Show aft AO fi 1 adventurers CLUB 1 7 HEADLINES FROM THE LIVES OF PEOPLE LIKE breath of doom L 0 EVERYBODY HEL HELLO J john 0 hn A kollins of decatur ill is a refrigerator repairman and he knows the ins and outs of mechanical refrigerating systems and can tell you just what makes them go john learned that business with an eye to making his bread and butter out of it but there came a time when he had to use every doggone bit of the knowledge he had acquired to save his life but in the end it was a penknife that saved the day without it all of johns technical skill would have been of little use in the battle against the icy breath of doom which he and his helper found themselves fighting johns knowledge told him what not to do but knowing what not to do enough when death is clamping down and slowly wringing the life out of you it all happened in springfield ill on march 31 1936 john kollins was called over there to make some repairs in in the refrigerating plant of the morris fish market he got there early in the morning with his helper and they worked hard au all day on the job the market had several cooler rooms carrying below freezing temperatures pera tures and one room called a sharp fish freezer that went down to 10 or 15 degrees below zero when the machinery was working evening was coming on and still their job finished the market had closed and every one had gone home before john finally got the machinery working properly tie ile still had to test it though and he turned the controls on full and he and his helper climbed out of the basement and went up through the big empty market to the sharp freezer room to see how rapidly the machine was bringing the temperature down find catch broken on freezer door when they got to the freezer door john noticed again that the catch was broken there was an old pair of ice tongs hanging nearby to open it in case it stuck he had seen that before an and d T 1 r 45 L then suddenly the big blade of the knife broke made a mental note of it he had even told his helper to be careful in closing that door behind him but now as john walked in his helper following behind him gave the door a thoughtless bang locked in and in a small cramped room whose temperature was rapidly rapidly going down going to 15 below zero not even an eskimo could live through a night in the open at such a temperature and john and his helper dressed in ordinary working clothes knew that be frozen to death long before morning my heart cheari almost failed me right then and there says john but if 11 it been for my knowledge of the structure of this freezer we e might have died before we even had half a chance to try to get out my helper was all for taking a big block of ice and trying to ram the door down but I 1 knew better than to try it the door was too strong and if we failed to get out on the first try it would be the end 1 I had bad built this plant eight years before I 1 knew the ammonia coils would not stand much jarring without springing a leak and once the ammonia got in wed have choked to death before we had a chance to freeze no that was out the only thing those two lads could do waa was cling to straws they MIGHT just possibly be alive in the morning only tool Is two bladed penknife john asked his helper if he had any tools in his pocket the only thing the helper had was a small penknife with two blades john told him have to try digging their way out with that knife anything to keep their minds off the death that was clutching at them one degree at a time they started hacking away at the plaster that coated the walls cutting a hole about eight inches in diameter it take long to cut through the plaster it was only half an inch thick but back of that was eight inches of cork we took turns digging says john and made progress little by little but all this time the machine was running in the basement and the temperature was going down it went from five to ten to fifteen below and our hands bands became numb as we worked then suddenly the big blade of the knife broke john feels lie ile Is nearing ncr end 1 I sat down and wrote a few words to my wife on the back of one of my cards I 1 was feeling mighty sleepy and I 1 knew I 1 was nearing the end and then out of a clear sky my helper shook me and said he had a small hole through to the outside it was just a tiny hole the one they originally started had I 1 narrowed down almost to a point it did them mighty little good but johns helper thought they might try shouting for help to please his helper john agreed to try but he knew there was no one in the building and knew that hat the chances of any one hearing thern them from the outside was mighty slim for an hour they kept up their intermittent shouting john was yelling police and his helper was just crying help it was almost 10 by that time and john had lost all hope and then suddenly they got an answer where are you A man parking his car in the alley beside the market had heard them i the fellow broke in a window found the freezer and used the old ice tongs to pry open the door he know what to do about us says john until 1 I in my delirium began yelling police again he thought that was a good idea and called the cops the police arrived and gave the two men stimulants before it was over the newspaper photographers had arrived and they had to go back into that freezer again to pose for pictures but that time they made darned certain that the door slam shut on them released by western newspaper union |