In a message dated 08/24/99 4:14:38 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
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<< Subj: Re: marking pig iron
Date: 08/24/99 4:14:38 AM Eastern Daylight Time
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>JH Brothers IV wrote
>>But, what does this have to do about markings on pig iron?
I was refreshing my memory, and now I've found out that the two "pigs" we
did
find at the West Point Foundry, on the East side of the Hudson in Cold
Spring, NY, were left in a trailer on site, so if I wanted to research them
I
can't unless my colleague is wrong about their disposition. I apologize
about
not having the citation of Glassey's work, it's from memory. By "trick" I
meant in the coyote sense, we were once to vault all artifacts from this
"contamination" (Mary Douglas' book, "Purity and Danger" comes to mind, an
excellent anthropological examination, recommended. a Penguin if I remember)
and eventually they allowed limited processing off site by the "newer"
guidelines for artifacts, therefore secondary became the possibility of the
historic contaminations not considered, the present, if you will taking
precedence over the past, including "health and safety" plans that are
targeted at specific modern mishaps not hypothetical historical ones.
This particular foundry produced over 1 million shells, built the "Swamp
Angel," 30,000 carriages for guns and invented the "Parrot Rifle," the first
successfully mass-produced rifled cannon, with double the range of smooth
bore. It went on in the production of nonmilitary objects while covertly
developing things such as the "dynamite gun" similar to the one captured
from
Saddam Hussein, and other ordnance (incendiary, etc.) all apparently still
classified because of the proximity across the river to West Point Military
Academy, NY. Having personally encountered large empty ordnance, like the
type demonstrated for President Lincoln, was quite an experience, though not
equal to the enthusiasm Jules Verne found on his visit there, ("First Men In
the Moon,") 200lb and 300lb shells were developed, and spun out of heavy
rifled cannons at the mountains across the Hudson, in places that recently
have been afire from lightning and drought.
Specifically, I would like to see all ordnance out of the county of Israel
Putnam's veterans and recent events stir up the exasperation a modern
remediation that refused to research the past adequately in my estimation.
My
"Machinist's Catechism" states one can strengthen iron by dipping in
antimony, a very poisonous element not even considered in the urine tests of
my fellow workers.
The Society of Industrial Archaeology has a brochure for a tour of the
Birmingham, Alabama foundries, with a "pig" on the cover with "SIA" imbedded
in it they are having a tour and for $100 dollars you can cast anything you
want up to 30 lb. The tour looks excellent for anyone interested:
IA in Dixie
Society For Industrial Archeology
Southern Chapter
Birmingham, Alabama
FALL TOUR '99 October 30-November 7, 1999
Hardhats and Safety Glasses required.
Bode Morin at (205) [log in to unmask] or Jack Bergstresser at (205) 934
4690/ [log in to unmask]
I was once there on a Sunday at the Art Museum, one of the few places I've
ever seen Jomon pottery on exhibit, in regard to the other post about the
"aborigine." Wonderful place, with Andy Warhol's "Double Jackie," but sadly
empty the day I was there.
>>
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