Because of the nature of my early days with IBM the main product line was in time recording equipment. This started with attendance recording. This was where the employees removed their card from the out rack ‘punched’ it into the machine, which recorded the time and then they placed it in the in rack. Also among the products were machines for recording time on various jobs, mail room stamping input and of course Master Clock systems which controlled all the time recording within a building. These master Clocks which looked like the classy Grandfather clock with pendulum etc. These were usually installed in the main office area or in the reception. This range of equipment provided me with the opportunity to get into many varied places where I was able to observe just about every possible form of manufacture, including engineering, motor works, all sorts of food processing, hospitals, woollen mills and the shoe and rag trade.
A decision had been made to discontinue in the time recording business manufacture and sale of time recorders but an undertaking that service would continue to be available. All the people involved would be cross trained on the other products. I took over the northeastern suburbs which went out to Thomastown to the north, Richmond central section and Box hill to the east. As the time recording service was being downsized (another organisation had come into the picture) my work involved all the equipment that had been developed in the Office products division. The golf ball typewriter had hit the market sometime in the mid-sixties and had become very popular. The technology involved was at that time mainly mechanical (electronics was just getting on its feet) but it wasn’t long before a new wave of equipment was developed. One result of this was that manufactures of other equipment were using the golf ball typewriters to act as printer on their computers. This resulted in me for example having to go to the docks to board a refrigerated container ship to fix their printer which was connected to temperature control computers (they couldn’t leave without it operating). Another product that caused some grief was the IBM composer. This was an electromechanical machine that was used for printing. Up until it came along the cheapest printing machines would have cost in excess of $30,000 but the composer was only about $5,000 and produced an acceptable quality of printing for a lot of applications.
There are other stories associated with my work with IBM that are worth recalling:
The Avalon airfield was completed around 1959-60 and IBM had been contracted to install a master Clock system. It connected the four main building so that all time was synchronised. This include the main hangers. These hangers were between 60-70 feet tall. The middle hanger was to have a tower clock on the front face of the building about 45 feet above the ground. The minute hand of the clock was about 5 foot long. It didn’t have numbers but big dots instead. These were held to the font glass panels by bolts that were put through holes drilled in the glass panels. To effect the installation and other maintenance operations a catwalk had been installed which was about 35-40feet above the ground level. You climbed a steel stair way which curved following the line of the hanger roof, till you got part of the way up then headed up onto a straight line across the building. The only problem for us was the catwalk was about 20feet from the front of the building. The only way to get to the front was by walking across a I beam about 8 inches wide. When the site engineer showed us the way he pointed to a corrugated temporary roof about 15 foot below the beam saying “don’t put your trust in that temporary roof a guy went through it last week”. After crossing the I beam the next problem was to get to the platform where the clockwork mechanism had been mounted. This platform was about 3 feet wide and six foot long with the motor mechanism on it. Two of us had to get on it to do the work and it was about 15foot above where we had crossed over on the I beam
The only way up to the platform was to climb up the steel work which was a zig zag structure with good foot holds. Getting to the platform and onto it was interesting. Prior to our arrival we had a scaffold built out the front so we could mark and install the dots. The only problem with the scaffold was they had made it 20foot across at the bottom, but two thirds of the way up it had been reduced to about 9 feet across. As the minute hand was over 5’ and the dots had to be about 12” past the end of the minute hand we had to reach out past the scaffold when marking out and eventually fixing the dots. We got the mechanism working and using the minutes hand was able to mark out the position of the dots, with some tape on the glass which we could see from inside. We had to do the marking out on the outside and having located the spots drill holes through the glass. We had arranged for a glass man to come down to drill the glass. He did this using a special drill bit which was just like a tube with diamond dust impregnate into the end of the tube. This was going to be a problem to get it started in the right position for because of the tube type drill, there was no point. We again overcame this by making a guide from a price of Masonite with a hole the same size as the drill. Just hold the Masonite win the right spot ensuring that it was held firmly, put the drill through the hole and start to drill – easy!!
Couple of minor difficulties. The glass was that reinforced glass that had a chicken type wire through it. The glass panels were about four feet long and there was nowhere to stand as the dots were far wider than our little platform. We achieved the end result by using the steel window frames for a foot and hand hold. One of us would start across, pause while the second would follow the third would pass the drill along then we would all move again etc. When we got into position I would hang on to the window frame with my left hand, put my right arm around the glass ma and link up with the third, linking our arms around the glass man so he could do the drilling. I don’t think one would be allowed to do this today. We had completed eleven holes through the glass without incident. As we were doing the last, holding on the ring at the delicate moment of break through, Commodore Scott decided on a test flight to break through the sound barrier – right over the hangar. We just managed to hang on, but the drill broke the glass. Three guys hanging on for life, one humorist said – “glad I've got my rosary beads”.
RIP Jim McGuirk (1932-2025)
