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on me was that Maurice asked me if I could go to Boston after Thanksgiving to do the Boston 6 Albany report for Walt Hedley and the "doodle-bug" studies.  So I guess Walter got the heat put on Maurice some way and I suspect through H.L.A.  I spent the day knocking out "copy" for Maurice for the small diesel campaign, reviewing Perk's old bulletin on diesels for industrials.

Erie, Pa., 
Tuesday, Nov. 15, '38.
Boned a lot today on my Penna. R.R. rail grinding train diesel proposition, overcoming obstacles thrown up by Kittredge's last letter, and now believe I have something that will do the trick.  It had me about stumped for a while but I stuck to it and wound up with something that looks even better than before.  Moral:  Don't give up when the going gets tough.

Had a long session with Orcutt this morning as batteries for the "doodle-bugs" and learned a lot about batteries in general.  Positive plates, lead with lead peroxide in the grind, negative plate sponge lead to get the surface, electrolyte sulphuric acid (H2SO4) when fully charged.  When discharged, acid becomes water and both plates are covered with sulphate.  Charing forces the sulphate back into the water to make acid again, and the plates are again lead peroxide and sponge lead.  Learned about the rubber and wood separators, why the rubber separator is left out to reduce resistance.  How amount of active material determines the 20 hr. capacity but the surface, the short time capacity.  And so on; it was good.  I needed brushing up on batteries and I got that and a lot more.

Orcutt says this business has been good and particularly because automobile battery replacements have been way ahead of last year and better replacement