Latest / The Elevator Careers Podcast / 92 Years Old and Still Working: A Lifetime in the Elevator Industry | Jim Comley

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92 Years Old and Still Working: A Lifetime in the Elevator Industry | Jim Comley · The Elevator Careers Podcast

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_01: If at first you don't succeed, don't be surprised.
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_01: I love that.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_01: Try it again.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_01: Do something else.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_01: So uh keep trying.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_01: And uh once again, like I said, the competition between uh five and nine is heavy, but after a little before, a little after, it it cuts down pretty quickly.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_01: And uh, you know, be nice to people.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_01: It's uh you know, it's it's a great trade.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_01: You learn every kind of industry there is.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_01: There's uh there's nothing that we that doesn't need an elevator in it, so so sooner or later you're gonna begin into every type there is.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: Hello, and welcome to the Elevator Careers Podcast, sponsored by the Allred Group.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: I am your host, Matt Allred.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: In this podcast, we talk to the people whose lives and careers are dedicated to the vertical transportation industry to inform and share lessons learned, building upon the foundation of those who have gone before to inspire the next generation of elevator careers.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: Today our guest is Jim Comley, president and owner of Embry Elevator.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: Jim started in the industry when he was 19 years old in 1950, and after a few years in the Navy, Jim returned and worked for Payne Elevator for many years.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_00: In 1973, Jim bought Embry Elevator, and to this day he continues to work because he wants to.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: Jim is now 92 and he has been in the elevator business for 70 years.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: Jim loves what he does and has no intention of retiring anytime soon.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: Jim, welcome to the show.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_01: Well, thank you, Matt, for inviting me on.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I'm excited to be able to talk to you.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: I think you've got a a lot of uh knowledge and experience to share, and uh I'm I'm just excited to be able to meet you today and um wanted to ask Jim a little bit about how you got started in the elevator industry when you when you did back in the 1950s I think you said.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_01: My father worked at the VA hospital here in Bedford, Massachusetts, and he was an electrician.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_01: And being an electrician, he had to do take care of everything that was electric from the elevators to the telephones and the uh pumps at the filter station and all kinds of electrical things.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_01: And I went one of them quite often uh on weekends just to just to just to be with him, and he taught me a lot to start with, and he took care of the elevators also.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_01: And when he couldn't take care of the elevators, you'd call in Payne Elevator Company, which is a local company from Cambridge Mass.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_01: They would come out and help him fix the elevators, and uh so he got to know a few of the guys.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_01: And when I get out of high school, I was going to trade school in Boston, it was called uh Franklin Tech.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_01: And they said, Well, why don't you go talk to these fellows at the uh elevator uh union and maybe you can get it started with them?
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_01: So I talked to a few guys there, and they signed me up with the elevator union, the Payne Elevator Company.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_01: And uh I've enjoyed it ever since.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_01: Started out as an apprentice, worked there for a year, and then after a year I got called into the army, but I'd rather join the army, I joined the navy.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_01: So I didn't want to be walking, I'd rather be sailing.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_01: So I joined the Navy and uh served four years there, came back out, and I told my boss that uh I was gonna go to college because I had the GI Bill.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_01: He said, nah, he says, I never went to college and I've got a good job.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_01: Stay with me.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_01: And I I said, okay, I'll tell me about that a little bit.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: So you so when when you finished the military, you what were you gonna study in college when you came out of there?
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_01: Engineering.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: So um tell tell me a little bit about uh did you ever regret not going to engineering school?
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_01: No, I didn't because uh I got out and it was I was making a pretty good pretty good uh pay at the time on the elevator business.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_01: And uh after a couple of years, I I got to be uh a licensed elevator mechanic in 1957.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_01: I became a licensed mechanic in Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont and uh Massachusetts.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_01: I got my licenses and uh started working on elevators because the uh office that I worked out of was in Lowell, Mass.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_01: And we took care of everything north of uh Lowell.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, and uh they had a the factory, of course, was in Cambridge, and another office was in Boston.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_01: But I worked out of the Lowell office and took care of everything, as I say, Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and had a lot of travel, a lot of a lot of experiences.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_01: Quite often it was uh uh in factories, most of the time it was in factories with a lot of freight elevator work that I did.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_01: And a few elevators that they put in the uh hospitals, and one of one of them they put in the Capitol building up in uh Vermont, the Capitol building in Vermont there, and some some passenger elevators up in Maine and Augusta, Maine.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_01: There was an Augusta, Maine hospital that worked up there.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_00: So, Jim, what um what was it that kept you engaged in elevators?
