The coil room, by Osbert Wivell

An original short story extract set in the twentieth century.

Victor Nancarrow was the youngest tester at the cable works in 1948, though his white coat made him look older than his nineteen years. He cycled in from the village, arriving early enough to dry his socks on the pipe behind the office. Before testing a length of cable he checked the number on its wooden drum against the order book. He lowered its ends into separate tanks and watched a needle on the instrument beside his elbow. A doubtful reading was written in red and tested again after lunch; he would not let a foreman’s impatience turn it black. In his locker he kept a packet of peppermint sweets and a photograph of the sea he had never visited. He saved one shilling from each week’s pay for the journey. When the older men teased him about the photograph, Victor asked how they expected a cable to cross an ocean if nobody first imagined the other shore.

List five things you learn about Victor in this extract.