the burial
transformers, you get on it yet?"

"The ones we're running in the water mains for cooling? They're out of
warranty. None of the local shops can rewind them until the
manufacturer sends out a field engineer to set them up for the
encapsulation process."

"How long is that going to take?" Forester asked.

"They tell me several months. Still doesn't leave us with anything.
The plant says they've fixed the trouble, but between them and the
rewind shop, they can buck it back and forth forever."

"I guess we'll have to go back to the pad-mounted type."

"People with the Gold Medallion Homes aren't going to like the pads by
their barbecues."

Forester uncoiled a leg. "Draw up a memorandum on it, will you,
Eddie?" He stood up. "That thing sure got me today. There's just
entirely too many of these accidents. A ladder breaking. I don't
know."

Eddie tried to find something intelligent to say. Finally he said, "It
was a rough one, all right."

* * * * *

After Forester left, Eddie picked up, listlessly from the top of the
stack one of the preliminary reports submitted for his approval.

The report dealt with three thousand capacitors purchased last year
from an Eastern firm, now bankrupt. The capacitors were beginning to
leak. Eddie called the electrical laboratory to see what progress was
being made on the problem.

The supervisor refreshed his memory from the records. He reported: "I
don't have any adhesive man to work on it. Purchasing has half a dozen
suppliers lined up--but none have any test data. I don't know when
we'll get the time. We're on a priority program checking out these
new, low-cost terminations."

"Can't we certify the adhesive to some AIEE spec or something?" Eddie
asked.

"I don't know of any for sealing capacitors, Eddie. Not on the
maintenance end, at least."

"Maybe Purchasing can get a guarantee from one of the suppliers?"

"For the hundred dollars of compound that's involved? What good would
that do us?"

Eddie thanked him and hung up. He signed the preliminary report.

He turned to the next one.

At 2:30 Forester came by and the two of them made their way between
the jig-saw projections of maple and mahogany to the Conference Room.

Fourteen men were involved in the conference, all from operating
departments. They shuffled in over a five minute period, found seats,
lit cigarettes, talked and joked with one another.

When one of the ass