Vintage work crew photos

[Clockguy]

Interestingly, there were 3 different ships commissioned using the name "Susquehanna", the first being a side wheeled steam frigate which was commissioned in late 1850. The second ship was actually built in Hamburg, Germany and commissioned the "SS Rhein". Interesting story about how she became an American ship and recommissioned as the "Susquehanna" in 1917. And the third ship was built as a "patapsco class" gasoline tanker which served during WWII and up into 1947, when she was dropped from the Naval registry. She didn't get the name "Susquehanna" until 1950, when she was reacquired by the Navy and named "USNS Susquehanna T-AOG-5" and served for the next 9 years before being scrapped. There was actually a 4th "Susquehanna", a Falcon class transport tanker, the "Falcon Princess" which was launched in 1972 and later leased by the Navy and renamed.

Here are some Wikipedia links which are of some interest for those familiar with that region of the US from which the name "Susquehanna" originated:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Susquehanna

Susquehanna (ID 3016)

Miscellaneous Photo Index

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Susquehanna_(ID-3016)

(I suspect that the ship from which this photo was taken was the one depicted in the last link.)

My personal interest in all of this was the fact that I was born on the Susquehanna, .... not the ship, but the river named for the Native American family of people who inhabited the river back when taxes and government were much less intrusive into the lives of the populace. There is a bridge, listed in the Guiness Book of World Records, named the Rockville Bridge, North on the river near the present day capitol of PA where I set foot on this planet one dark and stormy night in 1943. 1.7 miles up Roberts Valley is an old farm house and outbuildings, which is owned by the Harrisburg City Postal Employees Union, where they built their Rod and Gun Club. It had a wonderful shooting range with 25, 50, and 100 yard rifle ranges, a trap shooting range, and multiple picnic pavilions, a large play area for the kids, and a ball diamond for the "BIg kids" [Dads] to play on. It was the PERFECT place for a tiny person to be born and raised. I remember more things from my early childhood than I do from age 5 on to my entry into senior high school! I roamed the mountains almost as soon as I could walk, my parents took my younger brother and me on long walks up trails which were also deer trails and hunting trails. My life long love for the outdoors and all things in Nature were nurtured in those mountains. Much of what I still do revolves around knowledge I gained from my Dad as a child in those mountains.

So, there is a special place in my memories for the "Susquehanna" and this simply tripped many good thoughts of my childhood and early years. We had to move from that mountain "Eden" down to the reality of 2 young kids starting school and needing to be where they did not have to walk almost 2 miles to catch a city bus into town and then transfer to another bus to get out to the school where I was enrolled in 1949. Such is life but it is also so good to take a trip back once in awhile and remember what used to be and dream .......

Edit: I failed to mention WHY that old railroad bridge was in the Guiness book, it is the longest stone arch bridge in the world, spanning over a mile of the Susquehanna River at the almost non-existent little town of Rockville, PA.

We lived on this "farm" when my dad, a life long employee of the post office as a rural mail carrier, took the "manager's" job for the 110 or so acres of mountain land that the PO owned for their R&G club. We lived rent free, in exchange for my dad doing any general maintenance around the property and mowing about 17 acres of grass around the house, shooting range, and picnic area plus a large area for parking for picnics and shooting contests. At that age, I could walk for an afternoon and explore and learn without leaving "our" farm. It was more than a little kid could take in until years after he left and joined "civilization" aka, the Rat Race .....

[Ralphxyz]

of course the Susquehanna River was not named after a indigenous tribe of Indians that lived in the river basin
but after a tribe (Susquehanna) that was moved into the river basin by our government to sell their native lands.

Ralph

[Jon]

Wachusett Dam, laying the last stone. Clinton, Massachusetts. Jun. 24, 1905.

Fullsize image: https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/h...w_fullsize.jpg

[Jon]

One of the rotors of the HMHS Britannic suspended over a turbine casing, Belfast, 1913

Largest image size available:

[Ralphxyz]

No mechanics pictured, I am sure all of the guys in suit and tie and hat are not mechanics.

Ralph

[Toolmaker51]

One of the rotors of the HMHS Britannic suspended over a turbine casing, Belfast, 1913
How on earth do pour such an immense casting, and inspect for porosity? For that matter, how much lead time was consumed building the pattern?
And however large, with turbine going in, line boring is already done...

[Unkle Fuzzy]

No patterns used. Like ship's propellers the mould is built out of bricks of moulding sand and then hand shaped by carving away anything that doesn't look like a turbine housing. For really big low count or one of a kind castings this is basically the only way to do it. The pour gets really interesting. Multiple ladles of metal poured one behind the other before the previous pour cools to much for a good bond. For real high strength sand moulds clay binders may be too weak and Portland cement or sodium silicate as a binder, with the result that the mould has to be jackhammered away from the casting.

[Jon]

No mechanics pictured, I am sure all of the guys in suit and tie and hat are not mechanics.

Ralph

Good point, that one isn't very work crew-ish. I need to make a good spot to put these excellent machine photos that don't make the minimum size requirement for our large machine photo thread: High-quality black-and-white photographs of large old machines and tools

Anyway, here's a very orthodox work crew photo.

Workers at the Mann Axe Factory, Reedsville, PA, c. 1885.

Fullsize image: https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/h...w_fullsize.jpg

[Toolmaker51]

No patterns used. Like ship's propellers the mould is built out of bricks of moulding sand and then hand shaped by carving away anything that doesn't look like a turbine housing. For really big low count or one of a kind castings this is basically the only way to do it. The pour gets really interesting. Multiple ladles of metal poured one behind the other before the previous pour cools to much for a good bond. For real high strength sand moulds clay binders may be too weak and Portland cement or sodium silicate as a binder, with the result that the mould has to be jackhammered away from the casting.

Mmmmmm, jackhammering shoulder level or overhead....sounds lovely.

[Toolmaker51]

Anyway, here's a very orthodox work crew photo.
Fullsize image: https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/h...w_fullsize.jpg

Axe factory, I buy. Side job for Broadway actors, instead of waiting tables? Dunno
But WTH is this? Bullet-proof chamber pot? R&D 'Fat Man' prototype? An early Reuben Garrett Lucius Goldberg [#1] device with contributing designers? No, wait he'd only be 2 years old by then...

R2D2's great-great-great grandfather? Notice casters hadn't been invented [or available] yet.