At the Pullman Plant, Dial worked as a steelworker, which is an umbrella term that different scholars have used to discuss his work at the Plant. Dial regularly punched steel to cut out shapes needed for the box cars. He also ran the machines that punched out metal boxcar patterns and learned to rivet and paint, but this took some time to advance to in a racially segment factory.[91] Despite the disproportionate number of white workers with rivet guns and welding equipment at the Pullman plant, Dial still advanced as a welder and riveter.[92] Other tasks Dial performed at the Pullman Plant were blowtorching and cutting operations. The efforts employed by Dial at the factory show that his mechanical skills varied in technique, but they were unrecognized by his superiors. Claire M. Wilson, the Auburn University editor for the Encyclopedia of Alabama, shared that at one point, “Dial invented a labor-saving device for punching steel but never received credit for his work.”[93] Instead of receiving full acknowledgment for his idea, which increased production at the plant, his superiors at Pullman used his ideas as their own.[94]

Black workers at the Pullman were exposed to a number of different mechanical operations and were conducted by them, but their duties were largely unrecognized. In an interview, Dial shared the memory about his unnoticed idea to Arnett,

“I had this idea once at Pullman Standard. They had this punching iron with a hydraulic cylinder. They didn’t have anything behind the cylinder to hold it in and keep it from blowing out. It was costing them money. They would lose cylinders and lose production. I had the idea how to correct that problem and save them a lot of money.”[95]

Despite this experience at the Pullman, Dial continued to acknowledge his technical handling and understanding of metal material through twisting and nailed marking. In History Refused to Die, this is most evident along the top surface where the log is fastened along the white metal gate (Fig. 16). Dial thus referenced the handling of steel that he would have gained through his life at the Pullman. Dial’s intimidating wall of steel bends around both sides of the work, therefore forcing the viewer to see the material around the work and realize its strong presence.

Other uses of metal in Dial’s practice were shared in the Monograph documentary series, which posted a YouTube video titled Monograph: Fall 2022. In the video, Jackie Clay, learned of Dial’s usage of tin material with his son, Dial Jr. They discussed one of the techniques Dial employed after being laid off from Pullman Plant in 1987. Dial Jr. witnessed his father’s process and states that he would “take beer cans, cut the top out of them, fill the can with cement, pour wet concrete inside them, insert an aluminum pipe, cut the shape of a bird or fish, then tie it.”[96] Not only did Dial treat tin material as an art medium for various signature animal motifs, but he also regarded tin for its practical importance in his family circle. Dial recalled a memory in which he shared, “We used to take tin cans and dent ‘em around after we got out of ‘em what we wanted to eat, and make cups to drink water out of, because we know we needed water, but we wanted something to hold water.”[97] Dial’s comments show an embrace for utilitarian objects that were essential to both his family’s needs and his creative process that took place in his yard.