Tag Archives: glass plate negatives

Photogravure – Copper Plates

21 Tuesday Aug 2018

Posted by in Archives, Dams, Photography, water history

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Doing some more packing of my office and here is another pile that needs documenting. I thought these were pretty neat looking when I found them about 10 years ago. I placed them in ziplocks to keep them from getting scratched and then put them away for another day. That day has come.

The three piles on the left are each about 5″ x 7″ x 7/8″ thick. The smaller ones to the right vary.

Here is one removed from its sleeve and placed on shelf to be photographed. 

Same copper plate scanned with color settings at 300dpi. Trying to be careful not to scratch the glass surface of the scanner.

Kind of shabby looking, so I scanned it in Black and White.

Better, but not as good as the original below. This one is an electronic copy from a glass plate negative I scanned back in 2007. In 1913 (I know, it looks like 1915 but it is not) the contractors performed a pressure test on the 10′ conduit from the new dam at Loch Raven to the old dam. 

Tried another one. Color scan first, but at 720 dpi. Pretty bad looking. 

Now in b&W.

Still no good. I had trouble finding a good copy of this. It was not in the glass plate negative groups and not to mention the difficulty of looking for a reverse image. Looked in the lantern slides and there it was.

There is a nice video at this link which shows the Photogravure Process. Glad we have progressed into the digital art stage!

https://photogravure.com/process/

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Water Labs

31 Tuesday Jul 2018

Posted by in Baltimore, filtration, New York, water history

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I was told that I could no longer link this WordPress account with my Facebook page because of new FB Policies – Let’s see what happens!

A New York City Water Quality Lab, August 1907 (Photo NYC Water Website)

Baltimore Md. Water Quality Lab August 1915.

Box of Blues

20 Friday Jul 2018

Posted by in Archives, Baltimore, water history

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This box has been sitting in my office for years now and as I slowly pack my office up, the box has been making its presence known more and more. This is one of those task that I didn’t want to undertake, but knew eventually I would have to. I’ve referred to it before as the Jigsaw Puzzle Box. It contains a lot of broken glass plate negatives.

They were originally laying one on top another. No boxes or protective sleeves. I sat them on their side to try to stop some of the damage. These plates are heavy and the weight of being stacked is enough to crush themselves.

So let’s get started on cleaning and scanning. I pulled out the more intact ones first, but already there was a problem – not only were most of these suffering from severe silvering, from being improperly stored, this one was yellow (Under or over exposed when taken maybe?)

I scanned it anyway because there is something about this photo – The second Loch Raven Dam being built, showing an arched walkway through the base of the dam. A couple years ago I was told that I would be able to go on an inspection tour of the inside of the dam – I guess they forgot me…

A couple more intact plates, not found in previous collections of building the 1915 dam. I like this one, below, looking downstream of the Gunpowder River. A locomotive riding the spur track in the distance and a person on the trestle.

A view looking upstream from the cofferdam. 

Although there was a lot of silvering, after some work in Photoshop Elements, I was fortunate enough to make them worth saving. Another view downstream. The old 1880s gatehouse in background. Notice the wood pedestal for the valve operator. 

I wish I would have found this one years ago. This photo is signed by the engineer, Walter Lee and the plate itself is signed by the photographer – Waldeck.

With this next one, the puzzle pieces start falling apart. The photographer would take photographs and drawings, mount them on a board and then photograph the photographs. Thank God for the digital age!

Inside the photographers studio – more like an onsite shed at the construction site – 1920s.

Some of the shed photo plates were not only broken, but were over exposed.

Using my software I was able to enhance the above photo enough, using the ‘Equalize’ button, to bring out the drawing. In this case it is the Balancing Reservoir at Cromwell Park.

Next up more photos being photographed. Two of my favorites on this plate – The original photo of the town of Warren before flooding (A lot of historical societies use this photo and don’t give credit to the City for using it. I guess because it has been used so many times in various newsletters and publications, they consider it public domain) And I like the Paper Mill Bridge with the covered bridge underneath. 

This next one threw me for a loop! A Cathedral to Water? Not sure what this is of?

I finally hit the bottom of the box, nothing but pieces. Some large ones and then many small pieces.

I scanned them just in case some day, some one can use modern technology to put the pieces together, where they belong! (I know, the tech exists, maybe something for someone to do later!)

So I am wrapping up the history and placing in it storage. Hopefully it will be around in 100 more years. Who knows. I have done about as much as I could with what I have been given.

