In 1932 Crockroft and Walton converted hydrogen into helium by splitting the hydrogen atom and releasing energy. For the first time in history man had produced more energy than was consumed.
In 1932 Amelia Earhart flew solo across the Atlantic.
Ajax Electrothermic suffered reductions of orders but managed to remain in business. Northrup began to compile his fiction and work on his electric coilgun. His main character was Akkad Psudoman who was born in 1920 and lived to see the year 2000. Zero to Eighty was set in this time period with the main story about the induction equipment he used to achieve the trip. Throughout the story most people were flying private airplanes.
Henry Rowan who wrote The Fire Within was about ten years old when Northrup started his fiction. Rowan lived past the year 2004 and with a new wife started the new millennium flying his jet on a routine basis.
By 1933 the capitalist countries were in a deep recession and America's President Roosevelt had taken the dollar off the gold standard. This action increased trade wars with the United States looking inward. The continuing economic downturn played into newly named Chancellor Hitler's plans.
All capitalist nations began to worry about the communist as Stalin increased his power base by collectivizing agriculture making even the horse the property of the state.
In November 1933 the United States recognized the USSR. Japan was in full control of Manchuria and in effective control of Korea. The Siberian railway across Manchuria remained in operation staffed with Russian citizens.
The government building in Berlin where the legislature met was burned in 1933. Hitler was quick to blame the communist and arrested the one hundred communist members to preclude them in the upcoming election. Hitler was quick to link the communist to the Jews and opened the first of the concentration camps. Shortly afterwards he burned all library books considered to support communism. He also asked the people to boycott the Jewish shop and declared a policy to purify the German Race.
It was a time of labor unrest in America and Europe. As part of the New Deal Roosevelt established the WPA and CCC to provide jobs for the masses. In 1935 Social Security was enacted. The American government warned the USSR to stop infiltrating communist into American organizations.
The American movie industry offered an escape from the hard times of the depression. Adventure, romance, comedy and the classics caused people to pack the movie theaters. Jewish artist and directors were the leaders of the industry. It was reported that Stalin watched all the Charlie Chaplin movies.
The Jews that led the Soviet film industry were carefully monitored because there was a soft protest against the Soviet system in some of the works. The writings of Hemmingway and Jack London were widely published in the Soviet Union because they supported the socialist movement.
In 1935 the DC3 aircraft was placed into passenger service and one year later Volkswagen introduced the "people's car". The next year a civil war broke out in Spain and Jesse Owens was the superstar of the Olympics in Berlin.
By 1935 Ajax Electrothermic were supplying induction systems up to 1000 KW at 1000 cycles.
Ajax Metals Company found a company in Germany where Manual Tama (born in Ecuador in 1893) was the research director of a copper and brass mill in Germany. After purchasing one of the Ajax furnaces the company decided to build and sell these furnaces in Europe. Tama became the Ajax representative with headquarters in Switzerland. While working in Europe Tama invented a channel configuration that could be used for melting aluminum that was used to feed continuous casting machines. This became known as the Ajax-Tama-Wyatt furnace.
From the Northrup fiction it becomes clear that he spent time with Tama selling his type furnace. His fiction takes us across the Atlantic in ships and high flying aircraft. There is no mention of trips across the Pacific and therefore I conclude he did not sell in Japan. Switzerland and Germany are important places in his fiction that was published in 1937.
In 1937 Germany used bombers to drop half-ton bombs in the Basques region of Spain in a display of the upcoming war.
Trotsky called for the overthrow of Stalin from his new home in Mexico. Stalin responded by executing eight Generals that were supporting Trotsky. That same year Japan invaded China. Russia's conflict with Japan and China is outlined in a 1926 document written by Trotsky. He was a pain in the neck for Lenin and Stalin but it appears he was executed in Mexico in 1940 on orders from Stalin. Even today Russian people say, "Don't filibuster like Trotsky" when they want you to shut up on a subject. The Trotsky paper describes the railway across Manchuria that was taken over by China during the Korean War. The Soviet Union refused to accept their citizens because they had become capitalist. Many of them wound up in Australia.
http://www.ioa.com/~zero/370-Trotsky.html
The British started to restrict entry of Jews into Palestine. In 1938 Hitler was hailed as Germany took over Austria. Neville Chamberlain from Great Britain in a meeting with Hitler agreed that Germany could liberate Czechoslovakia. In 1939 the Nazis captured Prague. Germany and the Soviets invaded Poland and divided the country in late 1939. Britain and France declared war on Germany after the fall of Poland. Two months later the Soviets invaded Finland.
