I found this cassette tape in the asst. division manager’s office on my last visit. The introduction at the beginning of the tape identifies the company as Interlake Inc., which should put it as pre-1986. It was buried under mountains of documents and was not in a case. Despite twenty hard Chicago winters, and twenty more hot summers, and people stomping around in there for that time, the tape is not only intact but sounds amazing!
A quick Google search for ‘Jerry Feil Productions’ points you to a ‘sign shop’ in Tinley Park. A news release on 2011 identifies Mr. Feil as the owner of the company.
“Graphicsland, Inc. is a privately held corporation based in Tinley Park, IL. The business was started in 1973 by Jerry Feil and incorporated in 1979 as “Feil Productions, Inc”. During the 80’s the trade name “Graphicsland” was adopted and the corporate name “Graphicsland, Inc” was assumed in 2008.”
I was able to reach out to Jerry and got a response only a couple hours later! We are going to set up time to discuss more, but his initial comments were:
Yes, that was back in the late 70’s. I had a company that produced training programs and Interlake was one of my customers. We did training programs on a number of topics at the coke plant. I also did some work at the blast furnace plant at 106th and Burley as well as the Interlake plant at 135th and Perry in Riverdale.
I’m not an expert on the coke production process by any means, but I do have some recollections of my times at the coke plant.
The cassette you found was a soundtrack that accompanied a slide presentation. If you play the “reverse” side of the cassette, you’ll hear 1khz “beeps” that were used to automatically advance the slides. They would train the employees using a slide projector/cassette combo. My company wrote the scripts, did the photography and visuals. That’s my voice on the cassette. I was kind of a one-man production company back then. The title you found was for “Pushing” and I believe I also did programs on “Charging” and adjusting doors.
The entire program is about 14 minutes long, which is about 1/2 of side A. There is no label on side B and while I did not check it (I guess I should), presumably it has no additional audio.
There are two natural breaks in the program and as such, I created three separate videos so everyone can listen in on this historic document. I used an audio-to-text transcriber which I then did some proofreading on.
Below are the videos, followed by their transcriptions. Enjoy!
This program will help you to understand what happens during the pushing process. As a member of the pushing team, you’ll learn the proper way to do your job in order to reduce emissions. You’ve already seen the program on the potential health hazards of emissions at the coke battery. Now you’ll learn what you can do to protect your own health and the environment. If you and your fellow workers on the pushing team carefully follow each of the steps in the pushing cycle, as shown in this program, you can be sure that your job will be cleaner and safer. Did you notice how I mentioned ‘the pushing team’? Well, that’s because it’s important for the people working together in the pushing process to work together as a team. Timing is critical when it comes to pushing. Each member of the team has to be ready when it’s time for them to do their job. Let’s take a look at the members of the Pushing team: the door machine operator, the quench car operator, the door cleaners, the pusherman, who is a member of two teams – the pushing team and the stage charging team – and finally, the turn foreman coke ovens, your supervisor. Now let’s look at the pushing cycle.
It starts when the door machine operator, working from his schedule, moves the door machine to the next oven to be pushed, positioning it by aligning a sighting device on the door machine with the edge of a buck stay. The door machine operator then removes the coke side oven door. When removing a door, it’s important to spot the door machine accurately and to remove the door carefully to avoid bending the locking bar latch hooks or breaking the door seal. After the door is removed, the door machine has moved south beyond the open oven. The door machine operator and/or the door cleaner cleans the door seal and the door jamb machine face to the bare metal using metal scrapers. The purpose for cleaning the door seals and the machine face of the jams is to provide a good seal, preventing visible emissions. Here’s an important safety tip: when you’re cleaning doors and jambs, hot pieces of carbon fall off. This hot material can cause burns, so stand clear of the falling pieces and make sure you’re wearing the proper protective clothing for the job you’re doing.
