Georgie Girl Ch. 13-15

This story was edited by ErikThread and DaveT with my thanks and appreciation. Any errors are mine alone. It was previously posted on another site.

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Chapter 13 Making Progress

It took me less than two hours to provide Kevin with a list of the sequence of components for the prototype. The next three hours were spent trying to come up with some dimensions for items that didn't yet exist. Kevin and I would be doing something he called a "SWAG."

"Scientific Wild-Assed Guess," he grinned. "Used it all the time at L-M. They have a design place called the "Skunk Works" in Burbank. Been around since the thirties. That's how the SR-71 got built. It was the fastest winged aircraft in the world. Still is. Nowadays, they're designing stealth aircraft."

"I've heard of that place," I said. "One of my engineering professors was lecturing us on how fast they could get things done. 'Just get the damn thing built' seemed to be their motto."

"Well, that was pretty much their attitude all right," Kevin confirmed. "Mind you, they had a couple of guys who were flat out geniuses, so that didn't hurt."

"You'll have to be my genius," I kidded.

"John, with this project, one plus one can equal three if we do it right."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, if we work as a team and we both know where we're going, we'll have our own 'Skunk Works,' although in this case it might be a 'De-Skunk Works.'"

I chuckled at the reference, but hoped like hell he was right about us as a team.

We ran into a problem not long after we got started on the prototype. The chemical treatment component had grown too big for our frame. It had to perform a number of functions, not the least of which was inhibiting the formation of scale and the collection of suspended solids. To allow the capacity that we were looking for from the unit, the size had grown bigger than we had anticipated.

We were kicking various ideas around one evening when Georgette wandered into the room.

"You still trying to get a quart into a pint jar?" she asked.

"Yeah," I said, not looking up. "No luck so far."

"How much does the height of the unit matter?" she asked.

"Not as much as length and width," I answered, "but it can't be too tall. I'd say sixty inches, maximum."

"Can you make the unit wider and stand it on edge?" she asked.

I saw Kevin turn and look at her, a funny look on his face before I saw a smile. He began to nod.

"I thought of that, but I've been trying to get this to work the way John intended," he said.

I leaned back in my chair and tried to mentally calculate how wide and how tall would be enough.

"I had another thought, too," Georgette said. "You know those big pillow-shaped bags they use for shipping liquid chemicals. Could you fold a smaller version one of those into the shape to make it fit?"

Again, Kevin turned and looked at her, then at me. "I think we've got another skunk in the Skunk Works."

"Hey ... what's that mean? My ideas don't stink," Georgette protested.

"Not only don't they stink," Kevin said, "but they've got us thinking again."

"Go look up 'Skunk Works' on Google and you'll see what we mean," I said to Georgette.

She stepped over to my laptop, typed in the two words, clicked on one of the many choices and began to read. Two minutes later, she walked up to Kevin and gave him a kiss on the cheek.

"I should have known," she said. "Thank you for the compliment."

"You're welcome," Kevin said with a grin. "Any time you've got something to say, don't hesitate to say it. I like the way you think."

"Two linked bags, maybe?" I said aloud.

"Now we're cooking," Kevin said with some enthusiasm.

We were too. Next on the agenda was the reverse osmosis process, once again requiring a membrane that Dow Chemical produced. One phone call got a number of samples and specifications that we could evaluate. We were still stuck with filters to protect filters to protect filters. Three stages of filtration were necessary to make the system work. When you had a space 40' X 8' X 8' this wasn't a problem. In a space of 8' X 4' X 5' it was a big problem. We still had a long way to go.

"This is starting to look like a tub of spaghetti," Kevin complained one evening. "It goes against my grain. I'd hate to think of trying to repair or replace something inside."

I had to agree with him. Our solutions were making the design more crowded and complex. This wasn't at all what I envisioned. Worse than that, it looked like bad engineering. It might have been sound mechanically, but it was far too complex and complicated for something that was designed to be durable, portable, and effective.

"Who's your customer?" Georgette asked.

"Uhhm ... what do you mean?" I asked.

