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22

[[underline]] To Mother, October 16, 1924: [[/underline]] The time went rather fast today. The morning was broken up by Mr. Gammens, the assistant superintendent, who came around to take me for another walk around the department. This time we went over to Bldg. 53, across the street, where they do all the various kinds of polishing, plating, punch press work, enameling, and small assembly for the girls. It was the neatest shop I have ever been in; just as clean and white as Mrs. Bump's tiled kitchen, almost. After Bldg. 53, we stepped into Bldg. 49, where more of the huge turbines are made. Most of them in 49 are for foreign countries -- Japan, China, India, etc. But we went into 49 not to see the turbines but to look at the control panel for the "USS LEXINGTON." The GE are making all the equipment for the "SARATOGA" and the "LEXINGTON," sister ships I think, which were to have been the largest battleships in the Navy but were made into aeroplane carriers as a result of the disarmament program. This control panel we saw this morning is the actual brain, you might say, of the ship. From it the entire ship is controlled by one man. There are all sorts of levers, switches, dials, meters, instruments, red, green and purple lights, and gages all over it, but in the very center are just three medium sized levers, by which one man controls the entire propulsion machinery of the ship. There are four turbines, four propellors, and eight electric motors, two for each screw, and with just those three levers, the man can get any combination of turbo-generators and motors, at any speed. It is a marvelous affair and the back of the panel is such a maze of wiring and equipment that it seems impossible that anyone could have designed such a complicated affair. It controls only 180,000 horsepower. It is such a thing as that that makes one glad to be in such a profession as engineering.

[[underline]] To Willie, October 21, 1924: [[/underline]] I was quite excited the other day to find out that we are building a big turbine-generator for Louisville. In fact, my Wisconsin friend (Del) is working on it. Since I found out about it, I have been down several times to look it over, and imagine it some day lighting your home. It is at present in the very first stages of assembly, my friend working on the lineup of the various main castings. You see, the generator base and main bearings have to be lined up with the turbine casing and bearings so that when the turbine wheels and the generator rotor are put in, they will be in perfect alignment with each other. At last reports, they had the generator frame, which is some fifteen or so feet long, and weighs tons and tons, lined up to within a half a thousandth of an inch with the turbine casing, which is immense, weighing somewhere between 100 and 200 tons. That is what I call close work with things as large as that. ...... The former is engineering design -- straight, unadulterated engineering -- and the latter is management and construction -- not so theoretical -- more tangible. I don't know yet which I want. Following is a rather appropriate poem :