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, you you obviously had some different plans, you joined the military for a time.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_00: What kept bringing you back to the elevator industry or making you helping you stay?
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_01: Well, in the elevator industry, we get to go into all kinds of businesses.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_01: They know places like Raytheon that are very uh secure, you get to where we could walk in there like we own the place.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_01: Go to the bank, they would invite you in.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_01: Or even the colleges.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_01: I worked at a lot of at uh the colleges of Boston, Tobbett, MIT, BU, BC, and all those colleges.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_01: Uh they uh they'd always invite you in because they needed you.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_01: And uh and uh I get to get to meet a lot of different people in all different industries, and it was very exciting business.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_01: And uh even today, there's uh we we still uh uh get to get to see every industry there is.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_01: It's been always good, and uh I enjoy working with my hands, and uh, I never uh always felt that I'd get to the job early in the morning and leave late at night because uh the competition cuts down pretty quickly after after five o'clock at night or before eight in the morning.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_01: So I always try to get there a little early and stay a little late.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_00: So you you told me you're you're still working to this day that you show up in the office and work when you when you want to, is that right?
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I work when I want to.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_01: My daughter and her husband, uh she's uh vice president.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_01: My uh son-in-law's a uh CFO of the company, and they run it for me, you know, daily and nightly, of course.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_01: Business may have to be uh ready to go any time of night.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_01: But they run the business for me now.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_01: I my two sons are uh separated.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_01: They they uh one of them has a small elevator company for home elevators, he lives up in New Hampshire.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, and my other son uh he's working at the Ports Portsmouth Navy uh taking care of their elevators.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_01: So uh he doesn't work for me anymore.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_01: But right now he he's the one that has the uh elevator museum up in the Ames Remassed.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_00: So you've got an eleven elevator family these days.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, just multi multi-generation.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and I'm trying to get my grandson uh to start the business too.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_01: He's he's applied for the union, so he gets to have a few uh interviews before they'll accept them.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_01: So I hope to have him in there as a third generation elevator man.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_01: What was he liked working with his hands also?
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, what what was it that uh that motivated you to to buy Embry Elevator in 1973?
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_00: Uh let's see.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_01: Uh well they they had a machine shop, and we uh once in a while we had an elevator part that we had to have impaired.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_01: I'd go over to talk to them in Lynn and uh got to know the people pretty well.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_01: They were quite talented people.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_01: Uh they had a small company, there's only about four or five people in the company.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_01: But the uh owner and his sister, uh they were getting old, they were in the late 60s, and so they wanted to sell out.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_01: But they had a uh Mr.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_01: Rembrandt had a son that worked in a machine shop, very, very talented man.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_01: And he didn't he didn't want to do the business.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_01: He he just didn't work in the machine shop.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_01: So they they sold the business to me.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_01: And uh I then I I also had uh an interest in City Elevator.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_01: I founded City Elevator Company.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_01: But then one of my partners took that over and I went to Embry.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_01: So we split off and and I stayed at Embry and he ran City Elevator for me.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: Now before you left Payne, did you did you end up buying Payne Elevator or did you just you were just working there?
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_01: No, we we started City Elevator Company after there was a few of us at Payne Elevator, went to City Elevator and founded that.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_01: We worked there for just a couple of years, and then we as I say we we had work at Embry Elevator in the machine shop, so I got to know those people quite well.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_01: And the opportunity came up to uh buy them out, so so so I did.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_00: I think uh I think I understood that uh that Embry was was non-union at the time.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_00: Is that right?
