Document oeb10wmopX9ZzkEy334OOOm07

OOiL corrosion is the principal destructive force shortening the useful life of underground steel pipe lines. Its prevention is the objective of Bechtel Cor poration's Somastic Pipe Coating Division, which car ries on a siuiessl'ul crusade started more than t years ago when Bechtel interests first commercially intro duced this protective treatment. Somastic Pipe Coating, a research-developed prod uct, is a dense, tough asphalt mastic. In use it is a uniformly thick, water-resistant non-conduclive cover ing firmly bonded to the pipe it protects, extending along the entire length of the treated pipe line with out joints or seams. Since earning a remarkable score in the A.P.I. - U. S. Bureau of Standards 10 Year Pipe Coating Tests and proved on many operating pipe lines, it has become the acknowledged champion, spec ified wherever long lasting protection must be certain. The Division, under Vice President J. Perry Yates and headed by J. S. Connell, General Manager, is the only one in the company engaged in manufacturing as well as engineering and construction. In this case, manufacturing consists of compounding the pipe coat ing material to carefully controlled specifications in hot plants, and applying the coating to previouslycleaned and primed pipe by means of specially-de signed extrusion equipment. This is done either at the central plant located in Watson, near Wiimington, California, or at a railhead plant set up near the pipe line to be coated. Of key importance to the Somastic Pipe Coating operation are the superintendents--W. E. Trimmc-11, Tradr Malt Ret. U. S. Pji Oil Leon Garrott, W. N. Morgan and L. B. Hampton, "honcst-to-God construction stiffs with the know how" according to Manager Connell. Dick Trinimell, General Superintendent of the Division, is responsible for all operations, central plant and field. He is one of three brothers--Dale, formerly with Bechtel-McCone and now with R. A. Conyes, a Bechtel associate, and Dave, field joint su pervisor for Somastic Division. He has been with Bechtel for ten years, the entire time on Somastic Pipe Coating. Like all Somastic superintendents, he was developed by the Division. Bill Morgan, superintendent of equipment and maintenance, is an old-fashioned master mechanic who keeps the equipment working and develops im proved versions of the specialized machinery. He was at Calship and is another 10 year man. Lloyd Hampton began with Somastic at the origi nal Kettieman Hills plant in the mid-thirties, under Pop Thorne. Off and on he has been with the Divi sion ever since, put together and operated the success ful reclamation plant on the recent San Ardo-Estero Bay pipe line, and is now plant superintendent at the Watson central plant. Leon Garrott, another Somastic veteran, has con tinuously been in charge of field joint work and all railhead plants, except for his army service during the war. The Salt Lake pipe line job, with railhead plant stationed at Ogden, and two prior Utah locations on the Rangely and Mountain Euc-1 pipe lines respectively have been recent field locations for him. BILL MORGAN LLOYD HAMPTON 6