Boy, when I'm wrong I'm really wrong and today is no exception. Because, after I finished yesterday's entry about remembering something that took place while I was attending college, another bolt of historical lightning hit me. And, guess what? This one involved the exact same professor, the guy named Professor Haasch.
As I mentioned, this professor taught a required course on public speaking, and if I'm not mistaken, the vast majority of the population fears public speaking worse than death. That may be an overstatement, so let's just say that most folks find it pretty scary.
Anyway, the final exam in this class required making a presentation regarding any subject the student wished, such as a hobby, pastime, job, career plan, unusual experience, special interest or something like that. The ground rules demanded that the talk take at least thirty minutes and class sessions ran two-hours plus. Therefore, ordinarily, four presentations or so were made each class session.
When my turn came up, I elected to speak about my profession at the time, selling materials handling equipment in Hudson and Essex counties in New Jersey. My employer, American Handling Equipment, was the authorized dealer for Allis-Chalmers (AC) fork lift trucks in the Northern New Jersey region.
The evening of my talk, I led off the presentations, and to support my efforts I drew a rough outline of a freight pallet on the blackboard, and a free-hand sketch of a typical warehouse platform. I used the diagrams to illustrate how and where lift trucks carried, raised and stacked pallet loads of freight for storage, loaded and unloaded vehicles, rail cars, trucks, etc. and moved various types of stowage around an assortment of typical facilities such as factories, plants, warehouses, yards, airports, docks and wharves and so on.
To further explain what was involved, I handed each student a packet of specification sheets regarding various models of AC equipment, including gas, propane, diesel and electric powered lift trucks. Then, during my talk, I referred to the hand-outs and used them to make various points about the equipment's primary functions.
After finishing each segment of my presentation, I asked if anyone had any question to establish a give and take rapport with classmates and move the evening along. At some point during my talk I informed the class that AC had recently introduced their first electric-powered lift truck. This, by the way, would have been somewhere in the early 1960's although I really don't recall the specific year.
The importance of AC's new electric machine, however, was that until then all battery-powered lift trucks ran on a system equivalent to DC current. The motors tapped batteries directly and usage time depended upon how much capacity the battery had before re-charging was needed. In busy operations that usually averaged four hours or so, and full re-charging took eight or more hours. Larger batteries weren't the answer to extending life-per-charge either, because that would mean larger lift trucks to accommodate their increased size, and larger lift trucks were out of the question because they'd need too much room to maneuver in typical business spaces.
Due to the limitations of average useful battery life per charge until then, AC's new machines were indeed revolutionary, because they operated on solid-state circuitry, wherein free-floating diodes simulated alternating current. Every few milliseconds, the power switched on and off in pulses although the motor kept operating smoothly without a hitch. The power-off spans during operation permitted batteries to reserve roughly half their power, typically doubling useful life per charge. That enabled completing eight-hour shifts, or more, in most operations.
Now, unbeknownst to me, because I was so absorbed in my presentation, time had really flown by that evening. And then, out of the corner of my eye, I spotted the professor in the back of the room waving his hands and then silently pointing to the face of his watch. I quickly glanced at my own wrist and was shocked to notice that the entire two-hour session had gone by, considerably more than the thirty minutes I was supposed to have been allotted. Naturally, I immediately ad-libbed some kind of conclusion and brought my presentation to its close.
Later thinking about what had happened, and not really knowing the answer, I supposed the professor took advantage of the fact that he had a "professional" speaker in his class and just let me run on, because the class seemed so absorbed. Or perhaps, my oratory skills overwhelmed him (that was a joke folks), however that's not the end of the story.
When the class was over another student approached me in the hall outside the room. He'd not participated in the discussion that night and I had no clue as to whom he was. He quickly told me he was taking some required courses to qualify for an MBA program, and had a question or two about some things I'd mentioned and wanted to know if my description of the capabilities of the AC electronic trucks was really true. Though taken aback by the consideration that he thought I might have been fibbing, or even exaggerating the truth a bit, I firmly let him know that what I'd said was absolutely valid, each and every word, and that I could prove it.
Well, it turned out that this stranger was a senior manager in the purchasing department of one of the largest manufacturers in the United States. Their name was a household word. And, resultant of my presentation, he soon requested a demonstrator unit to test out in one of his employer's plants. The successful test run resulted in an order through the AC National Accounts office in Manhattan, for sixty-six electronic lift trucks, at somewhere around eight to ten grand a pop, to be shipped to various locations throughout the country. And, to my recollection, not one of them was in northern New Jersey.
So, all in all, I guess I found out what my words were really worth that night. Because, in the end, Allis-Chalmers made a small fortune, but I didn't earn a plug nickel.
That's it for today folks.
Adios
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