OCR Text |
Show ADVENTURERS' CLUB HEADLINES FROM THE LIVES f 'iT) OF PEOPLE LIKE YOURSELF! Xj "Breath of Doom" HELLO EVERYBODY: John A. Kollins of Decatur, 111., is a refrigerator repairman, re-pairman, and he knows the ins and outs of mechanical refrigerating re-frigerating systems and can tell you just what makes them go-John 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 John's 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. John's knowledge told him what not to do, but knowing what not to do isn't enough when death is clamping down and slowly wringing the life oat of you. ! It all happened in Springfield, 111. On March 31, 1936, John Kollins was called over there to make some repairs in the refrigerating plant of the Morris Fish Market. He got there early in the morning with his helper, and they worked hard all day on the job. The market had several cooler rooms carrying below-freezing temperatures tem-peratures 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 wasn't finished. The market had closed and every one had gone home before John finally got the machinery working properly. He 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 tha 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, and 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, hi? helper, following behind him, gave the door a thoughtless bang. Locked in! And in a small, cramped room whose temperature temper-ature was 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 they'd be frozen to death long before morning. "My heart almost failed me right then and there," says John, "but if it hadn't been for my knowledge of the structure of this freezer, we 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 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 "I had built this plant eight years before. I knew the ammonia am-monia coils would not stand much jarring without springing a leak. And once the ammonia got in, we'd have choked to death before we had a chance to freeze." No that was out. The only thing those two lads could do 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 they'd 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 didn't 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 became numb as we worked. Then, suddenly, the big blad of the knife broke. John Feels He Is Nearing End. "I sat down and wrote a few words to my wife on the back of one of my cards. I was feeling mighty sleepy, and I knew I 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 narrowed down almost to a point. It did them mighty little good, but John's 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 the chances of any one hearing 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 o'clock 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. The fellow broke in a window found the freezer, and used the old Ice tongs to pry open the door. "He didn't know what te do ibout us," says John, "until I, in my delirium, began yelling 'Police!' again. He thought tha' 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 wouldn't slam shut on them. (Released by Western Newspaper Union.) |