When we built steel mills- 1953

[dlockhart]

A cool vid of the Fairless works going up. In the mid to late 70s I remember family boat rides up the Delaware river, often past the mill and marveling at the scale of it all. It was pretty amazing for a 4th grader.
After seeing the vid, I checked google earth and very little remains.
Remarkable how fast it came and went.

[Nostril Cheese]

Very cool. Thanks for sharing.

[Bob Kontak]

Cool.

I read a book about Andrew Carnagie in the way back. He was a driver. Before he came along the mentality was to be "nice" to the furnaces so they lasted longer. He said, in essence, "Eff that noise, cook steel hard and rebuild them when they blow out." He was a player in the industrial revolution.

Off this topic slightly, I remember in Oregon, Ohio (near suburb to Toledo) the Hunts Catsup factory would cook their gruel in the 60's and the town would stink like cooking tomatoes. It wasn't like paper factory stink, which the old guys can attest to, but it was powerful.

[Jrboulder]

FWIW Nucor just finished a plant in Louisiana

[greglepore]

The furnaces at Bethlehem are still there, a rusting backdrop to a concert venue and the Sands Casino. Very cool, kind of Pink Floydish...

Many of the workers, though, at all of the great steel mills ended up with mesothelioma and other asbestos related illnesses.

[Nickshu]

If you have not watched the History channel series "The Men Who Built America" go pick it up on DVD or streaming. A great account of Vanderbilt, Rockefeller, Carnegie, Morgan, Ford and others.

[pavulon]

Originally Posted by Bob Kontak

Cool.

Off this topic slightly, I remember in Oregon, Ohio (near suburb to Toledo) the Hunts Catsup factory would cook their gruel in the 60's and the town would stink like cooking tomatoes. It wasn't like paper factory stink, which the old guys can attest to, but it was powerful.

Paper factories continue to smell awful.

[herr_oberst]

According to Wiki, the hot side was closed by 1991. A 2112 Google earth picture shows the furnaces gone...

[HardDrive]

You can still tour the Ford Rouge plant in Detroit. The raw power required to make steel is amazing.

[Scott Douglas]

Originally Posted by Nickshu

If you have not watched the History channel series "The Men Who Built America" go pick it up on DVD or streaming. A great account of Vanderbilt, Rockefeller, Carnegie, Morgan, Ford and others.

I agree, an excellent series.
Would have made US History so much more interesting back in 8th grade if that had been available then. It should be shown in schools now.

The video in the original post is interesting too. Hard to imagine that all that is gone now.

[Steve Carlton]

Excellent show!

[Nickshu]

It is great, the only annoying thing is fast forwarding thru the recaps after every commercial spot. When it was on TV this was probably OK but watching episodes back to back it gets old. Worth it though!

[Eric 951]

Thyssen Krupp built a mill from scratch in Calavert AL a few years back--very impressive to watch--too bad they sold the stainless mill last year and the carbon mill is for sale as well. Their business model relied on Brazilian imports, when Brazil's economy tanked, they put the mill up--probably took a huge loss.

[thamlin000]

I traveled to the Thyssen Krupp mill in Alabama several times during construction about 3-4 yrs ago. Was a multi billion dollar mill and one of the largest construction projects ongoing during the recession. A lot of german money spent there.

I had a hard time figuring out how such a large mill was placed in a town with no hotels, two restaurants, no grocery stores and one gas station...which was where everyone shopped for groceries.

[Bob Kontak]

Originally Posted by HardDrive

The raw power required to make steel is amazing.

+1

Carborundum in Niagara Falls makes (made?) silicon carbide. They had open troughs about 150 feet long. 10 feet wide. The would basically pour dirt in the trough and then lay a big fat "bead" of the ingredients (2 foot or so in dia) and then cover with dirt. Massive amounts of electricity was sent through the bead and it cooked for a couple of days. Turned the stuff into a SC crystals.

As a kid I performed audits of their inventory working for SOHIO. I got the dust ground into the soles of my wing tips and the stuff never ever came out. I wonder how many floors I scuffed.

They also had a plant in Norway. Arendal Smelteverk. The purity must have been better as the Norwegian SC was used in the space shuttle tiles.

Had my fill of open faces sandwiches.