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_01: Oh yes, they were they were non-union until 1996, something like that.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_01: They uh organized us and uh then we we became a part of the the union.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_01: I was union myself until uh we I bought Embry Elevator, and then I had to drop out of the union after I uh uh went had a non-union shop for a while.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_01: But then, as I say, in 1996 we we did get organized again so that we were since then been union.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_00: And I think you said you even have your your union card, is that right?
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, I still have my union card.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, they can accepted me back in the company.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_01: The uh fellow that was in charge of the recruiting said uh I I could get back to the union, but I the only thing I couldn't do was vote at the meetings.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_01: I could go to the meetings to wanted to do whatever I wanted, as long as I didn't, as long as I didn't vote, everything else is okay.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_01: I could work on them or do whatever I felt like the only thing I couldn't do is vote for some reason.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe today I could.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_01: 30 years later, maybe I could you never know.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_00: So what what do you what do you love most about the industry?
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it sounds like it's uh become part of your life and it's gets in your blood at this point.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it is.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's really as I say, it's exciting because I you can see any kind of industry there is.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_01: And uh it's up in New Hampshire they have a lot of old, old elevators, and uh I got on the elevator advisory board up there and uh used to help the elevator inspector.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_01: He was a plumber at the time.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_01: You get to be elevator inspector, and uh so he needed some coaching.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_01: So anytime he found an old elevator that he had to go out and inspect, he would ask me to help him inspect the elevator.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_01: So and uh I got to see all the old stuff that he had up in New Hampshire because the inspector needed coaching on the old stuff.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_01: New stuff he worked with another company called Stanley Elevator, and uh they put a lot of new elevators in.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_01: He worked with them also.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_01: You get to be you get to be pretty pretty good inspector.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_00: Now he's retired.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_00: Sure.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah is is there a lot of old equipment still out there in what you see, or has it mostly been replaced?
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's it's mostly been replaced now because uh in Massachusetts they adopted the national code in 1989, and they uh they want all the all the new stuff to conform to the national code now.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_01: The existing elevators, Massachusetts still has their own their own code, which is uh started in 1914, I think it was, and uh it's grown since that time.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_01: And I was on the elevator uh licensing board in Massachusetts for a while.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_01: When the fellows wanted to have a license, I had to make out a test and give them a test for the so they could qualify to be elevator.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_00: So you were the one actually making and administering the the test to certify?
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_01: I administered the test for licensing in Massachusetts for a while.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_01: And after that I got on the elevator uh board of elevator regulations.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_01: I was on that for 10 years.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_01: And uh just before I got out for last year, I was chairman of the Board of Elevator Regulations.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_01: I helped write uh new laws for existing elevators.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_00: What are some of the biggest changes that you've seen during your career?
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_01: Uh the uh solid state controllers that they make now, and the computerized controllers are uh out of my league.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_01: My my men all carry uh all carry laptops now.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_01: They're gonna if you want to service a new elevator, you must must get into their software to understand what's what's what's wrong and how to repair it.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_01: But that's that's uh something I have.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_01: Computers aren't my not my daily wake.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_01: I don't care for them.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_01: And uh you know, my daughter says she came in this morning just to help me get started with this with this interview.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_01: Understood.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_01: My grandson lives next door, so when I get in trouble with my computer, when I want to turn it on, I should say.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_01: I ask him to come and get started with me.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_00: That's uh definitely a lot of change.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_00: Technology doesn't slow down.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_01: No, it doesn't.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_00: It gets uh every day they're changing themselves.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_00: I think the computers change you know minute by minute.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_00: What are some of the best changes that you've seen just in industry overall, whether it's technology or regulations or um what are some of the best things that have happened?
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_01: I'd say the technology for the uh controls of the passenger elevators are much, much more complex than they ever were.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_01: And uh they get they get more complex every day.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_01: I think that's uh one way they have of uh being uh non-compete.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_01: Once you once you put a new elevator in, uh they they want to keep it forever on service.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_01: And uh to do that, they have to put in little little gimmicks here and there that we can't get into, so they can keep them.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_01: Of course, people jump from one company to another, and sometimes when they do, they bring in the knowledge from their their industry into uh into so we can we can service them.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_01: But so then but uh that's that's I think that's the most the cut the control part of it is the part that's uh machines themselves aren't too too much different than they were they were years ago.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_01: Although years ago when we had them, they were water hydraulic elevators run right off of street water pressure.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_01: They were quite quite simple.
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_01: You bring in the water pressure and uh push the elevator up, and then when you want to go down, you open a valve and let it all go out in the street sewer.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_00: So not not very economical or environmentally friendly either.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, as you say, that's uh certainly some old technology that that wouldn't really fit in today's society.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_01: No, they don't.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_01: They don't fit uh but uh they worked at the time.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_01: I worked in one I worked in one elevator up in Springfield, Massachusetts that was a hundred feet high at the City Hall, and the top had uh rope shifts on it to uh keep some counterweight, and the top of the building was getting kind of rusty, so they had to have us go out there and drop down the elevator 50 feet so they take the top 50 feet off of it and uh repair it, put it back up again, then we went back out and got the elevators up to the full height again.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know how they ever dug the hole a hundred feet deep, uh you know, a hundred years ago, but they did.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_00: Wow, yeah, no idea how that works.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_01: Um I do, but they uh they did it somehow.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_00: Sure.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_00: So so a lot of people tell me, especially if they're working in the trade, that you know their goal every day is to come home with fingers and toes and and be, you know, in one piece.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_00: Have you ever had any close calls?
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_01: Uh just uh just electrical shock most of the time.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_01: It's uh that's the most uh dangerous part of it.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_01: It's working around electricity.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_01: A lot of it is 550 volt AC jobs we have, and some even uh 500 DC jobs that work off in the city of Boston.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_01: They somehow they uh tap into the train system, the rapid train system, and they uh use the high voltage on their DC.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_01: They don't do it anymore, but years ago there was pretty hot stuff ahead there.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_00: No, sounds yeah, sounds pretty so so it's more the electricity thing that uh I mean certainly there's all kinds of hazards and well, there's a lot of issues, a lot of a lot of moving machinery there, sure, and and the the risk of falls, all kinds of that.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_00: Um so uh do you think you'll ever retire?
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_01: I don't think so.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_01: No.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_01: When the man upstairs wants me, I'll go.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_00: What is it that uh that keeps you coming back every day?
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_00: What's that?
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_00: What is it that can't keeps you coming back to work at every week?
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I just enjoy the business itself, you know.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_01: And and the people that work there, they got a lot of nice people there.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_01: One one fellow, my vice president, Dave Lucy, has been with me for 40 years since he was just a young kid, you know, auto mechanic, and he can't work for me.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_01: And he's he's weren't learning the business very well.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_01: He's a good good man, a great salesman.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_01: So I enjoy talking to people like him that have been there for all these years.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_00: Got all your friends, especially yeah, for 40 years.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_00: That's a that's a long, long-term friendship.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and we have another fellow, the Mike Carron, his father worked for me at another uh pain elevator company years ago, and he he was sad when he was also 17 years old, and he's getting about ready to retire too.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_01: So it's nice to talk to the fellows that uh they that uh part of the industry way back.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_01: He's nice, nice fellow.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_00: What are what are some of the the biggest lessons you feel like you've learned throughout your time in the industry?
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_01: Uh one thing I try to learn all the time is to uh be able to find somebody that uh to take my job.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_01: I always want to try to move up in my job, so I'd always try to find somebody uh trained to take my job, and then I could move up through through the ranks that way.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_01: And it's always worked out well.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_00: So that's cool.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_00: That's cool.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, just being able to develop your replacement, right?
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_00: That's what they say.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_00: Find your replacement.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_01: Find somebody to replace you, and then you can move up or move out.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_00: Wherever you want to go.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_01: Whatever way, whatever direction they need, yeah.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_00: So uh if uh if you could wave a magic wand and and change one thing about what you're seeing in the industry, what what would you change?
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_01: What would I change?
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_01: Something now, what would I change?
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know, I'll have to think about that again.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_01: Uh uh Matt, because it's uh it's it's it's been good to me.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_01: I've uh made a made a made a good career out of it.