In 1940 the Nazis occupied Copenhagen and Churchill became Prime Minister of Great Britain. Late in the year the Germans invaded Holland and Belgian. Britain was defeated at Dunkirk. Shortly afterwards the Germans paraded through Paris. The USSR occupied the three Baltic States. By July 1940 bombs were falling in London. Japan joined the Axis pact.
Northrup died at the age 76 and Manual Tama arrived in the USA to take over the new channel furnace operations of Ajax Engineering opened in Trenton, New Jersey.
In June of 1941 the lend-lease program was approved by congress to provide arms to France and Great Britain. In a surprise move Hitler attacked Russia in July 1941. To gain the support of the people Stalin professed his belief in God. In September 1941 the German Secret Police required that all Jews wear the Star of David. By October the cities of Moscow and Leningrad were under siege.
On December 7, 1941 the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. America declared war.
I have many memories of my childhood days but dates and times are fuzzy. I can remember exactly when I heard Roosevelt announce the war on the radio and the events of the following school day.
http://www.ioa.com/~zero/371-MyYouth.html
By the spring of 1942 American school children were collecting scrap metal for the war effort. The draft was intensified and many young men volunteered to serve in the armed forces. Rationing of many items was established and the American people agreed. Women were mobilized to fill jobs in defense industries.
During the 70's I had long discussions with German and Japanese friends of my same age. They remembered the feeling of celebrating their victories. Discussions with British and Russian friends confirmed their resolve to defeat the Axis powers.
In late 1942 American troops controlled French North Africa and the British recaptured Egypt. A second front was promised to assist the Russians. Roosevelt and Churchill were certain that the war would be won and decided to allow the Russians and Germany to fight it out. This decision set the stage for the upcoming cold war. The British were happy to have American soldiers on their side but felt they "were overpaid, oversexed and over here".
On December 2, 1942 in a squash court at the University of Chicago the Manhattan Project was able to sustain atomic fission using uranium.
In 1943 Ajax Engineering was very busy completing an order for thirty aluminum furnaces that were shipped to Russia. Some Northrup type furnaces were shipped to Europe for the war effort but the main business was supplying furnaces to American industry.
Our house in Metcalf Hollow was hooked up to the electrical lines built by the Rural Electrification Corporation. This allowed me to hear the news on a daily basis. We still did not have running water or an inside toilet. My father took a job in Detroit with Packard who were building tanks at that time. I was the man of the house and harvested a crop of tobacco with mamma's help.
By early 1944 General McArthur was moving through the Pacific islands and was about to fulfill his famous promise to the Philippines: "I shall return". US aircraft dropped bombs on Berlin for the first time. At great cost in human life the Soviets were pushing Hitler's army out of their country. On June 6, 1945 the second front in Europe was finally opened as the Allied Forces landed in Normandy. Six days later the first German V-1 rocket hit London.
In 1944 NACA began studies on alloys for jets that the Germans had produced earlier.
Hank Rowan, future founder of Inductotherm, at the age of 22 was a second lieutenant in the Army Air Corps and had just qualified to fly the B-17.
On February 11, 1945 Churchill, Stalin and Roosevelt met in Yalta to discuss the division of Europe after the war. Roosevelt wanted to wind down America's efforts in Europe so he could put more efforts into the war with Japan. From a position of military strength Stalin was in no mood to give up control of Eastern Europe and the Balkans. Poland was the only sticking point with disputed borders between Russia and Germany. The fact that Russia had control of Poland meant that the argument would be moot. It was agreed that Germany would be divided and would pay twenty billion dollars with Stalin receiving ten billion.
Stalin joined the fight against Japan three months after the defeat of Germany in return for the Japanese Kurile Islands and the railway rights in Manchuria.
On April 12, 1945 Roosevelt died and Truman became president. Two weeks later to once seemingly invincible dictator of Italy was shot after a quick trial. On April 30 Hitler committed suicide and Germany surrendered on May 7. The world press began to show pictures and report horror of the Nazi death camps. Soviets made their way home after the war to find an economy in shambles and almost every family grieving the loss of a member. Many Ukrainians who had worked in Germany were shot before they got home.
The United Nations was formed. A new American president worried about the war with Japan and Labor's Clement Attlee, who defeated Churchill, were no match for Stalin in the division of Germany with the Soviets taking control of the largest share of German industry new rocket technology.
