End of the Line

What happened to the gas when it reached the end of the collector main? Did they just release it? Reuse it?

I figured they would find a way to reuse it...will head to the museum next!

rusty metal. I like, makes pretty patterns!

The story, unfortunately , of the Rust Belt. I live there. So, so many places like this, You will have material for decades to come, if you wish... Thank you for leaving a record. The interesting part of all this is that many of these industries were very dependent on the water for shipping and processing, etc., I believe that if this world continues to heat up and water becomes scarcer, many industries may find their way back, as the great lakes area holds 20% of the worlds freshwater.

wow, somebody was up late studying their math to come up with a mechanism like this.

I live in a part of OH that includes the docks in Cleveland with the large loaders. These loaders are right on the coast and like this plant have been unused since the steel industry left town. There has been a big fight over tearing them down. I wish I could remember the name, because they are the only remaining ones in the Great Lakes.
I also went to college in Youngstown OH another town that has been destroyed by the steel companies leaving. Youngstown has a rough reputation at this time. Even the Mob has left and it is over run with gang violence. Say what you might about the Mob but these problems weren taken care of by the Mob bosses. Sure is sad to see the destruciton of homes, roads, neighborhoods that the lack of jobs has caused. These pictures reminded me of the sadness in the areas effected by this abandonment. Thanks for the social commentary Motts. Love your pictures.

looks a little like the hypodemic needles of other pics....

is there still Gas in there???

Looks like a giant bunsen burner.

The coke oven gas was cleaned in a process plant that looked like a small refinery. The tars, oils and other chemicals such as toluene and napthalene were removed and recovered and sold. The cleaned gas was then returned to the coke ovens to fire them.

The stack on the end of the main shown in the picture was to light off the gas and burn it like a huge torch in the event of an upset condition in the gas processing plant. Since the coal in the ovens was still being baked (couldn't stop that once it started), gas was still being produced, and the only safe thing to do was to burn it off in this flare stack.

possibly a bit like an oil refinery. Still plenty of those...Granite City near the Mississippi, for instance. (coal and oil industries seem as filthy as anything in the Industrial Revolution to me)

Claudia, I believe the name you are looking for is Hulett.

www.clevelandmemory.org/glihc/hulett/index.htm

These were automatic ore unloaders.

The gas was drawn thru large exhauster fans into a refinery like processing plant where tars, oils, napthalene, benzene, and other chemicals and dyes were extracted and sold. The 'cleaned' coke oven gas was then used to fire the ovens again, or used to supplement natural gas elsewhere in the steel mill, or even mixed with natural gas and distributed throughout the city. Coke Oven Gas has a btu value about half that of natural gas.

...this is a burn-off element...some-times they'd burn w/a green-blue flame...others these burnt w/a brilliant yellow...depending upon how much the blast-furnaces were consuming...night-time was always a spectacle when these ovens were at peak...especially under cloudy and/or foggy conditions...