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Description
Nels, with a heavy Swedish accent, ran the service work, taught me initially how to
service oil burners. Both my former brother-in-law and I had spent years in Hawaii
building hot rods, motorcycles and winning car shows. We raced as crew for the
regatta winning H-Class inboard boat, raced motorcycles, flat-track and an early
version of Motocross. I'm bragging. But it all gave us a foundation for doing
mechanical work, metal fabrication, giving us a leg up on furnace work. It was pretty
much easy to meld our skills with the new work.

One most memorable time spent, hindsight is 20/20, was Nels discovery of new
technologies, products to use in the mechanical contracting work. He was not in
spirit, actions or experience, very much a mechanic type. He had a way with the
ladies, charming, a great memory but when it came to the profession mostly, simply,
he lacked inspiration. As an example he discovered duct tape and called it "Magical
Steel Tape", and he "repaired" exhaust pipes with it. It basically was plastic
covered cloth with some stretch. It was not designed for high heat. The resulting
smell filled the house and he explained how it was taking a set. Basically it was
capable of catching fire. But when it came to a new product called Soot Spray he was
an evangelist. He bragged about it. He showed customers, without being asked, what it
could do for their furnace.

Soot Spray, a chemical, when sprayed into a furnace or boiler, combined-soaked soft
soot and lowered the flash point dramatically. And in fact it caused a great amount
of soot, thick, to really take off burning bright. Yes, it worked. And yes it could
be dangerous.

At the University of Washington, Greek Row full of pledge houses, there was a mile of
old tall very large homes bought up by slum lords making room for students to live
with lower rent, otherwise unaffordable in that part of town. Rooms were partitioned,
a bathroom shared by the masses. The basements, old fashioned bare unfinished, were
haphazard chopped cubically into tiny sleeping quarters using large sheets of
cardboard and other flimsy materials to create hovels. A flimsy door was padlocked
which brought a smile as we entered to find the ancient boiler. Anyone, wanting to,
could break down any hovel by simply, easily, kicking in a wall. So when we arrived
at the boiler we immediately noticed the fact the exhaust hot pipe leading to the
chimney ran low through a tight hole made in cardboard, the pipe traveling some
distance away to the chimney. Obviously that was unsafe.

With the usual configuration, the old gravity boiler was placed, aligned in the
middle of the structure to help with distribution of the heat created. Water was not
pumped. Gravity, hot water created, rose up and moved into the building above to
return back down when cooled. And when Nels arrived behind us he immediately grabbed
his can of Soot Spray and began spraying when we discovered a really thick fluffy
layer of soot in the upper flue passages carrying hot exhaust to escape through the
smoke pipe. He pretty much used up a whole can.

This was a large boiler in a large building and when Nels was finished with his
favorite task, which means he didn't get his hands dirty, he ordered, "Fire it up!".
He started chanting down the list of advantages to using the spray and he was loud.
He loved giving impromptu speeches. Some people were sleeping behind cardboard and
grumpy voices could be heard. When the boiler started to get hot Nels grabbed the
handle and threw open wide the upper large access doors to expose the conflagration
growing. With the added oxygen rushing in the soot really took off. Some smoke
started belching back through the opening and nobody had checked to see if the
chimney was really clear because we couldn't access the flue behind locked cardboard.
And I was too new to the work to yet realize all the available disasters imminent.

Again, you couldn't gain access to the chimney because a maze of cardboard structure
was in the way. The flimsy doors were locked, a ridiculous situation. I was beginning
to feel the panic. The burning, puffing, belching soot fire would not be put out even
with the electricity turned off...

Pretty soon the old boiler dramatically started gasping having a hard time getting
rid of all the hot-hotter gasses of combustion and I noted the cardboard around the
smoke pipe was darkening, getting pretty hot. Nels got nervous. He started speaking
Swedish. He started cussing as he left the area mumbling to himself.

Now the smoke pipe was turning red. I'd managed to get some water out of the old wash
tray across the basement. I lugged it back just in time to see the smoke pipe turning
a lighter color of pinkish-red and the thicker rivets holding it together turning
red. This was major serious stuff, possible pipe collapse, and I started throwing
water splashing on the cardboard around the pipe. I was smelling smoke.

Then my partner went out back to the alleyway looking up to the tall chimney top and
reported back, "There's fire shooting out the top". That building was old enough to
have no lining for safety inside that chimney and mortar collapsing often left holes
in the sides exposing exhaust exiting within the building. Things just got worse.

Yes, although, finally, the soot was burned out in a rather short time. I guess you
could say Soot Spray worked. We hung around to make sure nothing was going to burn
down and it was REALLY amazing it didn't. I had no idea how we avoided disaster. I
had no idea how many students lived in that "necessary" slum. But the day was saved
and I guess nobody was any the wiser. And as for Nels? He had left the scene
entirely, claiming an important appointment he was late for somewhere else.

Fortunately, not long after that, he retired, or should I say semi-retired. At least
he was not involved with us anymore. My partner and I never got involved with Soot
Spray again after that experience.

