RAMPAGE
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8 years ago
I'm slowly building up a collection of industrial/mining photos in my personal gallery, if anybody is interested in seeing them.

All taken on Ilford black and white roll film, using an old manual press camera that puts out 6x9 frames. I scan them to about 35 megapixels but they'll go higher.

The strength of 6x9 frames is in the detail captured, they are more interesting to look at zoomed in.

They don't let me out much so the gallery will grow only slowly but here are some to be getting on with.

🔗112830[linkphoto]112830[/linkphoto][/link]
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Peter Burgess
8 years ago
That's fascinating - I am curious - you are very specific about the photographic process - does this mean they are your photos? Or from a specific photographer?
Jim MacPherson
8 years ago
🔗112828[linkphoto]112828[/linkphoto][/link]

That's the blowing engine house for the range of blast furnaces at Blists Hill, I don't recall a merchant rolling mill at the museum (they would make just about anything you wanted, some were still in commercial use with BSC into the 80s') but I've only been back once since 1985, so things will have changed a lot.

Jim
Digit
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8 years ago
"Jim MacPherson" wrote:



That's the blowing engine house for the range of blast furnaces at Blists Hill, I don't recall a merchant rolling mill at the museum (they would make just about anything you wanted, some were still in commercial use with BSC into the 80s') but I've only been back once since 1985, so things will have changed a lot.

Jim



The rolling mill is not an original Blists Hill building it was moved there from (I think) the Bolton area. It is functional and does from time to time give demos. Also it has done some commercial work since arrival, it recycled several tons of wrought iron that had been recovered from a major building fire, and rolled it into bar for a customer. The demos are rare because it costs a great deal of money to fire it all up, the commercial contract was very welcome because that covered the costs of many public demos.
~~~ The future is not what it used to be ~~~
Jim MacPherson
8 years ago
I must admit I was also scratching the remaining brain cell about the engine house as the blast furnaces remains were a lot more derelict in the 70's and 80's although I think there was the vestige of a engine house at or near the furnaces. I'll have to dig my notes out if I still have them.

I think Monk's Hall (near Eccles or Irlam perhaps, although some might argue Skinningrove is almost a jobbing mill) was the last BSC merchant mill to shut although we did wander round a few operational private mills around Sheffield in the mid 1980's including one in one of the smaller valleys rolling section for horse shoes:)
AR
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8 years ago
I believe it did come from somewhere up around Bolton and was the last operational mill in the UK that rolled wrought iron. I think that job referred to would have been for Chris Topp who supplies re-rolled wrought to the blacksmithing trade, I know he's got a small mill of his own for creating the small stock sizes but I guess getting the big stuff down to a manageable size for two men to work on a small mill needs outsourcing!
Follow the horses, Johnny my laddie, follow the horses canny lad-oh!
RAMPAGE
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8 years ago
Thanks for all the information guys, helps my understanding of the place immensely as when I visit I'm not always sure what I'm looking at!
Beneath my steely exterior beats the heart of a dashing hero
RAMPAGE
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8 years ago
"Peter Burgess" wrote:

That's fascinating - I am curious - you are very specific about the photographic process - does this mean they are your photos? Or from a specific photographer?



Oh, I just included that for interests sake, probably more my interest than anybody else heheh

Yes they are my photos, taken last month.
Beneath my steely exterior beats the heart of a dashing hero
Digit
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8 years ago
"Jim MacPherson" wrote:

I must admit I was also scratching the remaining brain cell about the engine house as the blast furnaces remains were a lot more derelict in the 70's and 80's although I think there was the vestige of a engine house at or near the furnaces. I'll have to dig my notes out if I still have them.



Sounds like a return visit should be scheduled, you will find a lot has been added/changed/improved since your previous visit.
~~~ The future is not what it used to be ~~~
simonrl
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8 years ago
"RAMPAGE" wrote:

"Peter Burgess" wrote:

That's fascinating - I am curious - you are very specific about the photographic process - does this mean they are your photos? Or from a specific photographer?



Oh, I just included that for interests sake, probably more my interest than anybody else heheh

Yes they are my photos, taken last month.



:thumbup:

What sort of scanner do you use?
my orders are to sit here and watch the world go by
RAMPAGE
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8 years ago
"SimonRL" wrote:

"RAMPAGE" wrote:

"Peter Burgess" wrote:

That's fascinating - I am curious - you are very specific about the photographic process - does this mean they are your photos? Or from a specific photographer?



Oh, I just included that for interests sake, probably more my interest than anybody else heheh

Yes they are my photos, taken last month.



:thumbup:

What sort of scanner do you use?



Don't have one :(

Used to have an Epson 4990 years ago but it broke.

Now I have to get the developing lab to do it, which isn't cheap but MF scanners are hard to come by and expensive :(

The lab does an alright job and theyll do it to 35mp tiff but would be better to do my own if I can ever put my hand to a scanner
Beneath my steely exterior beats the heart of a dashing hero
Jim MacPherson
8 years ago
"RAMPAGE" wrote:

"SimonRL" wrote:

"RAMPAGE" wrote:

"Peter Burgess" wrote:

That's fascinating - I am curious - you are very specific about the photographic process - does this mean they are your photos? Or from a specific photographer?



