One story about the steelworks is
definitely worth a mention, namely the communal water closet. These rectangular
brick building with corrugated galvanized sheet steel roof were to be seen in
many areas throughout the plant. Usually about twenty foot long by six foot
wide with several square openings to let the light in, but lacking wooden frames
and glass all by design. No one would clean the glass and if it was broken it
would become a safety hazard so the best way to avoid those issues was to leave
the hole in the wall empty.
Entrances at each end of the twenty-foot
span were of a staggered overlapping wall, which required no door; therefore,
no hinges to break and the overlapped walls were sight proof to anyone passing
by. Inside these lovely buildings was a concrete trough the full length of the
inside and the front ledge of the trough had a 2x6 plank of wood attached to it
for the enjoyment of the occupants who found the need to go and sit down on it.
The length of the trough was divided by wooden partitions approx 30 inches
apart which overhung the front edge of the trough by about 18 inches to ensure
privacy from the neighbours on either side as of course there were no doors on
the compartments. The bottom of the trough had a quantity of water over its
full length, which was fed by an overhead cistern tank at one end, which
flushed itself every 7 or 8 minutes. That is when the apprentices had their
little bit of sport. It was best to wait till the cattle pen was mostly full of
smoking, newspaper reading clients and then armed with a full sheet of
newspaper loosely crumpled and a match, one waited for the automatic flush to
start and then launched the crumpled up newspaper onto the stream of water
having applied the lighted match to it and then leg it on out of there at top
speed as each occupant in turn received a singe job to his bare bottom it was
quite the trick if well executed and more fun than going to the silent movies.
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