I was trying to forget this one but when I was 18 I got a job in a foundry in Eugene, Oregon called IRECO. We cast aluminum parts for irrigation and specialty parts for companies like Boeing and Ford.
I had to pour molten aluminum (2000 degrees) into a cylinder chamber, then close the two halves of the mold and actuate a piston that would force the metal into the chamber forming the part. Then I would open the mold and extract the part using asbestos gloves. We poured the metal using an asbestos ladle. If you spilled molten aluminum on your boots, it would fuse to the eyelets and burn right to you skin is seconds. I still have scars on the tops of my feet from that year.

It was suppose to be impossible to get your hand stuck in the machine when the two halves of the machine closed but a friend of mine, a Dutch immigrant, somehow got his hand stuck in the machine and lost his middle finger. He couldn't even use it to tell the company what he thought of their safely record. After I left, a guy was burned heat to foot when a cauldron exploded. I believe that was a fatality. It was the most dangerous place I have ever worked.

It had one thing going for it though. The dynamics of the flames, heat and noise did provide a kind of primordial energy that feed the creative impulse. When I worked at the open door in the winter, the furnace and the night sky outside did provide me with a lot of creative fodder. It was like working at the edge of a volcano.

"Imagination is more important than knowledge." - Albert Einstein