Comments

EEW giant mosquitoes - well they love that stagnant water! My parents will always be sitting outside in the summer, and tell me to come out, there's no bugs bitiing. Well, as soon as I step outside...*ZAP* they all stick to me. So considering this was during the West Nile scare, I would go running around in random zig-zag patterns all over the yard to avoid them. Didn't help that a squirrel fell out of a tree in our backyard (a sign of West Nile) - it was ok though. And that we found a dead bird in our front yard a little before that...

Casualties of the microchip revolution... strange to think that every office in the world was full of these not so long ago.

And maybe you're right Autumn Twin. Your comment made me think of a girl (I'll call her 'Amy') in the admin section of the office where I work, who has a moderate to severe learning impairment (she's in her early twenties but is very 'naive' and has the demeanour and many of the thought processes of a twelve year-old). Nevertheless Amy can understand and carry out many of the tasks in the office, occasionally needing help which co-workers are all too happy to provide. She's also a great person who never fails to brighten my day with her genuine, friendly conversation and witty observations. Amy is living proof that with the right training, a learning disability doesn't always have to mean a life half-lived in an institutional setting.

Some wonder why she's working with us rather than being 'looked after' (in other words, locked-up) somewhere but IMO working in a regular environment, no matter how seemingly menial the job, has granted her a degree of financial independence as well as no doubt boosting her confidence, whilst hopefully also challenging some of the myths and prejudices held by some 'normal' colleagues who would otherwise rarely come into contact with people like Amy through choice. It's awful that it wasn't always the case, but I'm just so glad that nowadays there are community based programmes and help available to make sure that people aren't merely written off before they have chance to realise their potential, whatever that may be.

So one can hope that maybe these innocuous-looking machines once represented much more - a way out of Pennhurts for some of its 'clients' ....

rich, I was gonna say something about this remiding me of the Titanic, but I don't know much about boilers, so I figured I could have sounded a might foolish! Yeah, I think I was around 10 when that movie came out, and I got really interested in the whole Titanic thing - this "abandoned" ship at the bottom of the ocean - now things are all coming together, I see where my interest budded from!

Yes yes yes! Calendar! *jumps up and down like a little child* *ahem* Erm, yes, a calendar would be nice, I reckon.

We should be thanking you for this site and all you have done to share your passion of day's gone-by.

We all have the same interest here and you allow us to share that with you, for that...Thank You.

Yeah that did turn out really cool - it almost looks like two people walking toward you - if I look close enough I can make out some facial features...and the "figure" on the left almost looks like its carrying a candle...and they both look as if they're floating...really neat! Come to think of it, though, the guy on the left looks like he's holding a bottle of beer...Radical Ed? LOL

I heard the CD player in the computer works as well RD haha ;-)

It's just a fellow explorer walking in front of my camera with the shutter open for a long time... I think it came out kinda neat with the billowing curtain.

Glad to have livened up your classwork! I'm always amazed at how these incredible places were built in the middle of nowhere (back then); they are truly unspoken gems of architecture. They were beautiful for the people living and working inside almost every day, not for some millionaire... it makes you wish you had something better than a cubicle inside a bigger box in some corporate industrial park.

Thank you Bob, your knowledge is much appreciated along with everyone else's contributions pertaining to their specialties!

A segment of the movie "Best Friends" was shot at the terminal in "82".
The building is in Buffalo.

http://www.opacity.us/image3019_furnaces.htm
Ah!! now it all comes together.

This is a control for a moving grate coal bed.
This feeds coal at a set rate for proper and efficient burning.

Mr Motts, could you explain what it is? It really does look like a ghost, but if you think about it, it just looks like sunlight coming into the hallway.

http://www.opacity.us/image3019.htm

This looks like the coal hopper for the boiler firebox.
The controls probably control the amount of coal put onto the coalbed to keep it even and level.
The patched over opening above are sight portholes for visually inspecting the coalbed and flame.

Honestly motts, some of us old ladies have bad hearts. Like me.................scared the shit out of me, until i read the comment, lol.