Students

After 1945, the Research Council of Alberta (RCA) was assigned two roles at Bitumount: 1) to provide advice relating to the design of the plant and 2) to monitor and analyse the processes being tested in the plant, once it was in production. In order to accomplish the second function, Karl Clark and David Pasternack installed a laboratory in July 1947. They intended that university students would work in the lab.

The 1948 annual report of the RCA shows that D. R. Craig, J. J. Eatock, R. W. Edgecombe, F. Friesen and P. Leonidas were hired as assistant engineers to work on the oil sands from May 10 to September 4. In December of that year, Clark noted:

It was the expectation that the plant would have been completed last spring or early summer and would have been in operation for the rest of the season. In accordance with this expectation, the Research Council engaged a laboratory staff of six Chemical Engineering students for the inter varsity period of four and a half months. It was understood that the students would assist in the general work of construction until the plant went into operation. Because of the fire and other delays the attempt to start operations was not made until after the students had returned to the university for the fall term. So far there has been almost no opportunity to use the laboratory for plant purposes. However, some work has been done in it mainly to be sure that it is in proper order for functioning.

The following summer the plant was put into operation, and the RCA hired J. Basaraba and B. H. Rosenbaum as assistant chemical engineers, and G. A. Pengelly, M. Worsley, L. Smitten and S. Romanchuk as assistant chemists, from mid-May to September 24.

The 1949 annual report noted that the RCA “provided a laboratory staff of six student engineers and chemists working under the supervision of a member of the permanent staff. The laboratory made the routine analyses required for plant operation and collected all data that there were opportunity to get on plant performance.” Clark noted that for the month of September, the lab staff worked in shifts around the clock, with practically no time off.

Since students were eager for employment experience, had relatively few family responsibilities, and could tolerate a summer of isolation, it seems that in contrast to other jobs at Bitumount, sufficient qualified employees could be found to work in the laboratory. The students did thousands of tests in the course of the season. Their work made a significant contribution to the success of the project, as data gathered in the lab helped to show what the plant could do.