Last Sunday, I almost got arrested. Well, maybe that's a bit of exaggeration. The security guard who shadowed my steps wasn't very menacing, and he was probably relieved to learn that I was a photographer - not a vandal or a copper thief. So how did a law-abiding citizen like myself capture the interest of a cigarette-smoking rent-a-cop? The answer lies in my return to Brown Street, the site of old capacitor factory where I worked many summers ago.
Part 3 of the Sprague Electric Company's Long Goodbye is a photographic history of the demolition of the old Brown Street Mill. Part 1 and Part 2 of this series ran several weeks ago on CR4. Part 4 is now here, too.
Demolition as Art
This is the back of the building where I used to work. Well, the so-called "back" that you're looking at wasn't the back of the building at the time. The remnants of that other back are probably sitting in the pile of rubble at the forefront of this picture.
Some of the bricks in the pile may date back to 1872, when Building One housed the Johnson Manufacturing Company, a maker of gingham textiles. Years ago, an underground raceway ran water from a millpond on the other side of Brown Street throughout the complex to power the machines. This so-called "mystery canal" was rediscovered during cleanup efforts at the Brown Street Mill.
The Sprague Electric Company and its descendant, Commonwealth Sprague Capacitor, Inc., used the Brown Street Mill to build everything from gas masks to bomb timers to electrical components. On the day I prowled the plant's grounds, the smell of industrial chemicals still hung in the air. Does anyone know what these rusty old tanks in the picture were used for?
According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), "several on-site buildings contained floor drains which emptied to the building basements, and subsequently to the Hoosic River and/or city sewer". This situation was corrected in 1976, when Sprague Electric installed a wastewater pre-treatment system.
 Got time for another picture? Here's another group of tanks and a piece of industrial equipment that I think might be a degreaser. According to the EPA, "chemicals used by Sprague included trichloroethylene (TCE), ethylene glycol, various acids, methanol, acetone,
xylene, laquer thinner, dimethylformamide, titanium oxide, barium carbonate, and
small amounts of depleted uranium oxide for the preparation of ceramic powder." If this contraption is indeed a degreaser, what industrial chemicals would it have handled?
For those who are wondering about those beautiful green hills in the background, a resized .jpg cannot do them justice.
Related Stories:
http://cr4.globalspec.com/blogentry/3186
http://cr4.globalspec.com/blogentry/3055
Steve Melito - The Y Files
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Re: The Sprague Electric Company's Long Goodbye - Part 3