More-to-come

Description
Nels, with a heavy Swedish accent, ran the service work, taught me initially how to
service oil burners. Both my former brother-in-law and I had spent years in Hawaii
building hot rods, motorcycles and winning car shows. We raced as crew for the
regatta winning H-Class inboard boat, raced motorcycles, flat-track and an early
version of Motocross. I'm bragging. But it all gave us a foundation for doing
mechanical work, metal fabrication, giving us a leg up on furnace work. It was pretty
much easy to meld our skills with the new work.

One most memorable time spent, hindsight is 20/20, was Nels discovery of new
technologies, products to use in the mechanical contracting work. He was not in
spirit, actions or experience, very much a mechanic type. He had a way with the
ladies, charming, a great memory but when it came to the profession mostly, simply,
he lacked inspiration. As an example he discovered duct tape and called it "Magical
Steel Tape", and he "repaired" exhaust pipes with it. It basically was plastic
covered cloth with some stretch. It was not designed for high heat. The resulting
smell filled the house and he explained how it was taking a set. Basically it was
capable of catching fire. But when it came to a new product called Soot Spray he was
an evangelist. He bragged about it. He showed customers, without being asked, what it
could do for their furnace.

Soot Spray, a chemical, when sprayed into a furnace or boiler, combined-soaked soft
soot and lowered the flash point dramatically. And in fact it caused a great amount
of soot, thick, to really take off burning bright. Yes, it worked. And yes it could
be dangerous.

At the University of Washington, Greek Row full of pledge houses, there was a mile of
old tall very large homes bought up by slum lords making room for students to live
with lower rent, otherwise unaffordable in that part of town. Rooms were partitioned,
a bathroom shared by the masses. The basements, old fashioned bare unfinished, were
haphazard chopped cubically into tiny sleeping quarters using large sheets of
cardboard and other flimsy materials to create hovels. A flimsy door was padlocked
which brought a smile as we entered to find the ancient boiler. Anyone, wanting to,
could break down any hovel by simply, easily, kicking in a wall. So when we arrived
at the boiler we immediately noticed the fact the exhaust hot pipe leading to the
chimney ran low through a tight hole made in cardboard, the pipe traveling some
distance away to the chimney. Obviously that was unsafe.

With the usual configuration, the old gravity boiler was placed, aligned in the
middle of the structure to help with distribution of the heat created. Water was not
pumped. Gravity, hot water created, rose up and moved into the building above to
return back down when cooled. And when Nels arrived behind us he immediately grabbed
his can of Soot Spray and began spraying when we discovered a really thick fluffy
layer of soot in the upper flue passages carrying hot exhaust to escape through the
smoke pipe. He pretty much used up a whole can.

This was a large boiler in a large building and when Nels was finished with his
favorite task, which means he didn't get his hands dirty, he ordered, "Fire it up!".
He started chanting down the list of advantages to using the spray and he was loud.
He loved giving impromptu speeches. Some people were sleeping behind cardboard and
grumpy voices could be heard. When the boiler started to get hot Nels grabbed the
handle and threw open wide the upper large access doors to expose the conflagration
growing. With the added oxygen rushing in the soot really took off. Some smoke
started belching back through the opening and nobody had checked to see if the
chimney was really clear because we couldn't access the flue behind locked cardboard.
And I was too new to the work to yet realize all the available disasters imminent.

Again, you couldn't gain access to the chimney because a maze of cardboard structure
was in the way. The flimsy doors were locked, a ridiculous situation. I was beginning
to feel the panic. The burning, puffing, belching soot fire would not be put out even
with the electricity turned off...

Pretty soon the old boiler dramatically started gasping having a hard time getting
rid of all the hot-hotter gasses of combustion and I noted the cardboard around the
smoke pipe was darkening, getting pretty hot. Nels got nervous. He started speaking
Swedish. He started cussing as he left the area mumbling to himself.

Now the smoke pipe was turning red. I'd managed to get some water out of the old wash
tray across the basement. I lugged it back just in time to see the smoke pipe turning
a lighter color of pinkish-red and the thicker rivets holding it together turning
red. This was major serious stuff, possible pipe collapse, and I started throwing
water splashing on the cardboard around the pipe. I was smelling smoke.

Then my partner went out back to the alleyway looking up to the tall chimney top and
reported back, "There's fire shooting out the top". That building was old enough to
have no lining for safety inside that chimney and mortar collapsing often left holes
in the sides exposing exhaust exiting within the building. Things just got worse.

Yes, although, finally, the soot was burned out in a rather short time. I guess you
could say Soot Spray worked. We hung around to make sure nothing was going to burn
down and it was REALLY amazing it didn't. I had no idea how we avoided disaster. I
had no idea how many students lived in that "necessary" slum. But the day was saved
and I guess nobody was any the wiser. And as for Nels? He had left the scene
entirely, claiming an important appointment he was late for somewhere else.

Fortunately, not long after that, he retired, or should I say semi-retired. At least
he was not involved with us anymore. My partner and I never got involved with Soot
Spray again after that experience.

More-to-come