Olin Sylvester had a welding shop on 3rd Street in Marble Falls, just down below the Pool Hall.

Olin had remarkable welding skills. Regardless of what we tore up on trucks and machinery, he could stick it back together. He was a hard worker and very steady at his craft.

I didn’t know much about about him until it looked it up earlier. His mother was a Kinser. So it appears he had deep roots in Burnet County.

I spent a lot of time at that welding shop, taking in pieces, picking them up as well as hanging around waiting on them to get fixed.

Probably what intrigued me most was an acetylene generator that he had setup in the front part of the shop. All other shops and in our own shop we bought bottled acetylene, so seeing this big contraption was something that captured my attention. I was never sure if I wanted to be up close to it to see how it worked or if I wanted to run for my life. I don’t remember it ever blowing up, but it looked and sounded like that was always a possibility.

This is an example of a water to carbide acetylene generator.