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Wow, that's awesome, thanks Snows.

I think this might be a pee trough! We had them at my summer camp.

These are called "Steam-Jacketed Kettles". As someone else mentioned they are used to make soup. You can also make sauces, cook pasta or masked potatoes etc. The ones in this picture seem to be in pretty good shape. Although I'm sure they are quite old, their design has not changed much.

This is just adaptive equipment, y'all. Nothing wicked or evil about it. We use it all the time in special ed because people like it and are willing to use it because it's fun. It's for recreation and OT/PT. People have fun with it - it is not used for torture or human degradation. It only looks scary when you are looking for something negative and re-interpret this as something frightening - it is used every day across the U.S. and other countries, and people LIKE it.

This particular piece of equipment is called a "ball bath". You fill the piece of equipment with small colorful balls and folks love to sit in it for sensory activities. You have probably even seen it at your local Chuckie Cheese pizza parlor.

[Although, speaking of torture and human degradation, can you imagine working a shift in that humiliating, hot, scratchy Chuckie Cheese outfit? Now there's something I would never admit to MY grandchildren had I ever done it.]

See:
http://www.pct.edu/schools/hs/oc/facilities.htm
http://www.flaghouse.com/Prod_Images/p5338T.jpg
http://www.thechildrenscenteraz.org/Sensory_integration.htm

I hate to say it, but I have been to an abondoned Mental Hospital in Waltham, Massachusetts called the Metropolitan State Hospital. And my friends and I have found records before. I don't think it's uncommon that people leave them at the abandoned sites. There's also a cemetary on the grounds of this abandoned hospital, and there are over 400 graves....ALL UNMARKED. Talk about right from wrong....

This room seemed to have a very wide slide from the window into the room. It might have been a trampoline-like cushion at the bottom of the slide.

I don't remember, probably a crumpled window shade or maybe asbestos piping.

Well, I think this was a daycare building for the staff and visitor's kids, not a psychiatric treatment building.

But anyway, many parents cannot handle taking care of a child with severe mental problems, especially when they require constant medical or psychological attention. If your doctor strongly recommends you put your child in an institution, you would do what you thought was best for your kid, perhaps many parents thought this way.

When the child was in the hands of the state, there wasn't much a parent could do; they didn't know what happened in these places... so I don't think they are to blame in all cases.

Stirrups?!? OMG! I thought they were HANDLES!!

Only a few rooms still had working lights.

I thought of the sewing thing too, because it looks like there's a spool of thread in the center, but it's actually gauze wrapped around a pole. There are two stirrups on either side, so I ruled that out pretty quick.

I went back and pushed it into a more spacious room, it might be easier to get a grasp on what it is when I post those photos up.

http://www.edgewoodhospita..Name=model%2Ejpg

I'LL STILL BE LAUGHING!

There are still curtains and shower curtains everywhere. A couple of the more remote areas still have the infirmary privacy curtains on the circle track.

I would like to find a newpaper from WWII rather than a quart of stagnant water any day.