New Apples in the Garden Read online

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  Transcriber's Note:

  This etext was produced from Analog Science Fact & Fiction July 1963. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.

  NEW APPLES

  IN THE GARDEN

  Some problems are perfectly predictable--yet not in the sense that allows a preprogrammed machine to handle them--

  BY KRIS NEVILLE

  Illustrated by George Schelling

  * * * * *

  Eddie Hibbs reported for work and was almost immediately called out onan emergency. It was the third morning in succession for emergencies.

  This time a section of distribution cable had blown in West LosAngeles. Blown cable was routine, but each instance merited theattention of an assistant underground supervisor.

  Eddie climbed down the manhole with the foreman of the maintenancecrew. There were deep pull marks on the lead sheath above where thecable had blown.

  "Where'd they get it?" he asked.

  "It came in from a job on the East Side."

  "Sloppy work," Eddie said. "Water got in the splice?"

  "These new guys...." the foreman said.

  Eddie fingered the pull marks. "I think she's about shot anyway. Howmuch is like this?"

  "A couple of hundred feet."

  "All this bad?"

  "Yep."

  Eddie whistled. "About fifteen thousand dollars worth. Well. Cut herback to here and make splices. Stand over them while they do it."

  "I'll need two men for a week."

  "I'll try to find them for you. Send through the paper."

  "I can probably find maybe another thousand miles or so that's aboutthis bad."

  "Don't bother," Eddie said.

  That was Eddie's productive work during the morning. With traffic andtwo sections of street torn up by the water people, he did not getback to his office until just before lunch. He listened to the StockMarket reports while he drove.

  He learned that spiraling costs had retarded the modernization programof General Electronics and much of their present equipment wasobsolete in terms of current price factors. He was also told toanticipate that declining sales would lead to declining production,thereby perpetuating an unfortunate cycle. And finally he was warnedthat General Electronics was an example of the pitfalls involved ininvesting in the so-called High Growth stocks.

  Eddie turned off the radio in the parking lot as the closingDow-Jones' report was starting.

  During lunch, he succeeded in reading two articles in a six-week-oldissue of _Electrical World_, the only one of the dozen technicaljournals he found time for now.

  At 12:35 word filtered into the department that one of the maintenancecrew, Ramon Lopez, had been killed. A forty-foot ladder broke whileatop it Lopez was hosing down a pothead, and he was driven backwardinto the concrete pavement by the high-pressure water.

  Eddie tried to identify the man. The name was distantly familiar butthere was no face to go with it. Finally the face came. He smoked twocigarettes in succession. He stubbed the last one out angrily.

  "That was a tough one," his supervisor, Forester, said, sitting on theside of Eddie's desk. Normally exuberant, he was left melancholy anddistracted by the accident. "You know the guy?"

  "To speak to."

  "Good man."

  "After I thought about it a little bit," Eddie said, "I remembered hewas transferring tomorrow. Something like this brings a man up short,doesn't it?"

  "A hell of a shame. Just a hell of a shame."

  They were silent for a minute.

  "How was the market this morning?" Forester asked.

  "Up again. I didn't catch the closing averages."

  "I guess that makes a new high."

  "Third straight day," Eddie said.

  "Hell of a shame," Forester said.

  "Yeah, Lopez was a nice guy."

  "Well...." Forester's voice trailed off in embarrassment.

  "Yeah, well...."

  "I wanted to remind you about the budget meeting."

  Eddie glanced at his watch. "Hour and a half?"

  "Yeah. You know, I feel like ... never mind. What about the burialtransformers, you get on it yet?"

  "The ones we're running in the water mains for cooling? They're out ofwarranty. None of the local shops can rewind them until themanufacturer sends out a field engineer to set them up for theencapsulation process."

  "How long is that going to take?" Forester asked.

  "They tell me several months. Still doesn't leave us with anything.The plant says they've fixed the trouble, but between them and therewind shop, they can buck it back and forth forever."

  "I guess we'll have to go back to the pad-mounted type."

  "People with the Gold Medallion Homes aren't going to like the pads bytheir barbecues."

  Forester uncoiled a leg. "Draw up a memorandum on it, will you,Eddie?" He stood up. "That thing sure got me today. There's justentirely too many of these accidents. A ladder breaking. I don'tknow."

  Eddie tried to find something intelligent to say. Finally he said, "Itwas a rough one, all right."

  * * * * *

  After Forester left, Eddie picked up, listlessly from the top of thestack one of the preliminary reports submitted for his approval.

  The report dealt with three thousand capacitors purchased last yearfrom an Eastern firm, now bankrupt. The capacitors were beginning toleak. Eddie called the electrical laboratory to see what progress wasbeing made on the problem.

  The supervisor refreshed his memory from the records. He reported: "Idon't have any adhesive man to work on it. Purchasing has half a dozensuppliers lined up--but none have any test data. I don't know whenwe'll get the time. We're on a priority program checking out thesenew, low-cost terminations."

  "Can't we certify the adhesive to some AIEE spec or something?" Eddieasked.

  "I don't know of any for sealing capacitors, Eddie. Not on themaintenance end, at least."

  "Maybe Purchasing can get a guarantee from one of the suppliers?"

  "For the hundred dollars of compound that's involved? What good wouldthat do us?"

  Eddie thanked him and hung up. He signed the preliminary report.

  He turned to the next one.

  At 2:30 Forester came by and the two of them made their way betweenthe jig-saw projections of maple and mahogany to the Conference Room.

  Fourteen men were involved in the conference, all from operatingdepartments. They shuffled in over a five minute period, found seats,lit cigarettes, talked and joked with one another.

  When one of the assistants to the manager came in, they fell silent.

  "Gentlemen," he said, "I think I'd better get right to the pointtoday. The Construction Program in the Valley has now used up two bondissues. The voters aren't going to approve a third one."

  He paused for effect then continued briskly:

  "I see by the morning's _Times_ that the mayor is appointing awatch-dog commission. I guess you all saw it, too. The Department ofWater and Power of the City of Los Angeles is going to be badly--and Imean badly--in the red at the end of the fiscal year.

  "We're in hot water.

  "We do not seem to be getting through to the operating departmentsregarding the necessity for cost reduction. I have here last month'sbreakdown on the Bunker Hill substation 115 KV installation. Most ofyou have se
en it already, I think. I had it sent around. Now--"

  The analysis continued for some ten minutes to conclude with anexplosion:

  "We've got to impose a ten per cent across the board cut on operatingexpenses."

  One of the listeners, more alert than the rest, asked, "That go forsalaries?"

  "For personnel making more than eight hundred dollars a month itdoes."

  There was a moment of shocked silence.

  "You can't make that stick," one of the supervisors said. "Half mybest men will be out tomorrow looking for better offers--and findingthem, too."

  "I'm just passing on what I was told."

  The men in the room shuffled and muttered under their