as oskar suggested, the common denominator of all these examples of historical manufactoring facilities, is steam as the power source. in my construction career i had a small exposure to boilermakers union folks, a trade that has downsized almost out of existence. there was a time when any factory was built around a boiler system. i oversaw several buildings that had dormant boiler systems in place, but to my knowledge none of them had been under pressure since the 1960's. in 1967, i drove an industrial supply delivery truck that occasionally delivered to the Kelly Plow Company in longview, tx. it was half a block long, dating back to civil war days, but only a small portion was still being used by then....everything that was still in production was driven by belts off a central overhead shaft (in my part of the world, called a "mule"). another example of the amazing amount of change that some of us "experienced" folks have witnessed...
best regards,
tom