In August 1945 the atomic bomb formed mushroom clouds over the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Japan surrendered unconditionally on September 2.
News that the atomic bomb caused me to pause and remember exactly where I was at the moment. Daddy had returned from his job in Detroit and was working for American Enka who produced rayon in our area. He also sold the little mountain farm and we had moved to Buncombe County. When the newspapers reported the number killed I noted that this was more people than our entire region.
Ho Chi Minh took control of Vietnam and control of Korea was divided between the Americans and Soviets. By the end of 1945 De Gaulle was president of France, General Patton died due to an automobile accident, and the International Monetary Fund and World Bank were established.
There was turmoil in 1946 with 800,000 steelworkers in the US on strike. Ford, GM and coal mine workers also went on strike for higher wages. Egyptians protested British rule. India began anti-British demonstrations. The Labor government nationalized the Bank of England. Churchill declared in a speech that "An Iron Curtain" was being put into place across Europe. Tito became the communist leader of Yugoslavia. Leaders in America and Christian religions became alarmed as the communist party in Europe and Asia was rapidly gaining strength.
Late in 1946 nine Nazi war criminals were hanged. The West recognized that the Germans would be useful in the fight against communism and reduced the number of trials. The French proclaimed martial law in Vietnam and a war was begun. Britain allowed about 100,000 Jews to immigrate into Palestine but not without conflict. Continuing stories in the press put pressure on world leaders to assist the Jews.
In 1947 the US started a plan to aid countries in Europe to fight communism. This was the Marshall plan was primarily aimed to assist France and Germany but some funds were used covertly to change the Italian elections by assisting the Catholics in Rome with political funds. Stalin was offered funds but the strings attached were not acceptable. The Soviets had lost 20 million lives in the war and were determined to establish a buffer zone between their border and the capitalist in Europe.
A group of 4,350 European Jews on the ship they named Exodus sailed to Palestine and their Promised Land. The British turned the ship back but the publicity caused Truman and Stalin to support a Jewish homeland.
From Rowan's book, The Fire Within:
"Three months before graduation I began making the rounds of the corporate recruiters who appeared at MIT each spring with the predictability of the geese overhead returning north. Jobs were plentiful, but after several interviews I hadn't found the right match. I was intrigued, however, by the scrap of paper I saw pinned to the "placement" bulletin board one day: "Wanted, Electrical Engineer with a Mechanical Bent,'' it said. That described me to a "T."
The company was Ajax Electrothermic Corporation of Trenton, New Jersey. As I learned at my subsequent job interview, Ajax was the world's premier manufacturer of induction melting furnaces. Its technology was the greatest advance in the foundry industry in 5,000 years."
This is an overstatement. The taming, production, and transmission of electricity were the root of metallurgical improvements and Northrup's furnace was minor in the overall scheme. This equipment was very important for some metals and alloys. Vacuum induction melting for jet engine alloys was one of the more important uses. The proper name should have been induction melting crucibles."
It wasn't just the technology that appealed to me, but also the company's size. It was small enough for me to make a difference, to make a contribution, and to move up without waiting for years, moving through layers of management. Then, too, there was the location. It was right across the Delaware River from my father's farm in Yardley. Dad and I had a lot of lost time to make up for.
In May 1947, I graduated from MIT with a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering, with straight A's in all my technical subjects. I had been recommended for membership in Phi Beta Kappa, but they turned me down on grounds I wasn't as "well-rounded" as they would have liked. Pistol shooting or dinghy sailing or debating would have helped, but flying B-29's and supporting a wife and two children wasn't sufficiently challenging, it seemed. Instead, I settled for the most prestigious honorary society in the world of electrical engineering, Eta Kappa Nu. What's more, we'd made the $2,200 savings last all the way through, and still had $500 left.
The day after graduation, I entered the lair of the dragon. My enthusiasm was boundless, that first day at Ajax. It was my first real job in my chosen field, and I couldn't wait to show what I could do. Only what Ajax wanted me to do, it seemed, was the one thing I couldn't do. I had never been one to duck a challenge; even since the time I was a child, I'd gone out of my way to test myself. Only a few years previous, I'd hoped for combat as a bomber pilot. But what Ajax expected of me went against my nature; it felt like a violation of everything the Rowans stood for.
They wanted me to sell.
Rowan's education was helpful but induction melting was not in the textbooks. It was this service and selling experience that was the fork in the road for Henry Rowan.