"I remember you saying that not all of the components were needed for all of the tasks. What if you had more than one model that did one or two jobs really well? Another model might do something else. Right now, you're trying to make one size fit all."

I looked over at Kevin, then started to laugh.

"What's so funny?" she asked, an annoyed look about her.

I was shaking my head. "How come you're the one with the common sense engineering and I'm the dope?"

I heard a guffaw from Kevin and saw a shy smile from Georgette.

"You're way too smart for me, Georgie," I said.

***

There wasn't any question about renewing Kevin's contract at the end of the first two months. It wasn't just the spirit of the approaching Christmas, either. Kevin was everything I was hoping for when it came to fitting the components into the tight confines of my imaginary box. He was relentlessly tidy in his thinking, not frustrated easily by our trial-and-error attempts, and even-tempered when things went wrong. And they did go wrong.

"You know that saying, 'This isn't brain surgery?'" has asked one evening.

"Sure," I admitted.

"Well," Kevin said with a wry grin, "I'm beginning to think maybe this is."

I nodded. I knew what he meant. "Is there another way we should look at this?"

He shook his head. "If there is, I can't come up with it. We're close, but trying to meet all the criteria is like pushing into a balloon full of water. You push in one side and it pops out the other. I'm wondering if we can combine functions into a single internal structure."

I leaned back in my chair and thought about the question. What could we combine, even in the more dedicated systems we were designing? The answer kept coming back "nothing."

"Kevin, how much more height would we need to get what we want into the box."

He looked at me and smiled. "Thirteen and a half inches. Call it fourteen."

I gave him a hard look. "You've already calculated what it would take then?"

"Yeah. Couldn't see how we could make it fit the original box, no matter what we did."

"We gave it a hell of a try, Kevin. So let's go with reality. Maybe some day in the future we can figure out a way to bring it back into the original box, but for now, let's go with what we can do."

"Smart plan, John. Products evolve over time. If there's a way to make it more compact, we'll find it."

"I guess you've got some frame modifications to do," I suggested.

"Already done," he grinned. "I was pretty sure that was the only way to make this work in the short term. Our exterior height dimension will be a skosh short of six-foot-four. I don't see that being a major drawback to a portable system. Tell me I'm wrong."

I let out my breath and slumped back in my chair.

"You're right," I admitted. "It isn't that big of a deal. I got so hung up on my fixed dimensions that I forgot the main objective. It won't weigh so much that it will unbalance a conventional full-sized pickup. I'm sure we can put the heavier equipment in the bottom of the frame."

"Now we're talking. Let me show you what I've been thinking."

He went to his desk and pulled out a legal size pad and showed me a rough pencil drawing with a potential layout. I looked at it without comment for some time before I asked a question.

"What do you think the weight distribution is?"

"My guess is about two thirds in the bottom thirty-six inches. We should be fine with that."

"Yeah, that would be okay. Well," I sighed, "I guess we can start working on the revised layout then."

"I guess we can," Kevin grinned.

***

Christmas and New Years were, as planned, held at Lake Tahoe with both families. We invited Kevin to join us but he declined in favor of flying to Colorado to spend it with his former colleague and friend, Charlie Prendergast. Kevin was sure he'd be more comfortable in that environment. He would return to San Francisco a day or so after we had come back from our little holiday.

"How's the system coming along?" Thomas asked me as we relaxed in the great room of the lodge after a day of skiing. "We're making more progress now," I said. "I've had to compromise on both function and dimension, but not so much that it won't meet most of my objectives. Kevin is a real find, Thomas. He has such an orderly mind and his layout is so clean that I'm sure anyone looking at it, even in the prototype stage, is going to be impressed with it. And Georgette has been the outside observer that asks the questions we forget to ask."

"When do you think you'll be at the testing stage?"

"Soon. We're going to build a second prototype to feature the functions that the first doesn't do, then test them both. I'm hoping early May or thereabouts if all goes well. We seem to have gotten over the major hurdles now."

"Do you intend to show it to others ... potential investors perhaps?"

