.9/11.. UNforgettable ...
"heart-chilling" memories forever etched upon the mind!!!
Below is my story of how I personally feel affected by what happened on that fateful day 9 years ago.
George Ellis [Sep 11 2010]
Australian Workers have a strong connection to the Twin Towers.
As a boilermaker in the late 1960's, just prior to my appointment in Feb 1970, as a Teacher of Boilermaking with the NSW Department of Technical Education, the company I worked for built the six Cranes, seen in the opening shots of this photographic collage of remembrance.
Eric Favelle, the owner of Favelle & Co Pty Ltd [FAVCO], had invented these cranes after seeing Professor Julius Miller's TV Show, Professor Julius Sumner Miller - "Why Is It So?” Professor Miller taught physics like no one before or since.
It was said that Eric Favelle, saw Professor Miller demonstrate how, using ball bearings run up and down a sloping surface, could counter-balance an object on the other end of the slope, stopping the latent forces from causing mishaps. Now what Favelle did was to design the now world famous 'Kangaroo Cranes', by placing sliding weights under the base of the cranes. Prior to this, the greatest dangers with cranes was two-fold, one where wind would create a dangerous force on a horizontal or sloping crane jib, with or without load, causing it to topple. And, secondly, the load on the jib could also create sudden movements toppling the crane as well.
Both these dangerous forces were taken care of with Eric Favelle's invention using Professor Miller's TV science lesson. So much so, that the builders of the World Trade Centre contracted for 6 Favco cranes - at $AUS 1Million each - to be built and shipped over from Favelle's NSW engineering workshops [two on Botany Road at the intersection of O'Riordan St, and one at Wetherill Park?]. At that time in the late 1960's this was a very big boost to Australian exports, especially engineering.
However, Favco's Botany Road workshops were less than safe and tidy places to work in, where I very nearly got killed. An overhead workshop crane being used to hold large plates under the press, thereby, as we understood later fatiguing the steel rope to such an extent that on a pass down the workshop, the rope, under load broke and the hooked pulley block came tumbling down, hitting my right shoulder. I was only saved from death or serious injury due to the fact that when the multiple pulley block fell down, the wire rope unravelled in such a manner as to cause the pulley block to fall sideways, instead of straight down on top of me.
Needless to say, due to my naivety as a some 24 year old, I took the advice of the foreman, Fred Hanley, and sat in the office to get over the shock of what could have been, instead of calling the ambulance and a subsequent Department of Labour and Industry [DLI] investigation. With a young family at that time with daughters, Lisa and Dianne, my wife Eleanor and I couldn't afford for me to be off work. Fred, a fellow Scot, was not so much worried about me, as I later reasoned, but rather, the thought of the legal problems that he and the Favelle owners faced with his inappropriate use of the crane in using the wire ropes of the crane under tension when holding plate illegally under the press.
When I look at Sep 11 photos, I not only empathise with the people who lost their lives on that terrible day, but also those who lost their lives in the aftermath of unsafe practices, still being fought today. Workers everywhere need strong laws to protect them and their families, which was one of the poor outcomes that never gets the coverage that it deserves. One of the important things to remember is the use of the Internet to publicise and never forget the workers sacrifices along with their families’ in these horrendous conflagrations
'Lest we forget'
Written by G Ellis Sep 2010
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