Word: shaft
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1940-1949
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...there by red tape and bungling, he soon left, bought the venerable Sunnyvale (Calif.) Joshua Hendy Iron Works, whose physical assets consisted chiefly of a dilapidated foundry, an assortment machine tools, 35 acres of pear orchard's and some skilled machinists. One of them, Peter McKeand, ground the shaft for the old U.S.S. Oregon. In the spring of 1941 Moore got a contract for twelve reciprocating marine engines. By midsummer, after the shipbuilding program was trebled, Maritime Commission's Jerry Land telephoned Moore and asked if the Hendy works could double its output. Moore boomed: "You might...
Ships had always been custom-built. To mass-produce ships meant teaching a whole industry new tricks. Every ship had to be an exact replica of her sister. A State of Washington propeller had to fit on a shaft made in Wisconsin for a hull launched in Oregon...
...mechanics raised grease-black hands in horror. The more daring tried it on their own cars, predicted that the motors would soon shake themselves to pieces; the transmission and rear end would eventually break down from the unnatural pulsation of the drive shaft; the pumping action of the unused pistons would jam the dead cylinders with incompressible oil. Instead of being a minor repair job, Sun's plan, they thought, would mean factory rebuilding-taking out the unused pistons and connecting rods, putting in new manifolds. The mildest criticism was that, using the Sun system, it is impossible...
...Dynamiting is quickest, most tricky. A properly placed charge will warp, rip and twist the steel casing, letting in water and sand. Improperly placed, the charge will waste its strength by blowing up and down the well shaft...
Each of these methods may ruin an oil well for months. In most cases, the quickest way to reopen a thoroughly demolished well is to bore another shaft right beside the old one. This is a matter of weeks or months, depending on the toughness of the bedrock and depth of the oil. In the Russian fields, the bedrock is generally soft, the oil not far (often less than 1,000 feet) below the surface...