7

-7-

My first work with this company was as a pipe fitter. This job paid me
$2.50 a day. My next promotion was to a lineman helper. I left that job
and got another promotion as a nozzle man, this job paid $4.08 a day.

"In 1926 I changed jobs and worked as suction tender in the phosphate
pit; there I also fired locomotives and learned a great deal about Diesel
engines. In fact I've also learned a great deal about dragline machines,
they're used to dig top soil off of the phosphate. I've also worked in
the table plant too. The table plant is used for gettin the finest pebble
off, and there is suppose to be nothin left when they finish.

"Hydraulic pressure is used for mining phosphate; it is passed through
the nozzle at a pressure from 150 to 200 pounds, according to the size
of the pipes, which are operated by electricity. They use to use steam.
At present I am a nozzle man; my salary is 30¢ per hour for eight hours
work, making $2.40 a day. We only work four days a week which gives me
$9.60."

"You see," piped Corneal, "we sure have to scrape and it's the bills
that face us."

William continued with the description of his work and the phosphate
mining: "The water pipe from the hydraulic station to the pit is twenty-
four inches in diameter; when it reaches that pit it is eight inches, and
when it passes through the nozzle it is one-half to two inches. This
pressure is used to tear down the banks of phosphate. When a bank is wash-
ed down by pressure it passes through a ditch to the well. There, it is
sucked up through a suction pipe twelve inches in diameter. This suction
is propelled by a 250 to 300 H. P. electric motor. From there it passes
through the discharge to the washer and falls in a tub.

"It passes from the tub into a log with sharp prongs on it, and through
the log to what you call a hardening mill. There the rock is taken by
the elevator into a wet tank and loaded out of the wet tank into gondolas,

1119