767 Comments Posted by Flushed

is it safe?

What a heavenly coffee eldo

That looks like an applied linoleum baseboard Mica. It is very common in public and commercial buildings. They make it form vinyl now too. I believe you can get it in any color they are willing to make it. Also that color may be a trick of the light.

Mica there is a lightwell in the middle and the end he is facing is also apparent;y exposed to outside light. I'm guessing but I would say that light is coming from the place he took the next photo "mouth of madness"

Chase & Sanborn coffee. Whose that little coffee can on the left? I know it just can't recall the name.

That is some very good looking canvas work on those pipes and that tank. It's not as easy as you might imagine to lay wet canvas down so it is smooth and stays so when it dries and shrinks.

How many peas under the mattress?

looks like a field of canola or mustard in bloom.

The square grate looks to be an outlet for duct work. Notice the chase running up the wall above it.
The machine under the sink drain looks like a more industrial form of what is called a "garbage disposal" in the home. In the home it is meant to grind up the bits that plug regular drains and you can even run the peelings from veggies through it. As has been mentioned I cannot imagine they are letting pieces of cadaver get in it but you never know. If they are where does it drain to? They would have to have some special catchment for the human remains.

That tubing is probably steel.
Sumac might be the most common and fertile tree in America. Every open space in the right climate seems to get one within a couple years or becoming open.

Remember the old commercial?
Hot dogs, Armour Hot Dogs
What kinds of kids eat Armour Hot Dogs?
Big kids, little kids, kids who climb on rocks
fat kids, skinny kids, even kids with chicken pox
love hot dogs, Armour Dot Dogs
The dogs kids love to bite!

The conditions in meat packing plants of Chicago and the midwest in the early 20th Century are the reason for Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle" his intent being to expose the harsh conditions the workers were subjected to but the public focused on the sanitary practices or lack thereof "Upton Sinclair intended to expose "the inferno of exploitation [of the typical American factory worker at the turn of the 20th Century]", but the reading public fixed on food safety as the novel's most pressing issue. Sinclair admitted his celebrity arose "not because the public cared anything about the workers, but simply because the public did not want to eat tubercular beef" https://en.wikipedia.o..._Jungle#Plot_summary
It lead to the creation of the agency which is now called the FDA and still much was covered up.

I'd vote coal if those two hoppers were grinders to powder it and drop it on a conveyer below taking it to the furnace.

They made a liar of me that tank to the left looks like pink fiberglass covered in canvas and mastic. Maybe its a repair?

That's definitely Asbestos covered with canvas and bituminous mastic. All pipe covering used to get covered in Canvas and mastic.
No they do not still use Asbestos. It has been outlawed since 73. Insulators do still use bituminous mastic's to coat canvas or fiberglass mesh especially in odd shaped hot places like that valve where it might become necessary for the workmen to tear it off to repair a leak. Much easier than dealing with metal. Otherwise industrial insulation is usually covered in aluminum sheet metal these days. The mastic can also be white or grey.

I think they may have had chains around them which drove something else and the holes are for the center guides on the chain.