 

The Peale Center

13 Friday Apr 2018

Posted by in HISTORY, Photography

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The Peale Center, also once Baltimore’s City Hall and Colored School #1 and then a temporary Water Engineer’s office. Then the Municipal Museum and then a vacant…am I missing anything? It has been a lot of things since 1814 and I am really glad it is being restored to a museum. 

View from across the street, at the Municipal Building – where the water engineers are now located. Workers had to move their scaffold out of the way so we could get in.

A walk out back. I think I would have placed this lamp elsewhere instead of in front of the relief.

Another gas lamp.

Back inside to await the history talk. Here is an artist rendition of what the Peale will look like when completed. 

A nice model of the proposed renovations.

Holy H.G. Wells! A freakin’ time machine. Damn, still under construction!

Hum Bug!!

More bugs.

And the real reason for my visit – a talk by Peter Manseau on his book “The Apparitionist”. It was a really good talk. One thing that kind of stuck in my head was when he said, “There are about 50,000 deceased persons on Facebook. Still being visited by family and friends.” It is like a modern day seance in the electronic social media age. People get to see their departed loved ones, just like the photographs taken by 19th century photographers of dead people posing. But Peter’s book goes more into ghost being seen in glass plate images. I can’t wait to read his book…

One Thing Leads to Another

12 Friday Jan 2018

Posted by in Baltimore, HISTORY, Sewage History

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Sometimes the requests I receive for historical information have nothing to do with Water and Sewage. A friend from the Pratt Library and then one from the Baltimore City Archives both sent me request for information on a 1990 article in the Maryland Historical Society Magazine. The article concerned rye whiskey made in Maryland. Accompanying the article was this photograph.

The caption underneath states:  “At Wolfe and Aliceanna streets, about 1910 (Actual 1907), a Phillip Lobe Co. vehicle speeds barrels of Ram’s Horn whiskey to saloons. Photograph courtesy Baltimore Public Works Museum.” The person seeking the information wrote me this: I am a relative of Phillip Lobe and am writing an article about his business for a national bottle collector’s magazine. I would love to use this photo in my article as well as getting a nice, clean version of the photo if possible.
Could you help me with that pursuit?
Sincerely,
Susan Adler Davis
Since the photo came from the DPW Museum, of which I have been documenting, I was able to find a much clearer photograph. On the side of the wagon to the right, Rams Horn, it has written; Lobe and Son W. Pratt Street. The caption in my notes states: SWC 2. Wolf and Aliceanna Sts. showing gutter plates and openings.

While searching for the above, I came across some other photographs that I forgot about. And this is how my mind wanders, from one thing to another!

From the same time period, you can see the obstacles that the water department faced in the installation of mains and drains. Caption in notes for the above: SWC 3. Charles and Saratoga Sts. Obstructions in trench. (Storm Water Contract #3)

Another concern while installing mains was trolleys zipping by: SWC 1. Showing excavation at North and Madison Aves. 

Of course there was always a crowd watching: SWC 3. Saratoga St above Gay showing obstructing pipes and conduit.

More pipes: SWC 2. South St at Pratt showing nest of pipes encountered in SW trench.

There was always the possibility of adjacent homes crashing down on the workers: SW87. Belair Rd extension, N of Hamilton, showing rock condition.

And you also had the placing of wood pipe connections to concrete ones: SWC 2. 62” wooden stave pipe at outlet of Light St drain. (Other marking: Showing barrel construction of outlet).

But one of the bigger problems was when you had to go through someone’s house or business: Reinforced concrete sewers through D.E. Foote Canning Factory, Woolford’s Dock, foot of Castle St.

More pipes to work around: SWC 3. Double 50”x69” storm water drain in Market Place at Baltimore, looking towards outlet.

So my mind wanders more times than not, but it is always fun and a pleasure to research these sort of things! I look forward to reading Ms Davis’ article.

Montebello and the Panama-Pacific Exposition 1915

22 Friday Dec 2017

Posted by in Baltimore, Dams, HISTORY, water history

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Finishing up documenting a Water Board Minutes of Meetings Journal, I came across a couple of interesting tidbits concerning the connection between Baltimore and San Francisco. In 2015 we both celebrated a 100 year anniversary. Them celebrating the 1915 World’s Fair and us the building and opening of the Montebello Filtration Plant. The connection being this – February 11, 1915 It was resolved by the Water Board to send the Filtration and Dam models to the Panama-Pacific Exposition. According to the model itself, it was completed in December, 1914.