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's it's been fun.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_01: Even today I still enjoy the business.
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_01: That's awesome.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_01: Enjoy the people in it.
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_01: And uh I enjoy uh talking to one of the fellows that in the union that is has just got moved up in his business, his his ranks.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_01: And uh nice fellow, Dave, Dave Morgan is name is nice, nice guy.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_01: He's just got a better better job.
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_01: He's in charge of uh educating the young fellows.
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_01: They have a school called Deep, uh National Elevator Industry uh uh it's like a school they have at night.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_01: And uh he's really developed that a big, big business that works well.
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_01: And uh talking to people like him that uh trying to teach young fellas how to be safe, of course, and uh also to learn the trade, so not going out there and say, well, I can't fix it, uh buy a new new elevator.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_00: So they they go ahead with them that way.
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_00: So as you look back over your career, what what's one of the craziest stories you you can think of, or one of the funniest things that happened?
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_01: Funniest stories, huh?
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_01: I think about that for a while.
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_01: Uh well, I remember years ago when I I told you that some of the old elevators worked off water uh city water pressure, and they were water hydraulic elevators, and they had a huge valve out in the street, maybe uh four inches in diameter.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_01: It would open up the valve so that the water would come in and push the elevator up from its pressure.
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_01: And in the wintertime, they would they were some of the valves are outdoors, so they would fill the pit that had the valve in it full of horse manure.
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_01: And the horse manure was warm enough to keep the keep the keep the valve from freezing, so the elevator would still operate.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_00: So they did that intentionally.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_00: Is that what you're telling me?
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, they did.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_01: In the pit that kept the the big valves warm.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_00: Keep them from freezing up then, huh?
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_01: That's yeah.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_01: And I I think I told you about another elevator they put in, the Capitol building up in uh Montpellier, Vermont.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_01: The first time I went into service that after was uh installed, uh the fellow in the building, the maintenance man said, What does it stir with it?
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_01: They got all these little pans next to the elevator, you know, to catch the oil.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_01: He says, Why don't they keep the oil in?
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_01: I says, Well, it's it's part of the system.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_01: Is this the you get rid of some of the old oil and you put in new oil?
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_01: He says, Why don't you keep it in?
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_01: I says, No, that's not that's not the way these work.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_01: They always seem to be good.
• 22:50
  SPEAKER_01: They would leak leak a little bit, we pick it up in a little pan and then put in new oil to refresh it.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_01: So without kind of a system of keeping it uh yeah, yeah.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_01: Keeping it new, keeping new oil in there.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_00: Right, right.
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_00: So if you could um offer a a a bit of advice to people who are new to the industry, what would you tell them?
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_01: Uh let's see.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_01: Well, one of one of the my uh my favorite expression is if if if at first you don't succeed, don't be surprised.
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_01: I love that.
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_01: Try it again, do something else.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_01: So uh keep trying.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_01: And uh once again, like I said, the competition between uh five and nine is heavy, but after a little before, a little after, it it cuts down pretty quickly.
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_01: And uh, you know, be nice to people.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_01: It's uh you know it's it's a great trade.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_01: You learn every kind of industry there is, there's uh there's nothing that we that doesn't need an elevator in it, so so sooner or later you're gonna get into every type there is.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_00: Tell me a little bit more about uh you said the competition between I think nine to five.
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_00: Um what do you mean by that?
• 24:07
  SPEAKER_00: Do you mean just if you work a little bit extra?
• 24:11
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, if if you're a clock clock watcher, you know, if I have a clock and you're out the door, you know, you might leave something that uh, you know, a few minutes more.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_01: Even if you sweep up after you leave the job, you know.
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah that that's one thing that I always always try to make sure the things are clean and deep.
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_01: Well, just just do a little something extra.
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_01: Give give the uh customer a little more than somebody else will do it, and uh you'll you'll be able to advance yourself in the business.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_01: Of course, listen to the old timers.
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_01: We had one fellow that worked for me, or that he worked for me, but I worked for him to begin the business.
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_01: And uh he he always said, Look, it uh this your hair is my helper, but the man in the office is two men, he's paying two men.
