I found the inspection work to be extremely interesting, especially from the stand point of diversity of industries and the types of equipment that was encountered. I inspected Steel Mills, Paper Mills, Textile Mills, Corn Processing Mills, Rubber Plants, both natural and synthetic, Meat Packing Plants, and Cold Storage Plants, as well as factories that made vacuum Cleaners, Sewing Machines, Wall Paper, Playing Cards, Furniture, Pianos, Farm Fencing and all sorts of material vital to the War effort.

As well as the inspection of the insured object, it was the inspector’s duty to investigate all accidents, not only to identify liability, but also to determine the cause and, if possible, recommend measures to prevent recurrence. It also behooved the inspector to encourage everything possible to expedite the repair of the disabled equipment, in order to keep the loss of production to a minimum. Some of the accidents were real humdingers. My photo album shows a few of them.

The inspection work was very interesting as well as professionally satisfying. It did incur a lot of traveling and much time away from home. When I first started, my service area extended from Erie, Pennsylvania, South to Canton, North Carolina and from Covington, Virginia West to Peoria, Illinois. An office was later opened in Erie, which took the Hammermill Paper Company. Then the Champion Paper and Fibre Company at Canton, North Carolina was given to the Spartanburg, South Carolina Office. This greatly reduced the amount of time that I was required to be away from home.

The company was growing very rapidly, so the amount of work was not reduced, just the traveling time. These changes were not made, however, until after we had made plans to move back to Michigan. This we did in November 1947, just ten years after we had left there to go to North Carolina.