From Duane

Duane Oxley here...

I'll make this an "about me" kind of introduction.

Prior to the carpet care industry...

(Skipping over the time before college, but I'm including from that point on, because it's a lot of "Who I am." and what interests me to this day.)

In college, my major was Psychology, and that was my chosen field. I went to what was then, "West Georgia College", which at the time was one of two in the U.S. that had an emphasis on Humanistic Psychology. (It assumes that man's free will can and will ultimately overrule any outside influences, especially if he becomes aware of the nature of outside influences. "Behaviorism", on the other hand, states that man's personality is a product of his environment... a result of various "programming influences, and nothing more.) At West Georgia, all sorts of people from varying backgrounds came, taught and lectured. It was a fascinating time for me, meeting and getting to know Zen Masters, astrologers, clinical Psychologists, ex- prison guards, ex- prison counselors, psychics, Native American medicine men, martial arts teachers... and becoming a student or friend... or both, of most of them.

(My interest in things of a psychological nature continues. I've continued to study various things, from origins and influences of man's religions, to ancient history, to alternative healing, to hypnosis and NLP, past life regression and other things as well. I have personally seen people healed from long- term, debilitating illness in a single session, seen people who were at death's door, be brought back in a virtual instant, recover, and live years more after the fact, and much more. And I understand the processes that were at work in most of them. I was looking at the curriculum at my old college a while back, and got in touch with the head of the Psychology department there, and can now see that I don't agree with their approach enough to fit in there, if I was to go back to complete my MA. And I have a different "framework" than either Humanism or Behaviorism as a result.)

I graduated in 1980 with two degrees: B.A. in Psychology and an Assoc. in Criminal Justice. My first job after graduation was working at a residential treatment center for adolescents (pre- teens to 18 years old). I enjoyed it, but needed to go back to school for my Master's and further, and was making barely above minimum wage there, so I left, after giving them notice that I would if I didn't get a raise. So, I entered the sales field, job- wise, with the goal of saving money up to go back to school.

I sold hifi systems for a short while, then memberships to a buyer's union, then, worked at a health club teaching fitness classes and selling memberships for a few months, until a friend of mine who owned a computer company called me and offered me a job.

My beginning in this industry...

I was selling computers, until I went to sell one to a guy that had a carpet care business, complete with a chemical and equipment sales division. He talked me into coming to work for him, put me in charge of sales, and the rest, as they say, is history...

I held that position for 5 years, during which time, in addition to sales, I ordered all of our chemicals (and spoke in- depth with the chemist on technical matters routinely), ordered all of our dyes (and spoke with the dye chemist routinely, gathering technical knowledge and writing our dye manuals in the process) did all of our dye seminars and wrote all of our manuals (including system owner's manuals), until the company was sold.

Since a division of the company was sold, a new company was formed as a result of the sale. I stayed with the new company for 18 mos.

In May, 1987, I went to work in Dalton at a dye supplier, and traveled nationally, teaching carpet dye seminars as part of my duties.

In late 1987, I came back to Atlanta and managed a 4- truck carpet care company, until I quit about a year later, to do my own carpet care business. (Continued to do dye seminars, and added carpet repair seminars to the roster for a local supplier who's a friend.)

From 1991 to 1995, I conducted carpet dye seminars for a local supplier, and added carpet repair to what I taught in 1993 (If I remember the year correctly.)

My company did carpet care for 8 years, growing to a 4- truck operation. I met a guy in 1993 or thereabout, who owned a cleaning chemicals company and we became friends. He offered to make my chemicals for me and we began a path of chemical development as a result, developing a full line of carpet care- related chemicals. Then one day, he called me in and said that we weren't ordering enough to make it worth his time, but that, as a friend, he was going to give me the formulas and teach me how to make them. Thus began my direct experience with formulating chemicals for carpet care.

Deciding to put my experience into manufacturing...

In 1996, I came to the realization that in my travels of selling truck mounts and seeing so many design approaches, followed by using them first hand for so long, I had a good background to know what works and what doesn't, and what carpet care people really want and appreciate. So, in April of 1996, I decided to try my hand at building user- friendly truck mount systems. (I also had a good background in chemicals, so blending carpet care chemicals for sale became a natural thing to do as well. That was the start- off point of my focused research into areas of chemicals that I didn't have the time or motivation for prior to that time. The chem's that I had up to that point worked well, so I saw no need to change things. But in looking at their formulas with an eye to how to improve them, I found several things that could be done. I asked my friend why he hadn't done some of them originally, and he stated that it was because he was trying to keep the cost down. But I was more into improving effectiveness.)

Focusing on propane fired systems for several years, I quickly established a reputation in the industry for building simple high- heat / high flow truck mounts.

Now, my company is the only one I know of that builds propane- fired, oil- fired and heat exchange systems. And, regarding heat output, I still hold the value of high heat / high flow as the goal of a good system. The oil- fired and heat exchange systems are new ventures, but I've been taking these versions slowly, in order to not miss anything along the way, and to build systems that I feel confident about.

A side- note on an area of interest for me...

On a personal note: I know that water can be split into Hydrogen and Oxygen and used as a fuel source much more efficiently than is commonly- believed. (This is especially important in today's climate of high gasoline prices.) Injected into an automobile's fuel system, the result, if done well, is a net savings in fuel consumption of from 30 to 70%, depending upon several factors. The video listed below isn't of one of the more impressive HHO reports available, but the person who did it is one of the more methodical and credible experimenters out there. And he's very good at explaining what his findings are, every step of the way. (He has, at this time, 100 videos up.) [ame="http://youtube.com/watch?v=zSghF36MfAg"]http://youtube.com/watch?v=zSghF36MfAg[/ame]
(Yes, I do know people who are doing it...) And it has become an area of great interest for me...

So has permanent magnet motors. [ame="http://youtube.com/watch?v=Ooa8EBXKDW4&feature=related"]http://youtube.com/watch?v=Ooa8EBXKDW4&feature=related[/ame]

That about wraps it up...

Thanks, Keith...

I tried to present as complete a picture as possible, without rambling.

Hey, Tre...

Sorry, I thought you knew... You fixed if t for me that time, so there was nothing for me to do but relax...

Very good...