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_01: You don't want to see one man just handing the other guy tools.
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_01: So go to work, both of you, both working.
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_01: So the man's paying for two, you work for two guys, work with with the guy, not uh just hand them tools or standing there watching.
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_01: So give give the man, give the company uh uh you're working for, give them what they do.
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_00: Sure.
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_01: Another company that paint elevator where I first started, their their motto was the customer's always right.
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_01: So make it right for the customer, make sure he's happy with the leak there.
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_01: And uh that'll that'll that'll satisfy people.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_00: Sure.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_00: Did that did that uh it was kind of that motto that you took on and and uh applied in your your work then?
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, always try to advance in your field and and uh pass something on to the people below you so that they uh they know what's going on.
• 25:57
  SPEAKER_01: Try to be safe with them.
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, no, it's uh like I said, it's a high risk industry.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of a lot of chances to mess up, but a lot of moving machinery are all around you.
• 26:10
  SPEAKER_00: Mm-hmm.
• 26:10
  SPEAKER_01: Mm-hmm.
• 26:11
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so you gotta be careful.
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_01: Um always my two sons started with me in the business years ago, and I was always weary of uh letting them work alone.
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_00: I was gonna say, do we did that make you pretty nervous to have them working there with you at times?
• 26:25
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah, yeah.
• 26:25
  SPEAKER_01: Some of the old relatives are were uh more dangerous than the newer ones.
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_00: A lot less uh guiding equipment on them than there is today.
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I'm sure, yeah, that was before OSHA's day, and and so just some of the regulations just weren't there.
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_00: And I've heard some stories of you know, uh a mechanic told me a story about uh being a he was the counterweight on the end of a beam for a a machine that they were replacing.
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_00: Oh boy, trying to imagine.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_01: Oh god, but it's a nice yeah, you get to learn everything.
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_01: You're a carpenter one minute, and the next thing you know, you're a plumber, and then you're you're you're a steel worker, all kinds of trades.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_01: You have to know them all.
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 27:13
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_01: And uh, I talked to one fellow, he's an engineer for Payne Elevator Company.
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_01: He says, Don't uh, if somebody says they're an expert elevator man, he says, Stay away from him.
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_01: He's not true because nobody's an expert.
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_01: They get a lot, they have to learn.
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_00: Well, and once you've learned a lot, there's still a lot more to learn.
• 27:34
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, I mean, you've been at it almost 70 years, and you said, Well, these computers, you know, I maybe I don't uh you don't feel as comfortable with the computers as you do with the old stuff, is what it sounds like.
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_00: So there's always something new to learn.
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_00: That's right.
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_00: The old stuff was was really good.
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_01: I enjoyed it.
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_01: The good old days, right?
• 27:53
  SPEAKER_01: The good old days.
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_01: They used to we used to call the old LA's uh black gold.
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_01: Why was that?
• 28:01
  SPEAKER_01: They're all dirty and greasy, and not many people would want to work on it, but we we work on them and repair them.
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 28:09
  SPEAKER_01: Some companies would stay, you know, stay away away from them.
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_01: They didn't want to get, you know, they'd rather rather uh work on something new than something old.
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_00: But like you say, it was uh providing a good living and a and a good business, and so that's I guess the black gold comes from.
• 28:27
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it was a good living.
• 28:28
  SPEAKER_00: That's pretty good.
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 28:31
  SPEAKER_00: Um, Jim, any any other stories, any thoughts you want to share as you as we wrap up?
• 28:37
  SPEAKER_00: Let's see.
• 28:41
  SPEAKER_01: Uh I don't think of any other things that I could right now.
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_01: I could well probably after you after you've gone, I think it's a few more.
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_01: But as I say, once again, it it has been a great industry.
• 28:53
  SPEAKER_01: I enjoy it still today, learning about the new stuff.
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_01: And uh course I still enjoy the old the old junk.
• 29:03
  SPEAKER_00: Sure.
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_00: What what is it that uh let me ask let me ask you a few more questions and just see if we can we can uh um get a few a few more thoughts and and I guess the one of the questions is what what is it that you think keeps people coming back and or or just staying in the industry for for years and years and um kind of like yourself, never wanting to retire.
