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to be fun and became alarming. I was reflecting how Man thinks himself so powerful -- so supreme -- but when he is confronted by a force like that last night, which shook 400,000 sq. mi. of land, all he can do is hold his breath and wait.

[[underlined]] To Willie, March 2, 1925: [[/underlined]] The sun is warm and feels very spring-like. This morning I heard a robin singing as I left the house. It all means that Spring is coming, and so is June. I think I am getting the spring fever, for I want to get out into the country and really appreciate it all. ...... Mondays are very long days now on account of my class in the evening. I find accounting very interesting though, never having even peeked in at it before. Business seems to be a science now like everything else. ...... All we have heard all day today, have been the various experiences of each and every person in the plant during the earthquake Saturday night. Some of them are very funny. One of the men was at the theater and he said that all of a sudden, everyone in the house turned around and gave a mean look at the person behind him because they all thought that the one behind them was shaking their seat. Then they all got up at once and made a rush for the exits.

[[underlined]] To Willie, March 3, 1925: [[/underlined]] Today went by very rapidly because I was busy all day on interesting work. Mr. Spade and I have been working on a problem of making some special tubes for the Mercury Boiler for "Bill" Emmet, as Mr. Steenstrup calls him. Bill Emmet is the greatest turbine engineer in the country without much doubt, so I got a thrill in realizing that I'm even distantly connected with him. He is the man who, among other things, put the first electric drive in the superdreadnaught. He is also the inventor of the now famous Mercury Vapor Process, which is the most efficient cycle yet evolved for the generation of power. It involves a mercury boiler, which generates mercury vapor. This vapor is used to drive a mercury-vapor turbine driving an electric generator. The mercury vapor exhausts from the turbine to a mercury condenser, and the mercury, in condensing at around 400 [[degrees]] F and giving up its latent heat, boils the water in the condenser, generating steam at 200 pounds pressure. This steam is put through a steam turbine driving an electric generator. It is a wonderfully interesting process to study. Mr. Steenstrup intimated to me today that he is going to have me follow a job for him very shortly all by myself, which will be great. In the meantime, I'll be with Mr. Spade and also playing around the hydrogen furnaces. I also have permission to roam anywhere in the plant keeping my eyes open for work for the Hydrogen Copper Brazing Process. So things are getting more interesting and hence time will go by faster hereafter.

[[underlined]] To Willie, March 8, 1925: [[/underlined]] Then I went down by the waterfront (in Albany) and sat there for a long time thinking of many things. Several times the trains went out across the bridge and I thought of how you and I should go out across that same