Friday, September 26, 2014

Bessemer, Sloss Furnaces, and Golden Flake Board of Directors


We visited the Sloss Furnaces before but it was during October. The place was set up for Halloween haunted house tours with all sorts of creatures hanging around the place. This time they are just starting to set up the tour so we could see more of the place.

The equipment was purchased over the 90 years of operation.  This is the Skip Hoist which is somewhat more modern.



The blast furnaces were built in 1927 and operated until the site closed in 1971.
I just love the pipework for the boilers.


Bessemer Hall of History is a neat little local museum. The prison bars where Martin Luther King, Jr. was held in the Bessemer jar was in the museum. I just loved an original sign for an old-time train toilet “Please do not flush toilet while train is in station.”  I can’t quite get that picture out of my head. This typewriter is from Eagle’s Nest which was Adolf Hitler’s hideaway. So it’s popularly called Hitler’s typewriter.  Hmmm. I can’t see him sitting there and typing away.


And my vent…we planned to take a tour of the Golden Flake potato chip factory in Birmingham.  After getting poor directions online, we finally found the place. Then we found out the board of directors was visiting the plant today so they cancelled all tours. So let me understand this. They would rather have upset customers just so they can impress some people that are really just employees of the company? I’ll make sure I don’t buy Golden Flake chips since even the board of directors don’t care about customers!

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