• 29:25
  SPEAKER_00: What is it that that uh makes the elevator industry draw people into it and and keep them?
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_01: I say it's quite varied.
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_01: One minute.
• 29:35
  SPEAKER_01: I say one time you're a carpet, and the next thing you're a plumber or a painter, or you're uh working on machine bearings and things like that.
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_01: Years ago we used to have bearings that were made out of uh lead, and and uh we we used to uh pour pour the lead, ship out the old bearings and pour new lead in them.
• 29:57
  SPEAKER_01: And uh it's just very lots of lots of different things.
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_01: And today there's not too many guys that do it because there aren't any elevator machines out there with with the old Babbitt in them.
• 30:09
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 30:09
  SPEAKER_01: It was lead they call Babbitt because they had tin in it also made the made it stronger.
• 30:15
  SPEAKER_01: Not just lead.
• 30:17
  SPEAKER_01: And uh what they uh it was all good old stuff today.
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_01: They they they don't they don't want you to they don't want you to repair it, they want you to throw it away and buy a new one.
• 30:28
  SPEAKER_01: They do have escalators today that uh are guaranteed for ten years, but uh we do we we've seen escalators that run for a hundred years, so oh wow.
• 30:41
  SPEAKER_01: In fact, there's a couple of couple of pieces from an escalator in in Macy's it came from Macy's department store in New York City.
• 30:49
  SPEAKER_01: This my son Steve has a museum now that that we're working for a hundred years and just took them out, put some new ones in, gave some some of the parts to Steve to to put them in his museum.
• 31:01
  SPEAKER_00: That's amazing.
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_00: Are those the escalators with the wooden wooden uh yes, with the wooden treads in them?
• 31:06
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, uh-huh.
• 31:07
  SPEAKER_00: They're 100 years old.
• 31:09
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 31:10
  SPEAKER_00: That's uh certainly before my day.
• 31:12
  SPEAKER_00: I've never seen the wooden treads, but yeah.
• 31:15
  SPEAKER_01: And uh Dr.
• 31:19
  SPEAKER_01: Mr.
• 31:19
  SPEAKER_01: Farnsworth who was with Eastern Elevator in in Connecticut, and his he's one of the parts of a fifth generation elevator man.
• 31:28
  SPEAKER_01: His grandfather or great grandfather made an elevator machine that ran for a hundred years.
• 31:33
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 31:34
  SPEAKER_01: And then when they took it out, it was still running, they took it out and they put it in a museum in New Haven, Connecticut.
• 31:39
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 31:40
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 31:40
  SPEAKER_01: So they made them made him pretty rugged in the old days.
• 31:43
  SPEAKER_01: That was what they call a belt machine.
• 31:45
  SPEAKER_01: It had a leather belt that uh operated the the uh hoist.
• 31:49
  SPEAKER_00: Wow, leather belt.
• 31:51
  SPEAKER_01: That that uh little nervous just hearing that, but yeah, six-inch leather belt is probably about uh twenty feet long.
• 32:00
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 32:01
  SPEAKER_01: And used to run off a motor, and the motor would run run the gearbox.
• 32:06
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 32:07
  SPEAKER_01: But he was an interesting man to talk to, also.
• 32:13
  SPEAKER_01: Sure, sure.
• 32:14
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's great.
• 32:16
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 32:17
  SPEAKER_00: Well, um, Jim, thank you for your time today.
• 32:20
  SPEAKER_00: It's good to connect, good to to be able to just tap into your your knowledge and experience, and I wish you the best as you continue to build your business and and keep the elevator industry going.
• 32:33
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
• 32:34
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Matt, for inviting me on.
• 32:37
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, thank you.
• 32:39
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for listening to the Elevator Careers Podcast, sponsored by the All Red Group, a leader in elevator industry recruiting.
• 32:46
  SPEAKER_00: You can check us out online at elevatorcareers.net.
• 32:50
  SPEAKER_00: Please subscribe, and until next time, stay safe.