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While engaged with the firm I did make a contribution that prolonged its dying agonies for another four years. The agricultural bulk fertilizer spreaders of the times carried five tons on a truck mounted hopper and hauled five tons on a trailer fitted with a V section hopper with a top mounted chain scraper and chute that was supposed to transfer its load to refill the spreader hopper. The process was extremely slow with dry fertilizers and failed completely if the materials were damp or wet. The operators were forced to hand shovel the loads across. My solution was to utilize a proven spreader hopper with its travelling mat floor. The idea was to elevate the rear end of the hopper by means of a tipping truck hydraulic hoist and a radius linkage between the hopper and a standard trailer chassis. This brought the discharge end over the truck hopper when the travelling floor mechanism was engaged and the load transferred in three or four minutes. Success was immediate and about four hundred units were constructed and distributed throughout New Zealand, Tasmania and a few to Victoria and South Australia. Indeed the concept became adapted to some field crop harvesting and provided a feeder appendage to packing house sorting benches. In fact load in the field and self discharge at delivery. My reward was, “go to it and make them faster”.

After four years in this rough and tumble I went into the trades teaching section of a secondary school and stayed for five years achieving nothing worth recording and failing completely to appreciate the politics of the system. I then joined an intermediate school to establish and teach in its new metal crafts workshop. I actually enjoyed the experience for a few years creating a break-away from the traditional forged poker and boot scraper approach. I guided the introduction of forms 1 and 2 girls to metal crafts when all boys and girls were initiated to the four craft subjects. The old time-worn idea of weeks to produce a work of art in metal craft was thrown out and indeed we produced a simple item the first day of the student’s contact. I stayed twelve years and for three years was senior and visiting teacher in the subject for the district education board of the time. I was approaching age 58 and resigned and gave myself three months holiday.

I enjoyed the liberty then without too much sense of compulsion went looking for a job, mainly part time employment. I landed three engineering orientated jobs and accepted one in a nylon yarns processing factory. I stayed there for four years as purchasing and personel officer. On the way I was able to resolve a few engineering problems, find sources of machine component supplies and fit staff to jobs and jobs to staff.

At age 62 I walked into my office one morning and noted the four walls just all too close so decided to call it a day and gave a months notice and happily walked away from paid employment. Then I really started work, that is work in my home workshop that I really did enjoy. A little money to cover costs, some barter and creative satisfaction. The pottery crafts people wanted pottery wheels, associated accessories and kiln oil burners all tidy work within my capacity. The wool spinners and weavers wanted wooden bobbins, needles, loom components, buttons and toggles. This was delightful work with added pleasures of the aromas of the various woods. This too called for the scheming out and making up of single purpose machines to facilitate production. But I get ahead of the story. Back in my school teaching days I had my home workshop up and running and I was preoccupied with getting a life and practicing engineering in the way I wanted to. There were interesting things to be done and it was time to get going.

RETURN TO ENGINEERING 1




I re-entered the engineering trade in 1944 in a works catering mainly to the agricultural industry. The war still had two years to run and imports were severely restricted. The existing fleet of pre-war farm tractors needed constant maintenance and repairs. By 1946 when the first of the British built Fergusson and David Brown tractors started to appear versatile workshop technicians came into their own. The Fergussons were a success from day one but the David Browns showed a propensity for shattering their differential gear carriers and it fell to me to fabricate and machine new replacements. The first models had no provision for front end attachments such as high lift platforms, loader buckets or grader blades so an exercise handed to me was to find a way to accommodate these essential attributes. With this resolved many David Browns that would not otherwise have left the show room were sold. Sales of new tractors meant that well used American tractors such as Internationals and Fordsons were traded in. Parts were difficult to obtain so many bits and pieces including sets of pistons were machined from locally produced castings. Also onto the market came a flood of imported powered row-crop cultivators for market gardeners. These presented an opportunity to scheme out and make up sets of high pressure spraying equipment that could be fitted or dismounted as required thus increasing the versatility of the machines.

As the war drew to an end some ex-service men with agricultural backgrounds chose to pick up rehabilitation business loans and set up as earth moving contractors. They purchased mainly second hand Caterpillar and International crawler tractors and had them overhauled and fitted with bull-dozer equipment. In those times winch operation was becoming outmoded and hydraulic actuation was taking over. Sets of this equipment were not imported so had to be locally manufactured to fit each application. I had a keen interest in this work and over five years made up many sets of hydraulic rams, control valves, pressure relief valves and gear pumps. I was head-hunted and offered a remuneration inducement to work for an automotive engine reconditioning firm. My first year’s wages for the same hours went up by 60%. My main work was operating a newly installed crankshaft journal regrinding machine as well as being given experience on cylinder reboring, piston finishing, engine block main bearing line boring, connecting rod bearing machining and fitting. Sandwiched among this was making engine components for vintage and veteran automobiles. The design and production of specialised single purpose machine tools to facilitate refurbishing of components was another sideline. On the way I added a trade certificate in automotive machining to my engineering turning and fitting certificate.

In answer to a job advertisement for a works foreman for a road transport equipment manufacturing company I took up employment that turned out to be totally out of my tree. Management’s appreciation of engineering was seeing sparks flying from electric welders and portable grinders. The firm was under equipped and under financed with disillusioned share-holders withdrawing. On my appointment I was charged with the task of guiding the works to manufacture freight trailer chasses as fast as possible. The managing director and his sales team would match the output. So after two months there were trailer chasses stacked to the roof and few sales contracts. Stop, stop went up the cry and we catered more and more for repair work that held no interest for me.