2018 Technical Report January-February

All right. If you will bear with me, I will briefly outline my ideas of what an engineer should do, during the off-season. If I were given charge of a plant about the time the plant was supposed to start—as a matter of fact, it would be too late for me to make any extensive repairs or changes, therefore I must make the best of conditions as I find them for the time being. However, the very first thing that I would provide myself with would be a durable memorandum book (A Master Maintenance Log), which I would keep conveniently by me throughout the season; and from the first hour of my taking charge, I would begin taking notes of any faults, repairs or changes that in my opinion could be made for the betterment of conditions—and when I said for the betterment, I mean an expenditure of money that would net my employers a dividend on such expenditure at the end of the season. I would take my memo book, sit down and list all of the items, figure out approximately the

have begun early in the season to think and prepare my remarks. Prepare for Next Season The first thought that entered my mind was that a really good and efficient engineer of an ice or refrigerating plant never has an off season. However, since this answer might fail to get me by, the next thought that came into my mind was that the question was very easily answered, because it is obvious that an engineer during the off season when plant operations are slow, or that part of the season in which his plant is not in operation, should be preparing for the next season’s run, and really this does answer the question briefly. “But,” says someone, “how shall we go about preparing for the next season, and when should we begin preparing?” This reminds me of the old saying by someone whom I have forgotten, who said the time to begin training a child was to start with his grandfather; and the same I think aptly applies to the subject in hand. “But,” says another, “you are still dodging. Get down to cases.”

I take it, gentlemen, it is meant that I should express my opinion as to what an ice refrigerating engineer should do during the cooler months when his plant is not in operation. It had not been my purpose to attempt to discuss at this convention or to prepare a paper to read to you on practical questions; but on the other hand, to sit and listen and learn from others, and I decided to squirm out of it entirely until the last few days, when I received a letter from the President in which he mentioned that he supposed I had my paper ready. So rather than back squarely down and subject myself to criticism at the last moment I began giving the question some thought, and right here is where I made a big mistake. I should “The first thought that enteredmymind was that a really good and efficient engineer of an ice or refrigerating plant never has an off season.”

RETA TECHNICAL REPORT PAGE 2

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