Document pBYDK8NJxnED6vXMQoOyZ3RoX

Copy August 20, 1940. Mr. R. Murphy, Dear Dick: Mr. R. E. Benner, Chief Engineer of the Tidewater Oil Company's New York office, gave the history of the tank involved in the accident in Baltimore as follows; Tank number T-l, 80,000 barrel capacity, built in 1928 and put into Tydol regular service, cleaned by Mr. laming April 24, 1933, and put into Kerosene service. Cleaned by Dorsey September 1934 and continued in Kerosene service. 1935 - 1936 it was in unfinished gasoline stock dead storage for the Bayonne refinery. It apparently was not cleaned for this change over. Later in 1936 it was returned to Tydol regular storage, without apparent cleaning and continued in that service until this last cleaning, August 1940. Mr. Benner also gave us the following information as to location of gas masks for use of their field force: Unit No. 1 Unit No. 2 Unit No. 3 Unit No. 4 Unit No. 5 Unit No. 6 Unit No. 7 Philadelphia, Penna. bulk plant Newark, New Jersey, bulk plant Hartford, Conn, bulk plant E. Providence, R.I., bulk plant Revere, Mass., bulk plant Assigned to Mr. H. S. Imming and usually carried with him. Assigned to Mr. E. W, Dorsey and usually carried with him. Unit No. 8 Curtis Bay, Md., bulk plant. Mr. Benner advised us that he is setting up a new plan for notifying us in the future of tank cleaning jobs. The system will work somewhat as follows; One of our regular notification cards plus an original letter of notification will be sent to the New York Division office. Copies of this letter will be sent to: Our division office which will supervise the job The field engineer in charge of the work The superintendent of the plant in vihich the work is to be done jiB 0021142 - 2The chief engineer's desk The Tidewater Oil Company files. The letter will state, as a note to the field engineer, that the tank is not to be opened or entered until a representative of the Ethyl Gasoline Corporation is present. This plan is to go into effect immediately without waiting for our final revised tank cleaning rules and regulations. Very truly yours. A. J. Baldwin. KE" 0021143