Here is a lantern slide copy of the model. If you visited Montebello during our 100th anniversary and took a tour, you would have saw the actual model.

The lighting in the hallway is terrible with all the reflections. It was too dark with the lights out and too reflective with a flash.

Here is the nameplate data on the model.

Along with this one. I did a search for information on this company but could not find much. And something else I could not find is – where is the model of Loch Raven?

Howell’s did a pretty good job replicating the filtration plant.

The plant as it looked in the 1920s.

I don’t know about anybody else, but I’d like to put little people in here…and maybe Godzilla!!

Showing what the waste lake looked like.

And the detail of the outfall structure.

The waste lake dam and outfall structure being built. Notice the date – October 1914. This means that the model was built conceptually, like an artist’s rendition of something before it is there.

Of course, one research item always leads to more.

In 1884 models of the substructures were built and placed in each gatehouse, Loch Raven and Lake Montebello, to give visitors a better understanding as to how each works. (What happened to them?)
February 6, 1893 the Water Board resolved to send a display to the Columbian Exposition. This was 21 years before the Howell Microcosms were built. so what did they send?
November 18, 1935 letter from M.P. McNulty, he has just completed creating a model of the Loch Raven dams and inquires as to the dates the real dams were built. Small replies that the lower dam was built between 1875 and 1881 by Fenton and Jones, Contractor. The upper dam was constructed by King-Ganey starting in 1912 and finished in 1914 and then raised between 1920 to 1922 by Whiting-Turner. Attached to the letter was a newspaper clipping which shows a picture of the model. (This clipping is at the City Archives)
December 31, 1952 letter from William Eichbaum Scale Models informing Hopkins that they will build a new, Montebello Plant model in the existing case for $1,000.00. This was not done.
And for what appears to be a wonderful book – San Francisco’s Jewel City: The Panama-Pacific International Exposition of 1915 by Laura Ackley

 

 

The Permanent Gunpowder Water Supply

05 Tuesday Dec 2017

Posted by in Archives, Baltimore, water history

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Started planning back in 1854. Elevation of 160’ would supply seven-eighths of population (according to contour lines). Supplying others outside that elevation would be a matter of mechanical detail (pumping stations). The need to keep Lake Roland and the Gunpowder as two distinct and separate supplies, as Lake Roland becomes muddied during rainy season (this was why Druid Lake was constructed). It was first suggested to tap the river as far up as the Warren Factory but concurred by a host of engineers that the proper volume of water could not be obtained by damming at any point above Raven’s Rock and most agreed to a point further downstream about where Mr. Martin has located it. The dam will be erected on the Gunpowder river, at a point admirably adapted for the purpose, a short distance above Mine Bank Run, and the lake thus formed, will extend up the river as far as Meredith’s Ford Bridge at the Dulaney Valley Turnpike, where the pump house connected with the ‘Temporary Supply’ is now located…will flow by natural gravity through a twelve foot pipe to a lake at Montebello, between Hillen and Harford roads, located in a natural basin formed by one of the tributaries of Herring Run (Tiffany Run). The lake will have a water area of about eighty acres and a storage capacity of 700,000,000 gallons. The twelve foot pipe (conduit) will continue to a point on the Harford road opposite Homestead, whence pipes will be laid to connect with the city pipe system at North Boundary Ave. and Washington St. Lake Clifton.

A drawing of the Loch Raven Gate House a couple years after completion, for the engineer’s files.

The Gate House and how it looked in the 1920s.

An interior, cut away view.

The influent drain chamber to the yet to be built Gate House.

Looking over the construction of the dam, towards the east wall.

A recent view of the discharge conduit, below the dam. As shown in third photo above.

Another drawing of the Gate House structure. Where it says Vault Record would be facing the road.

Recent photo from the road, after Gate House was removed, showning vaults and valves.

This photo has me baffled. It is showing two 12′ conduits, whereas all the drawings only show one. On the left you can see where the laborers are building the brick lined conduit. On the right, nothing going on. Wondering if it was built in error or was it for a bypass as the dam was being built?

Drawing of the east wall.

1880s photo of building dam, looking east.

Recent photo looking east. Looking close you can see where the stone work stops and cement starts. In the 1970s they put a parallel pipeline in and cut right thru the wall.

This is an early, beginning of construction photo. Stone excavation looking west. Interesting on zooming in – under the roadway guardrail is a tunnel opening that looks like…

…the top left of these drawings. 

The drawing for Shanghai Run.

A 1920s photograph.

A recent photo of the opening to Shanghai Run. