Aaron Wendland is a PhD candidate in Philosophy at the University of Oxford, where he works on Heidegger and reads widely in the history of philosophy. Originally from Canada, Aaron brought over 1,000 philosophy books to Oxford, which he organizes by height, color, publisher, theme, and alphabet, “so far as all of this is possible.”
Over Scotch one night we talked about his previous career in the foundry of a car manufacturing plant in Windsor, Ontario.
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Chris: How did you end up working in a foundry?
Aaron: I think my old man wanted me to. I’m 18 or 17 at the time, and it’s sort of like, “You know, he’s never really done any serious work before, so instead of putting him in this nice little air conditioned bubble where all he has to do is screw bolts into a motor, let’s show him what a Real Man’s work is.”
Chris: You say the foundry is a “dangerous space?”
Aaron: Oh yeah, just because you’re dealing with molten metal that’s 2,700 degrees Fahrenheit. You could describe it as sort of a nuclear reactor: you control it, but you never have complete control. And so, because of that, it’s more dangerous and, let’s face it, you have a bull ladle of molten metal moving around over your head all the time.
Chris: A “bull ladle?”
Aaron: Where they melt the metal is called a “cupola,” which you “tap,” which means you open it up after it reaches a certain temperature and [the metal] runs down this trough and into this massive ladle that holds eight tons of steel.
Chris: So you’ve actually handled a bull ladle full of metal at 2,700 degrees Fahrenheit?
Aaron: Yeah, I mean all the time, you pour like twenty of them in a shift. [Laughs]
Chris: That sounds intense.
Aaron: Yeah, and it’s really hot. Oftentimes these face shields you’re wearing, they start melting. You can smell the plastic burning. So, what you actually do with your mask when you start, you go to the furnace and sort of hold the mask over the furnace for a while, so you get all the toxins out of the mask, so it just hardens to a point where you think, “Okay, now I can properly wear this thing that will shield me from the heat.”
[Aaron explains how large metal jaws are used to scoop “slag” off the molten metal before it gets poured into molds. The jaws have to be held above the furnace for 20-30 seconds to ensure they are completely free of moisture. Otherwise…]
One time, somebody had taken a set of these jaws out to scoop the slag off the furnace, and they failed to let it sort of sit and dry enough to dip it in. And there was a massive explosion in the foundry, where it’s literally raining cast iron, like drops you would see in the biggest thunderstorm.
So, this is when a piece of—a raindrop let’s say—of cast iron fell down my back and got stuck in my underwear and burned my ass.
Chris: Wow. So did you actually like working in the foundry?
Aaron: I really liked working in the foundry. It was a place where you couldn’t sort of turn off your brain, because if you turn off your brain somebody dies. So everybody in the foundry sort of works together. I’m taking care of this person, this person’s taking care of me, and we all look out for each other.
Part of the reason, to be honest, why I liked working there is that I am an adrenaline junkie, and I like doing stupid stuff that is kind of dangerous. When I tell people this stuff and they have no idea, they’re like “Wow, that’s crazy shit.”
