Page 20 - MY STORY
P. 20
I stopped in and was ushered into the office Ken
Hookansen, their chief metallurgist. H.M. Harper was a
manufacturer of non-ferrous fasteners. This included
copper, nickel, aluminum and stainless steel alloys. They
were looking for a junior member of their metallurgy staff,
and figured I might fit! My God, I had a job starting at
$240/month!! I started in August 1950.
FIRST JOB AT H.M. HARPER COMPANY: FALL 1950
H.M. Harper was pretty much an integrated manufacturer
of non-ferrous fasteners. Their raw material, however,
was purchased and consisted of the specific metal alloys
in the form of hot-rolled rod and coiled wire stock.
Harper would take the raw stock and precision cold draw
it into feedstock for the automated bolt and screw heading
and threading machines. They were equipped with the
appropriate heat treatment facilities to anneal and
thermally treat the alloy feedstock and final products.
They also had pretty fair metallurgical and mechanical
properties test equipment along with spectroscopic
capability to perform chemical analyses of the incoming
and finished products that certified their product to a wide
variety of customers.