Oh, I just included that for interests sake, probably more my interest than anybody else heheh

Yes they are my photos, taken last month.



:thumbup:

What sort of scanner do you use?



Don't have one :(

Used to have an Epson 4990 years ago but it broke.

Now I have to get the developing lab to do it, which isn't cheap but MF scanners are hard to come by and expensive :(

The lab does an alright job and theyll do it to 35mp tiff but would be better to do my own if I can ever put my hand to a scanner



I bought a (brand new) multi-function printer (Brother I think) for about £50 about 10 years ago which I have used to scan photos (up to A4 size) to jpegs but limited resolution and a couple of other formats as well as all the rest of the stuff - print, copy and fax. Probably one of my better squanders.

Jim
RAMPAGE
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8 years ago
Yeah they can be pretty good, I have an all in one job too. Doesn't do transparency though, not many scanners do.
Beneath my steely exterior beats the heart of a dashing hero
AR
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8 years ago
Just spotted the smithy shot, I used a Massey airhammer exactly like that one at college. Lovely bit of kit, despite being 1923 vintage it still had a dead straight strike unlike the other modern (furrin!) ones they had - when you drew out a bit of bar on them it would curve off to one side, unlike the Massey where you knew it would stay straight.
Follow the horses, Johnny my laddie, follow the horses canny lad-oh!
RAMPAGE
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8 years ago
"AR" wrote:

Just spotted the smithy shot, I used a Massey airhammer exactly like that one at college. Lovely bit of kit, despite being 1923 vintage it still had a dead straight strike unlike the other modern (furrin!) ones they had - when you drew out a bit of bar on them it would curve off to one side, unlike the Massey where you knew it would stay straight.



Did you mean this photo?

🔗112731[linkphoto]112731[/linkphoto][/link]

Yes lovely bit of kit that. I love fabrication machinery from that period, they are so massively constructed. Especially pillar drills, those awesome cast iron frames have more ferrous metal in them than a car park full of V.W's...
Beneath my steely exterior beats the heart of a dashing hero
AR
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8 years ago
Yes, that one. I was eyeing up an old geared twin-head pillar drill on Ebay earlier this year (bargain at £100) but reluctantly had to admit it wouldn't fit in my garage. I settled for a part-geared MT2 with a cross-slide vice in the end, but still good old-school solid British engineering!
Follow the horses, Johnny my laddie, follow the horses canny lad-oh!
RAMPAGE
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8 years ago

I have two pillar drills in my workshop and they are both rubbish.

If you push down at all hard with the bit into the workpiece, the whole head flexes up and you get a wonky hole! But then, I can carry both drills at the same time under each arm so you can imagine how substantially they are constructed :(

never see good ones for sale around here, those that do come up are usually motored for 3 phase which I don't have in the workshop. I'd like a rotary converter! Plenty of amps coming in on the single phase.
Beneath my steely exterior beats the heart of a dashing hero
RAMPAGE
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8 years ago
I'm onto some rolls of film taken in the Cwm now.

First one is of Rhosydd Terrace. Managed to find out some interesting information about the place from Cofio Cwm.

🔗112839[linkphoto]112839[/linkphoto][/link]
Beneath my steely exterior beats the heart of a dashing hero
Graigfawr
8 years ago
Some clarification on the wrought iron works at Blists Hill: the building came from a dockyard; the puddling furnaces, reheating / balling / mill furnaces and the rolling mills that the building covers came from Atlas Forge, Bolton, which had been the last working puddling forge and wrought iron rolling mill in the world when it closed in the mid/late 1970s.

Ironbridge put up the wrought iron works in the expectation that there would be a small but steady ongoing market that would approximately cover the cost of fuel for the furnaces, enabling periodic demonstration of both puddling and rolling. However, steels began to be produced that were suitable for blacksmiths to hammer-weld, reducing the market for genuine wrought iron, and fuel costs became ever more expensive. So Blists Hill rarely can afford to fire up the puddling furnaces and limit demonstrations to re-rolling large thick pieces of wrought iron scrap into smaller cross section bars as this only requires the reheating / mill furnaces to be heated up. The main source of large cross section wrought iron scrap in recent decades has been enormous chain links from naval dockyards. These are cut into pieces, heated, and rolled down to small cross-section merchant iron.
grahami
8 years ago
"AR" wrote:

I believe it did come from somewhere up around Bolton and was the last operational mill in the UK that rolled wrought iron. I think that job referred to would have been for Chris Topp who supplies re-rolled wrought to the blacksmithing trade, I know he's got a small mill of his own for creating the small stock sizes but I guess getting the big stuff down to a manageable size for two men to work on a small mill needs outsourcing!



I've got a copy of the old SERG bulletin which describes the Atlas works somewhere - I could dig itout and put it on here if anyone's interested. I used to live in Bolton many years ago. SERG transmogrified into the ISSES but the site doesn't seem to have been updated in a long time, so I'm not sure if they're still going.

Grahami
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