salvaging long-forgotten remnants of a. finkl foundry gantry and overhead cranes

every time i entered one of the many mammoth industrial melt, machine or forge "shops" located throughout the sprawling a. finkl & sons chicago foundry complex, i could not help but look up in awe. high above rested remarkably antiquated overhead cranes designed to to move insanely heavy pots of molten metal.

the gargantuan metal bridges or "hoists" would crawl along parallel runways or tracks spanning the width of the industrial complex. at ground level i equally admired the large scale hook blocks, equipped with sheaves designed for use with thick steel wire rope, that would raise and lower pots of molten metal via a hoist anchored to the bridge.

a few appeared to have been updated (or rather upgraded) and were likely in use shortly before operations at the foundry ceased. other gantry cranes, however, appeared to have been abandoned long ago and thus were likely installed when the cranes were built into the buildings (some as early as 1902). these were prime candidates for us to document and remove signage or early artifacts from.

several smaller foundries and metal shops existed on the site prior to finkl moving his operations there, and one gantry crane in particular that pre-dated the finkl foundry was virtually complete and unaltered, with the original cast iron bridge plaque, manually-operated controls, and an operator stool. additional stonehouse steel company danger and/or safety signage, and a richly colored cobalt blue plaque were likely added in the 1930's-1940's.

in all, i managed to remove a nice collection of bridge plaques, signage and controls, coupled with hundreds of images of the artifacts and the cranes "in situ." nearly all of them were destined for the scrapyard, while a few of the newer cranes were extracted from their perches and prepared for future use in some other facility where cranes of this size and/or scale are required.

the gallery below provides several artifacts salvaged from the a. finkl & sons gantry cranes before they were dismantled. nearly all of the artifacts were cleaned or stripped of layers of paint to see the actual lettering (in the case of the iron bridge plaques).

period advertisements for gantry crane products and artifacts "in situ" at the finkl foundry before being cleaned and photographed in my studio.