Factory Days - Powers Accounting Machines
Author: Walter F. T. Plummer
I was offered two jobs from the juvenile labour exchange in Dingwall Road. I chose factory work over an office job and the following Monday I started work at the Powers-Samas Accounting Machines in Aurelia Road.
To give it its full title, Powers-Samas Accounting and Tabulating Machines Ltd was known to all that worked there as the Ace and Tab.
The factory's first machine parts were shipped from America during the First World War and were sunk by a German submarine. The parts were so valuable that divers were sent down to recover them.
My wages were 13 shillings a week in 1939. The first thing I saw upon entering the factory was a notice displaying the words 'export or die' and remember shivering in my boots as I thought it was directed at me personally.
As I was taken through to the machine shop, overwhelming for a young lad with dust and grime everywhere, the noise of the machines was horrendous.
Among all this bedlam, two shafts of sunlight shone through the glass roof, spotlighting the area. I felt quite sick to my stomach.
Over the years I went from labourer to working on a milling machine, on which I lost part of my right thumb when it got caught in the cutter of the machine. I managed to get my hand free and went to the first aid room.
The nurse in charge wasn't sure who to deal with first, me or the two young ladies who fainted when they saw my hand.
Factory life was a world of its own. After my spell on bench-work I was given a tea boy's job. There was a lot of larking about.
Initiation ceremonies popped up every now and again. Young lads, like myself, were sent to the store to buy glass wheelbarrows to carry steam in and I remember getting two spoons of sugar poured down the neck of my shirt. Sometimes a smouldering cigarette was dropped in the pocket of my overalls. With all that oil around I dread to think what could have happened.
Little changed for us during the war. Accounting machines were still being used by the government and every now and then a job would come through as part of the war effort.
The factory also had a home guard unit. All of us were moulded into a fighting troupe, training evenings and weekends. Thank God we were never put to the test, for what with all the bombing raids at night and patrolling the factory with the home guard, people were falling asleep at their machines.
When air raids happened during the day all the machines were shut down and we all filed out to the shelters -1 wonder how we ever got any work done?
After the war, things almost returned to normal. Even though ration books were still being used and things were in short supply, regular outings to the coast were organised, you could join the company's sports club and drama groups.
But after 1958 overtime was stopped and normal work dried up. As the name Powers-Samas faded into history I found I could not manage on basic pay.
Redundancy was in the air, but as it worked on a 'first in, last out' basis, I could not afford to stay. As sad as it was, I completed 25 years at the Ace and Tab in 1964. It closed just a few short years after I left. It was the end of my first job which 1 would not have missed for all the world. Happy days.