they had a guard was when
you got up on top and you opened up the top of the tank and you'd lean back, the guard
rail was what they called it, and you'd take your sample. You kept a quart bottle container
as they called it, with a chain, you kept it on top of the tank, and then you'd put your bottle
in that carrier and lower it into the tank.
Q: I see.
A: And if a tank was full, sometimes you'd have to get top, middle and bottom. You'd have
to get three samples. And you wouldn't have to make three trips up the ladder, but you'd
lower the samples as you got them. You'd have a cork and you'd put it in. And lower them
down. It was manual labor I guess, classified as manual labor. You didn't get too many
top and bottoms, but sometimes some chemist would get - and more power to them - would
get the idea, I guess they wanted to see if they were stratified, I suppose, you know. Maybe
they'd have to agitate it more or the petroleum product maybe it was a blend going to go
to some special customer, and they wanted it to he as near mixed as it could be, and
that's . . .
Q: How did they go about mixing it? Did they have a - something . . .
A: Well they had an agitation. Some tanks you could put air in. But most of the mixings
were done in the old Shell refinery where I worked in what they called backs agitators. Now
we in the laboratory didn't do that.
Now, it wasn't long - I think by Christmas I was up to tester in that laboratory. And we
got double-time on Christmas, I remember that. The Fourth of July and Christmas. We
got double-time on two days.
Q: Well!