On October 14, 1947 Chuck Yeager used a Bell X-1 rocket airplane and broke the sound barrier for the first time. Howard Hughes flew his Spruce Goose for a brief period to fulfill his government contract. Military leaders believed fixed winged aircraft better suited to their needs better than rockets. GE, Curtiss-Wright and Pratt and Whitney were given contracts to design and build jet engines.In 1947 Bell Labs invented a solid state electronic device called the transistor to replace the vacuum tube. The United Nations authorized the partitioned Palestine into Jew and Arab sections.
Late in 1947 ten professionals in the movie industry were blacklisted because they refused to answer questions from the Congress about their communist connections. Ronald Reagan, President of the Screen Actors guild testified that the leftists did not control the guild.
In 1948 the Jews fought the Arabs for the maximum control of land in the new state of Israel. The Arab League fought to reclaim their land but lost the battle but retained the West Bank and some of Jerusalem.
The Soviets blockaded Berlin in an attempt to gain full control of the city. The blockade was broken using an airlift of necessary supplies that delivered one million tons by February 1949.On February 8, 1949 an XB-47 bomber flew across the US in less than four hours breaking the record of an F-80 interceptor by 27 minutes. One month later a B-50 bomber flew non-stop around the world using in flight fueling. America told the world it could drop the atomic bomb at any spot of the world at any time. Later in the year the British tested the Comet as the first jet airliner in the world. The Bell X-1 rocket plane climbed 63,000 to a new record altitude.
After the war a new manufacturing process used in the aircraft industry for hot extruding aluminum shapes was used for windows and doors for the rapidly expanding home building industry.
In 1948 John A. Logan saw a business in the manufacture and sales of 60-cycle aluminum billet heaters to feed these extrusion machines. The solution was ideal because the process of extrusion added heat. Logan saw a system that could heat the billet in a tapered fashion with the hot end on the front of the billet. Magnethermic was born and would later purchase Ajax.
I was able to obtain many historical documents from the Ajax Magnethermic library before I learned that the place had closing down in the year 2000. Rowan attempted to buy this operation several times but in this situation was attempting to hire their key people. TOCCO became the new home for Ajax Magnethermic.
I thought the old files might be lost and attempted to purchase them for my files to complete the history.
http://www.ioa.com/~zero/374-HistoryAjax.html
In March 1949 a treaty was signed that would form NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) to defend against the rising power of the Soviet Union. The communist party of several European countries denounced this treaty and vowed not to join in any fight. As part of this treaty an informal group was formed called CoCom (Coordinating Committee). The military authorities of the member nations controlled the committee. The only purpose was to control exports to the Soviet Union or it's member states. In order to give the US veto power once a product or commodity was placed on the control list it could not be removed without unanimous agreement of the members.
The isopress that caused FMI to be convicted of export regulations and cause me difficulties with the press was added to the CoCom list in February 1984. This had the effect of an embargo of one of my contracts with the Soviet Union and caused a mess in international affairs.
The Soviets tested their atomic bomb in September 1949 and Mao Tse-tung took over communist China while Chiang Kai-shek established a government in exile in Taiwan.
Spy stories became the lead story in the press. The government supported this effort with their propaganda while President Truman attempted to calm the hysteria. The House Un-American Activity Committee proposed screening textbooks for communist ideas.
Einstein proposed a new theory as he attempted to define gravity and electricity into one set of equations in late 1949. He was not able to suggest any experiment that would prove his new theory.
In January 1950 the Soviet delegation walked out of the UN because the government of Taiwan was in control of the UN seat. Later that month Truman authorized the construction of a powerful H-bomb. Later in the year Senator Joseph McCarthy launched his anti-Red crusade against communist in the Federal government.
On June 25, 1950 North Korea invaded South Korea. The US had the freedom in the UN to authorize a police action because the Soviets had waked out. General MacArthur was placed in command of this (mainly US) UN effort. By July had swept through the south without a real fight.
While all this was going on I was cooking hamburgers in a White Tower fast food restaurant in downtown Washington. I had already decided to continue my college education at Western North Carolina Teachers College in Cullowhee. My education was limited because since the eighth grade I had not been able to complete more than one year at a time in any school because my family kept moving from place to place. My studies at Mars Hill College were catch up courses in math and science and I flunked English composition.
