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The Blackbush Training School was a very successful institution with a great demand for course placements. Students came from all over the world and requests began to flood in for additional schools to be given at our Clark Agents and customers throughout the world. Tours to South Africa, and the Middle East were requested and subsequently arranged when time permitted. I gained a great deal of experience and knowledge from the different countries I had the privilege to work in, learning from the students the different characteristics that make up a society.

The Service Manager, my immediate chief, arranged one very difficult School which he requested me to give. Our Agent in Zurich, Switzerland had been our distributor for the large Twin Engine Scrapers the company sold. The American Company of Clark in Michigan manufactured these Scrapers in Benton Harbour. Being very large machines they were delivered directly to the country and area they were required and as to date, very few had been purchased for use in the U.K. I had never seen one.

When I was delegated the task of giving a school on them I rushed about everywhere to get Operating Manuals and Parts Lists to help me learn about the machine. There was nobody available in Camberley I could ask From my inquiries I learnt the Zurich agents had been handling these machines for over fifteen years! Now here I was going to give these German speaking, Swiss students a school on a machine I had never seen or knew even less about!

I prepared my school as usual with hand out books complete with illustrations I had taken from the manuals available to hand. During the flight to Zurich, I tried to acquaint myself with all the details of this Clark Twin engined Scraper. Most parts were covered in the manuals and spares lists, which I had with me, but many were not! as I was soon to discover.

When I arrived in Zurich and contacted our agent it soon became clear that the arranged school had been forgotten. He made some phone calls and I was asked to take a seat in the service waiting room while inquiries were made. This waiting room was normally for customers collecting their spare parts. Time passed slowly, while the Service Manager rushed around trying to get students together for the school.

This was not my only problem, I still had to face the fact I was here to give a Service School to Experienced German speaking service engineers most of whom had worked on these Scraper for over fifteen years. Whereas I, their tutor, knew very little about the machines nor had I as yet seen one.

During this long wait I let my eyes wander around this waiting room. My attention was caught initially by a number of what looked like large Engine starter motors lying on a counter, each one had a label attached. Further examination revealed all these parts were faulty and were to be returned to Clark’s in Michigan.

These starters looked quite different to the electrical starter I had been accustomed to. They did not have electrical they had air connections, they must be “Air Starter Motors”, and something I had never seen before. I re- read my Manual which I had with me, and learnt that the Clark Twin Engine Scraper uses air starters for the rear engine! Referring to my manual confirmed this and learned that the machine was designed to start by using the normal electrical start motor for the front No1 engine, followed by running up this front engine to build up compressed air pressure which in turn was to be

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