On a summer morning in 1961 I wished I was fishing. Instead, I was beside the old water cooling tower north of Monarch’s cement plant pulling on a thick rubberized suit and bulky headgear.
This was my first day working for the Marley Company, which had contracted to spray a chemical on the redwood louvers and insides of the tower — more like a huge wood box — to protect them from water damage.
Clinkers are the essential binding units in cement. To make clinkers, a mixture of limestone and clay is heated in a kiln at temperatures exceeding 3,000 degrees.