The door machine operator then inspects the door seal and refractory lining. Any bad seals or cracked or broken refractory are reported immediately to the turn foreman coke ovens. The door machine operator then inspects the jamb and jamb refractory. Again any imperfections are reported to the turn foreman. At this time the door machine operator checks to make sure the coke in the oven to be pushed isn’t green. Green coke is coal that isn’t completely coked out. Excessive flame and gas coming from the oven is a sign that the coke might be green. If the door machine operator thinks the coke might be green, he checks with the pusherman by radio to find out how the coke looks on the pusher side. If the coke on the push side looks green also, both oven doors are replaced and the turn foreman is contacted immediately.
The next step in the pushing cycle is for the door machine operator to move the door machine north, repositioning the door machine so the coke guide is lined up with the oven to be pushed. Meanwhile, the pusherman, working from his schedule, spots the pusher using a sighting device and removes the pusher side door on the next oven to be pushed.
After the door is removed, the door seal and jamb machine face are cleaned to the bare metal. The pusherman, working from the pusher, cleans the top half of the door. The door cleaner working from the bench, cleans the bottom half of the door seal and all of the door jamb machine face. The door seal, door jamb and jamb refractory are inspected by the pusherman. Any defects are immediately reported to the turn foreman. Pusher side or coke side doors that require repair on inspection are exchanged for a repair door prior to charging.
At this point in the cycle, both doors air off, the doors and jambs have been inspected and cleaned, the door machine is in position to rack the coke guides, and the door machine operator is certain that the coke in the oven isn’t green. Now, the quench car operator spots the quench car, so the front of the car is just past the coke guides on the door machine. The door machine operator then racks in the coke guide on the oven to be pushed and verifies by radio with the pusherman the number of the oven to be pushed. The door machine operator then engages the interlock, allowing the pusherman to operate the pushing ram and using the radio tells the pusherman to start pushing the oven. After receiving the okay from the door machine operator, the pusherman starts the push. During the push, the door machine operator watches the movement of coke using the interlock to stop the push or notifying the pusherman by radio to stop the push in case something goes wrong, such as the quench car being out of place. The quench car operator must control the speed of the quench car in relation to the speed of the push, so the coke is evenly distributed in the quench car. ‘Coke evenly distributed in the quench car’, means that there’s coke from one end of the car to the other, loaded to the same height. The moisture content of good coke is low, so we give it just enough quenching and no more. Since the quench time is based on having an even load, the coke must be evenly distributed in order to be quenched properly
On completion of the coke catch, the quench car remains in place until the coke guide is retracted from the oven. If the coke pushes green, the quench car operator notifies the heater and the turn foreman coke ovens so they could take corrective action. During the push, the pusherman watches the carbon cutter on top of the pusher ram so he can report any abnormal conditions, such as buildup of roof for wall carbon to the turn foreman. The turn foreman will record any abnormal condition in the logbook for scheduling of repairs by the general foreman. Or the turn foreman can institute appropriate action for carbon removal immediately if necessary.
The pusherman also observes the pushing amperage during the push. A power requirement of 200 amps or more shows more force than normal is needed to push the oven. If this fact isn’t reported and the oven checked, complications could result after the next coking cycle. For instance, the oven being even harder to push.
When the push cycle is completed, the door machine operator retracts the coke guide from the oven. The quench car operator then moves to the quench station where the coke is quenched. He remains at the quench station for the proper drain time, as specified by plant management. He then returns to the wharf with the quenched coke. The sequence of unloading coke on the wharf is coordinated by the wharf feeder in conjunction with the coal and coke handling foreman. So the quench car operator should take his cue from the wharf feeder to find out where to drop the quenched coke. After the pusher ram is retracted, the pusher side door cleaner, sweeps the bench clean and puts the scrap coke back into the oven. The pusherman then replaces the pusher side door.
