Building 82 is not attractive. It is all angles and add-ons and even from the outside it is extremely noisy. Most people either shun it or don't know it exists. Nevertheless, it houses a most important segment of any Research and Development Program. This is the Environmental Test Facility; sometimes referred to as the "Shake Room."

JPL has received plaudits for being an outstanding R&D Center. Our accomplishments are listed high on the rolls of scientific achievement yet our progress would have been slower if we did not have Building 82 and its organization dedicated to the reliability control of space vehicle components.

Theory has its limits. After all the thinking and tinkering is done, the devices must be tested under the actual operating conditions they will eventually meet. These conditions are accurately determined from reams of data by William Shipley and his associates. Both specific and general specifications are established and these specifications are turned over to the "Shake Room" for its nefarious purpose.

Major Domo of this den of din and carefully controlled cataclysms is Edward L. Sheldon. He is assisted by John Stoker, Ray Woodbury and Len Marsh. This group oversees the vast facility used in the program of testing to determine the worth of any piece of equipment from the smallest resistor to the full size missile.

Let's be brave and take a stroll through this building. We will follow a new piece of flight equipment through its various tests. It is a solid looking box filled with transistors and other goodies and, according to the cognizant engineer, it will perform well under all anticipated environments.

First it is bolted on to a large shaker table. This shaker can vibrate a 250 pound load from 20 cycles per second to 2 KC at forces up to twenty times gravity. There are six of these monsters available and more on order. After our device has been thoroughly shaken (and if it is still working) it might be taken to a huge centrifuge over in one corner. This outsized gimmick will spin our pet until it becomes a pile of junk or passes the "spec." Two existing centrifuges will handle almost any size job built here on Lob.

[Photo]
LARGE CENTRIFUGE. L to r: Joe LeClair, Jesse Martinez and Charlotte Guillen.

Next we will bake and freeze our brain child in one of five special chambers. We will freeze it to -100°F and bake it to +600°F. One of these chambers is so large that 20 secretaries could walk in and be frozen all at once. (Heaven forbid!)

[Photo]
WALK IN VACUUM CHAMBER. L to r: Len Marsh, Ed Sheldon, Ray Woodbury and John Stoker.

If we have anything left of our device, we will take it to the vacuum chambers and see if it will function in a near perfect vacuum. We have a choice of four small chamber; or we might use the large 6' x 7' walk-in chamber. Incidently, plans are being made to acquire a 25' x 25' chamber which will be necessary to test the large components associated with coming projects.

Now let's take our battered box and see if it will corrode in the industrial salt fog chamber. We will then introduce it (unceremoniously) to the ballistic hammer. This little gem, by the way, will sock our box with a force equal to 125 times gravity.

It's time to examine the pride of our engineering staff. It has been carefully and thoroughly spun, shaken, vibrated, heated, frozen, shocked, corroded and otherwise manhandled; all according to strict specifications arrived at by painstaking research. In all of these tests, the environment was accurately reproduced and the performance was monitored by the finest measuring devices the cognizant engineer could obtain.

Let's turn it on once more -- By Zeus, it works! Another project engineer sleeps a baby's sleep. Having passed through an accurate simulation of the environment it will meet in outer space, our device is truly worthy of flight.

Of course, the test lab is a service organization under the auspices of Reliability Section 26, dedicated to helping anyone who has an environment problem. Matt Barbani presides as technician-in-charge and can solve some of the problems that are presented. He invites you to come in and browse a while and promises to "shake it but not break it." John Anderson will solve some of your problems and so will Joe LeClair.

The hard problems are referred to Messrs. Sheldon, Stoker and Woodbury. Of course Charlotte Guillen is the head of the paper work department. Naturally the instrumentation is complicated so Jess Martinez and Mel Johnson team up to keep the equipment working and up-to-date.

This then is the "Shake Room." Noisy, not so pretty, fairly destructive. In spite of all the regulated mayhem, it embodies a very necessary and vital contribution to our program of conquering outer space. Come in and see us anytime. Bring in your "pride and joy."

Yep, it's hell sometimes but still a pleasure to work here -- and I do --

Al Rabin