This was an electric milk truck made in Sheffield in the 1930s. It would make an excellent RV. Many of you know that when I was in high school - from 1964 to 1966 - I worked as a milkman. Every morning from 5 to 7 - I would ride a milk truck through Tamaqua PA - delivering fresh milk and dairy products before dawn. For $1 an hour - $12 a week - I was happy.
That pot is a Bessemer Converter. You put iron ore - coke - limestone in the top. You blew air up through the bottom. It made steel faster and cheaper.
Many say the Industrial Revolution started with the invention of the Bessemer Converter. That happened right here in Sheffield. Today - I visited an island in the middle of the Don River. This manmade island has been the center of England's iron and steel industry since the 1200's.
Around 1850 - Henry Bessemer came up with the idea of blowing air through a pot of iron ore - coal - and limestone. This process was used for the next 100 years as a way to make steel better - faster - and cheaper. The price of steel went from 40 pounds per ton to 6 pounds per ton. The city of Sheffield grew up around this industry - this process - this man.
The Pelham Island Museum is a wonderful display of heavy industry and the steel products that came from it. I remember my elementary geography books commenting how important Sheffield was. The city has diversified - but this museum makes you realize how important it was to civilization.
Almost everyone in Sheffield had a shed behind their home where they did "piece work." They would specialize in one process - like polishing knife blades - fashioning handles - or assembling precision gauges.
During the two world wars - this city became a target of the Germans. It is about 150 miles north and east of London.
Today - you might call this area brownfields - like Bethlehem Steel - Pittsburgh. As a matter of fact - Sheffield is a sister city of Pittsburgh.
Tomorrow we are taking a highspeed train to London. Even this train is called The Master Cutler in tribute to the fine knives and blades that were made here.
Some of the many knives made in Sheffield.
This old mill is recycled as businesses and apartments.
The Don River is split by this manmade island.
The gate to the cradle of modern steel.
Old ships on the bottom - modern solar panels on the top.
Bessemer Converter
These cannons went to America to fight the revolution
This 10 ton bomb was the biggest of WWII. It would burrow underground and explode causing earthquakes that shook the ground - breaking infrastructure.
Strike when the iron is hot.
This was a giant lathe. It could make cylinders 50 feet long.
This was a giant steam engine over 30 feet tall - they ran it for me.
Making saws for 250 years.
Kids' model assembling knives
Pitch forks.
A blades display.
Beautiful chisels.
Brickwork signs from old buildings
Pig iron - iron pigs.
Precision gauges
In 1940 - the Nazis dropped this bomb on Sheffield. In 1985 - they found it and disarmed it.
These old guys worked in the mills making saws.
This is a Netty. Up until the 1960s - most toilets were in the backyard. My first 6 years were spent using an outhouse.
From 1948 to 1954 - I took my Saturday night bath in a steel tub in front of a kitchen coal stove.
Sheffield is a proud city. It was a storng union town.
This steam engine was working and powering many of the machines by belt drive.
The car on the right is a Sheffield - Simplex.
People still get married in the old mills. This room is the wedding room.
The Anderson Shelter was made in Sheffield. You dug a hole - and put it 3 feet below the surface. It could withstand a bomb hit as close as 3 feet.
Lots of old brick buildings line the river.
This is the museum entrance. Cost 5 pounds.
This is the chimney house - now a pub.
Old mill logos in the eaves.