On September15, 1950 American Marines made a surprise landing in Inchon. They were able to take control of Seoul two days before scientists from the Atomic Energy Commission announce they had found a way to produce electricity directly from atomic energy. By October UN troops were near the China border. By November the Chinese had massed troops and entered the war. The Chinese army kicked the tail of American troops who were in full retreat. In December President Truman declared a state of emergency against "Communist imperialism" and asked all Americans to join.
The Korean War caused the military to rush the production of new fighter jets and begin development of jet bombers. Hank Rowan was finally allowed to work full time in the engineering department at Ajax in late 1950. A small furnace powered by a motor generator for use in the investment casting industry to replace the spark gap converter was needed.
Rowan's book records the event:
"He (Ajax new president) didn't prevent chief engineer Ted Kennedy, a highly conceptual thinker, and me from making some sweeping, much needed changes. First, we designed and built our own panel to control and monitor both the M-G set and the furnace, thereby reducing costs and improving profitability. This earned Meyer's approval. We also substituted a high-frequency transformer for the awkward tapped-coil system that had prevailed for 35 years, since the inception of induction melting. This improved operation and saved the customer a significant amount on installation, but typically, Meyer didn't like it because it cost Ajax a little more to build."
Kennedy had been Northrup's right hand man since the beginning of Ajax Electrothermic. In Zero to Eighty we find: To Mr. Theodore R. Kennedy I am particularly indebted for technical assistance. Mr. Kennedy personally conducted a large number of the laboratory experiments and tests.
In March 1950 the Rosenbergs were found guilty and sentenced to death for giving atomic secrets to the Soviets. MacArthur suggested an attack on China and two weeks later he was relieved from duty by Truman. Two weeks later he was welcomed in a New York ticker tape parade as a national hero. On May 12 the first Hydrogen bomb was tested on a pacific island.
While I was in the process of joining the army the communist drive to the south of Korea was halted. On January 14, 1951 I became Private Metcalf. A few days later the largest bomb to date was tested in Nevada. There was even talk about using it in Korea and against China.
After Army basic training in Alabama with a reserve engineering brigade I was sent to Fort Belvior to study soil testing for the purpose of building airfields and roads. Korea needed a draftsman and because my file contained information that I had taken a course in drafting in college I was asked to volunteer. When I arrived in Korea the real fighting war was over. Day after day they argued and discussed peace in Panmunjom. Day after day military jets flew north from Yongdongpo. The army quickly recognized that I could not draw so the assigned me the impossible task of writing the command report each month.
The Americans found a prize just below the 38th parallel of Korea after the war. The Japanese were operating the most productive tungsten mine in the world at that location. Dividing Korea into north and south meant that this mine was operated under American control. Tungsten had become a strategic material and the mines in the USA were too expensive. With the fall of China that source was cut off. The Soviet Union had plenty of ore for their needs, and was using an alloy of nickel, chromium and tungsten in their jet engines. England and the United States were using an alloy of cobalt, chromium, and tungsten for their jet engines. No wonder we were at war with the communist of North Korea.
Rowan was passed over when Ajax hired the assistant chief engineer from the outside so he quit on August 31, 1952. He took a job near his home that was totally outside the field of electrical engineering. Logan from Magnethermic offered him a job that he refused. Moving to Youngstown was something he did not want to do. He was waiting for Destiny.
A quote from The Fire Within defines how Rowan established Inductotherm.
"I don't believe in Destiny, the notion that we all have an unalterable role in history awaiting us. From what I've seen, the most significant turning points in our lives are functions of pure chance and circumstance; success or failure depends on how we deal with both."
Paul Foley from Harcast called him with an offer he could not refuse. He wanted to become a partner with Rowan and build induction melting equipment. Rowan says he refused but agreed to do a little job for him on the weekends. The project was to build this foundry a new 60-pound furnace to fit the power supply Rowan sold to Foley while he was selling for Ajax.
Rowan said this was to be the only job.
"That was fine with Foley, who made one further suggestion: as long as I was going to build his furnace, why not incorporate a company to buy materials at Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM) prices; it would keep my production costs to a minimum.
It seemed like a good idea, but hardly worth the cost and the effort. "It's just going to be one job, Paul," I reminded him. "One single furnace, and that will be the end of it."
"Don't worry about the cost of incorporating," Paul smiled. "My dad's a lawyer, and he'll be glad to handle the paperwork for no charge."