The door machine operator moves the door machine to the south, and the coke side door cleaner sweeps the bench clean, putting the scrap coke back into the oven. The door machine operator checks the standpipe at the top of the oven to make sure that no liquor spray is coming down the standpipe into the oven. He also checks for excessive buildup of roof or wall carbon. Any sign of liquor coming down into the oven or excessive buildup of carbon should be reported to the turn foreman. The door machine operator then replaces the coke side door, being careful to avoid bending the locking bar latch hooks or breaking the door seals. Bent latch hooks or broken seals result in doors not sealing properly. On both the coke and the push sides, any door fires that start are put out as quickly as possible. Any doors that leak after an oven is charged are adjusted by the assigned millwrights. Doors that continue to leak are recorded in the log book by the turn foreman to be checked for cleanliness or need of repair on the next cycle.
Your supervisor has a few things to discuss with you now. Then we’ll take another brief look at the pushing cycle for review.
In this segment we’ll review the steps in the pushing cycle. First, the door machine operator, working from his schedule, spots the door machine at the next oven to be pushed. He then carefully removes the coke side door. Then the door machine is moved to the south beyond the open oven. The door machine operator and/or the door cleaner, clean the door seal and the jam machine face to the bare metal. being careful to avoid hot pieces of carbon falling from the door and jamb.
The door machine operator inspects the door seal and refractory lining, as well as the jamb and jamb refractory. Any bad seals or cracked or broken refractory are reported to the turn foreman. Next, the door machine operator checks the coke in the oven to be pushed to make sure it isn’t green. If the door machine operator and the pusherman think the coke looks green, the doors are replaced, and the turn foreman is contacted. Next, the door machine operator repositions the door machine to the north, so the coke guide is lined up with the oven to be pushed. Meanwhile, the pusherman, working from his schedule, spots the pusher and removes the pusher side door. The pusherman, working from the pusher, cleans the top half of the door, and the door cleaner working from the bench cleans the bottom half of the door and the door jamb machine face. The door seal, door jamb and jamb refractory are inspected by the pusherman. Coke side or pusher side doors that require repair on inspection are exchanged for a repaired door prior to charging.
Now the quench car is spotted. The door machine operator racks the coke guide on the oven to be pushed and verifies by radio with the pusherman the number of the oven to be pushed. The door machine operator then engages the interlock and by radio tells the pusherman to start the push. During the push, the door machine operator watches the movement of coke so he can stop the push if anything goes wrong.
The quench car operator controls the speed of the quench car, so the coke is evenly distributed. On completion of the coke catch, the quench car remains in place until the coke guide is retracted from the oven. During the push the pusherman watches the carbon cutter and reports any unusual build up of carbon or any other abnormal conditions. He also observes the pushing amperage and reports ovens that require 200 amps or more. When the push is completed, the door machine operator retracts the coke guide from the oven. The quench car operator then moves to the quench station, where the coke is quenched and drained. The quench car operator returns to the wharf and unloads the coke, taking his cue from the wharf feeder to find out where to drop the quenched coke.
After the pusher ram is retracted, the pusher side door cleaner, sweeps the bench clean and puts the scrap coke back into the oven. The pusherman then replaces the pusher side door.
The coke side door cleaner sweeps the bench and puts the scrap coke back into the oven. The door machine operator checks the standpipe and make sure no liquor is coming down into the oven. He also checks for excessive roof or wall carbon and reports any build up of wall carbon or liquor from the standpipe to the turn foreman coke ovens. The door machine operator then replaces the coke side door, being careful to avoid bending the locking bar latch hooks or breaking the door seal. Door fires are put out as quickly as possible. Doors that leak after charging will be adjusted by the assigned millwrights. Doors that continue to leak are recorded in the log book to be checked for cleanliness or need of repair on the next cycle.
The pushing cycle is a series of steps which must be followed exactly by you and your fellow members of the pushing team to control coke battery emissions. We’re counting on each of you to do your part. If you have any questions about the pushing cycle or about your job on the pushing team, now is the time to ask your supervisor.
Clean and efficient operation of the coke batteries is his responsibility too. He wants to make sure that you know the proper procedures. So don’t be afraid to ask any questions. When you and your fellow members of the pushing team follow the steps in the pushing cycle exactly, your job will be easier, cleaner and healthier.