"Not until we're satisfied it will do what we claim and do it under stressful conditions. Kevin and I have talked about it and we think we'll do a lot of our testing in Nevada. Probably around Nellis Air Force base. He says that area has both the terrain and water conditions that will meet our needs. Then we'll do some testing in areas that have known contamination problems. We'll have to work that out, but some of the cattle ranches in Idaho and Montana have water contaminated from animal wastes. That would be a good place to test as well."

"That sounds like a lot of time and effort still to complete the trials."

"I think that's in Kevin's nature. His air force and Lockheed training pounded that into him, he claims. When it comes to airplanes, if it ain't right, they often fall out of the sky. Not good," I chuckled as I recalled Kevin's comments.

"Looks like you've been keeping the budget under control according to Georgette. How are your classes going?"

"I'm doing fine. I just have to remember to put them first and finish what I started. I'll be done in late April and then I can devote all my time to the project. In the meantime, Kevin will be working on it full time and I'll be able to get updates daily."

"Good for you, John. Keep your focus on school and let Kevin carry the load for now. By the way, have you given any thought about our conversation on how to reward him for his design work?"

"I think a piece of the action would be the best solution," I said. "He's been great and very easy to work with and his ideas are always well thought out. The question is, how big a piece?"

"I don't think there's any set number in these kinds of situations," Thomas mused. "It could be as small as five percent or as large as twenty percent. I would suggest beginning at ten percent and see how he reacts. He claims money isn't a big motivating factor for him, but he should be properly rewarded if his efforts make a significant contribution toward success."

I nodded. "You ... your family ... and mine ... have provided the seed money for this project. I conceived the idea, but Kevin has been a huge contributor to making it a reality. I don't want to short-change him for his efforts."

"If you succeed and if it's as important a development as we think, then it will ultimately go public with an IPO. At that point, shareholding will be very important. I was going to suggest a meeting with Kevin to discuss this. Might as well get him thinking about what he wants from this."

I nodded again. "Sure. That makes sense. Do you think we'll have any trouble raising capital for production if the prototypes are successful?"

"You never know. However, this is such a universal idea that its appeal will be very widespread and that makes finding investors that much easier. Where are you with patents on it or any of the processes?"

"I've already prepared applications for several patents. One for the overall concept and a number of them on the components. I'll need to find a lawyer to help us with the formal work."

Thomas smiled. "No need to worry. We have that all in hand in the family. Devon can find someone to handle it. You will need to keep some security on your work though. Any testing you do should be away from prying eyes."

"Yeah. Kevin mentioned that. We're not quite as secretive as his former employer, but we'll be careful."

"Not long until the wedding now," Thomas remarked. "You getting nervous yet?"

"I've never not been nervous. Georgette continues to astonish me that she's chosen me. It all seems like some storybook tale that I can't quite believe."

"I don't detect any doubt in her mind, John. Even before the incidents with Brad, she was showing signs of interest in you. You had quite an effect on her when she interviewed you. That invitation at Thanksgiving was Nan's idea, but Georgette leaped at it when it was suggested. I think Sarah was a bit worried and wary because of the previous problems with Brad, but you proved yourself to her. And ... as you know, when my daughter makes up her mind, it's very difficult to shake her from her beliefs."

"I know Nan is a big supporter of me too. I'll never understand how some people can see the real person with very little exposure to them, but she has that gift. I watched her accept Kevin and I never detected a moment's doubt in her mind."

"I had a boss and mentor over twenty years ago with that gift," Thomas said. "He would constantly surprise me with his ability to see through phonies and fakes. I guess it's a sixth sense that they possess."

"I wish I had it, but I'll settle for acceptance by Nan and you and Sarah."

"I only wish Nan had been a little more forceful when she had doubts about Brad. I might have looked a little more closely at him. It might have saved Georgette from a great deal of pain and upset, not to mention your wounds."

"Who knows, perhaps I would never have met her in that case. I'll take life as it comes right now. I'm very, very happy with it," I smiled.

***

"Are you hearing us okay?" I asked my parents as we set up the Skype conference call.

"Fine. Loud and clear, and so is the picture. Hello everyone," my father called.

