Presses

A wrecked pressure gauge and employee time cards.

I wish I knew what has become of this great one-of-a-kind sign that used to brag how many days the Clyde Iron factory has gone without a serious accident. Update: It’s hanging in one of the smaller venue spaces behind the bar.

Worm in the path of raw ore where it would be dumped from rock cars into the silo below.

This is one of my favorite images of the year because of the color, light and textures. Someone told me once that the medium of photographers is not film or digital sensors, but rather shadows. This photo is evidence of that.

Empty spools, thousands of them, were around the mill.

Because painted signs would not hold up in this spot–in between four ovens that were literally hot enough to melt steel inside. Solution: Cut the pipe labels into the sheet metal. Seems to have worked.

A closeup of the old fashioned wood-and-iron flour mill, a little while before they were all scrapped.

I had to search the shelves a while to find this old logbook. The open page lists changes in stock numbers for Cutler Hammer Coils, and one row says that a new coil was installed on the black larry. The larry is the machine that loads coke ovens.

This is a 1956 furnace. It was used to forge wheels, casings, and parts for the axel shop.