The following weekend, Betty, Paul Foley, and I sat with Paul's father around the table in the kitchen of our home in Trenton. My new partner generously suggested that I be president of our "corporation," since the engineer was the man who would do the most critical work. Paul wasn't ordinarily a manipulative sort of person, but at that very moment I was being manipulated, and we both knew it. He must have known what I was thinking: "Hank Rowan, CEO." I liked the way it sounded. So far as a name for our endeavor, Paul suggested "Rowan Furnaces Inc.," but this time I didn't bite; my modesty and marketing sense overrode my ego." How about a name that carries a message?" I countered. Somewhere in the back of my mind, part of my brain must have been working on the name for the new company. "The name should connote a purpose. Something to do with both induction and heat," I insisted. "How about something like . . . Inductotherm?"
Thus, in May, 1953, Inductotherm was born. It had a CEO, a vice president, and one $500 order. Soon, promised Paul, the company would even have its own official stationery. Now all I had to do was build the furnace. Paul suggested we use Harcast's facilities, but Glenolden was too far away for me to work there in my spare time, especially when I had an appropriate work site much closer to home in my own garage. Further, as Betty pointed out, that way she could help."
Utica Drop Forge installed their number 2 and number 3 furnaces in early 1953. This equipment melted 50 and 100 pound batches of scrap Waspaloy that were poured into ingot molds. These ingots were forged into J-48 buckets for Pratt and Whitney as vacuum cast PWA 675-B Waspaloy. Pratt was happy with the properties of the resultant blades and more orders followed. It then became a matter of "how much can be produced, and how fast"
These furnaces were built by Consolidated Vacuum Corporation in Rochester New York. They used their diffusion pumps and Kinney mechanical pumps. Ajax 3.000 cycle power supplies provided the melting source.
Jack and Doc did not know that Inductotherm was in business when they visited Ajax in Trenton in the summer of 1953 to outline their future requirements for equipment. Jack remembers that the air conditioning was not working and Ted Kennedy was swatting flies during the discussions that took place. Ted informed Jack and Doc that their new requirements were very interesting but his management had decided that there was no future in vacuum melting.
The larger furnaces required the use of 1,000 cycles and while Ajax saw a future in the small units they were not willing to spend the money to design the larger units using transformers.
The Hindle Transformer Company in the Trenton area supplied these transformers. Rowan later became a partner with an individual from the firm and this led to very important events for Inductotherm. The Fire Within did not cover this partnership.
http://www.ioa.com/~zero/375-Hunterdon.html
Jack Huntington contacted Stokes after seeing their booth at the ASM show in Philadelphia. The Stokes salesman, Jerry Crites, was accompanied by Ev Wynkoop and Charlie Starbuck. Crites contacted The Ohio Crankshaft Company to supply the electrical equipment that Ajax had refused.
John Sabol was the representative for Ajax, Stokes and TOCCO with offices in Cleveland and his territory also included Utica. He introduced Jack to Tudbury and the two with the help of engineers from FJ Stokes began the design for the new 500-pound equipment that Utica needed.
Tudbury gave Jack a 1945 paper published by Williamson and Vaughan. This "Design of Induction Heating Coils for Non Magnetic Loads" allowed Jack to pin down a way to use the twenty-five equations that would allow him to design an induction coil.
Tudbury published two books in 1960 that presented induction in a simple way that used cartoon type pages to tell his story.
Jack, Starbuck, and Tudbury were concerned with inductive losses at low voltages as they passed through the chamber from the power supply to the induction coil that surrounded the melting crucible. A complex co-axial design was agreed on as the proper solution. Jack was first in many things and tended to select difficult technical solutions at times in his early career. He was in uncharted territory and could not be blamed because he was willing to try.
This was a very important event for the future of Inductotherm and as it turns out a very important event for me. TOCCO and Stokes were soon to monopolize the fast growing industry for melting metal under vacuum conditions.
From this point onwards the chapters will be in first person.
Army rules at the time allowed me to transfer to Japan from Korea if I agreed to stay there for one year. I was doing nothing interesting or useful in Korea so it was off to Japan. My station was in the little town of Otsu near Kyoto. The job was pushing paper on a five-day a week schedule.
My tour of duty was completed in Japan in late 1953. The first thing I did was to contact my high school sweetheart, Jo Ann Arrowood, to determine if she was still single. The next thing was to find a job. The job was as a laboratory technician in the nylon division of American Enka. I received my honorable discharge on January 16, 1954 and was no longer Corporal Metcalf. On January 24 I was a married man with a job for life in Buncombe county North Carolina.