"Hello Carter and Marjean," Thomas said. "Good to see you again."

"How are you, Nan?" my mother asked.

"Fit as a fiddle," she chirped. "How's the new house coming?"

"Good," mother replied. "I'm really looking forward to showing it to you when you come for the wedding. It should be all done except for the landscaping by then."

"Perhaps we should get on with business," I suggested carefully.

"Agreed," my father said with a smile.

"Meeting called to order," Devon announced. "The Smithton Investment Syndicate, now known as the Smithton Group, is assembled to discuss current and future funding of the portable water treatment systems, hereinafter known as Smithton PWTS."

"Do we really need to be this formal?" Sarah asked.

"My dear sister, this is an important project and demands a certain level of decorum."

"Spoken like a true lawyer," Sarah said with a smirk.

"First order of business, the budget. Would you please report, Georgette?"

"Everything's fine. Nothing to worry about," she said, looking somewhat furtively at me.

"Mary, don't put that in the minutes," Devon instructed. "I think we need a little more detail than that, young lady." He was not amused.

Georgette grinned before passing out a sheet of paper to each of the participants. A copy had been e-mailed to my parents earlier that morning.

"We really haven't spent as much as we expected," my fiancée said more seriously. "The samples received from Dow and Charlie Prendergast cost nothing as did the trial bladders from Goodyear. Thank Kevin for Goodyear's willingness to provide some custom sizes and specifications for us. The filter housings and framing were all fabricated by Kevin from over-the-counter metal components. He hasn't charged anything for his time of course, since he's on contract. All in all, with all the bits and pieces and stops and starts, our expenditures are almost ninety thousand dollars, including Kevin's salary."

"However," I interjected, "the reverse osmosis system we're using might not stand up to rigorous testing. Kevin's of the opinion that we need to team up with a manufacturer to get the ruggedness we want. That means revealing to someone what we're up to. A secrecy agreement is in order, because if anyone leaked what we were doing, it might cause us some headaches.

"The commercial model we've chosen has a capacity of up to ten thousand gallons per day, and it's the primary reason we had to increase the height of the unit. Plus, it weighs more than we expected. We still have some technical issues to solve, but Kevin is confident we can overcome them."

"Ten thousand gallons sounds like an awful lot of water per day," Thomas said.

"It is, but we really don't know how much is too much. If we could get away with half that much, it would change the dynamic of the design for the better. We have some research to do and Georgette has taken on that responsibility."

"I'm going to be doing some traveling in the next month or so," she said, "doing interviews with prospective users to find out what their needs are. I've been studying the system that John has designed and I know what the capacity parameters are, so if I can get some basic volume information, I can help John and Kevin pick the right size or sizes for the system."

"Are you going to be back in time for the wedding?" my mother asked in a worried voice.

"Oh yes, I wouldn't miss that for the world," she laughed. "I'm going to be spending my time in the southwest where a lot of the water problems are known. If I have time, I'll retrace John's original steps in Idaho and Montana with the ranchers and farmers."

I picked up the thread of the conversation.

"When I did my original project in high school, I interviewed a number of local ranchers and farmers about my concept, trying to find out what their needs were and how much they thought they'd be willing to pay for a portable system. Some of them didn't take me very seriously and I got answers that were just silly or given without any thought behind them.

"But a few of them knew exactly what good quality water cost them and they were very helpful letting me know how much they used, what it cost and what kind of system made sense to them. I used that information to sketch out my concept and handed in my report. I got an "A" on it and that encouraged me to continue to work on the concept."

"My job," Georgette announced, "is to confirm John's numbers and see just what kind of price range and throughput would make sense for our units. If we know how much they are paying now for a given volume of water, we can calculate the amortization rates for the units. We want to make this affordable, but we also want it to be profitable."

"You seem to have gotten yourself very involved in this project," my father remarked.

"I have. I'm fascinated by it. It seems so important, not just to John and our families, but to a lot of people who need clean, usable water. I've been taking some additional courses at the university to familiarize myself with the concept and the chemistry."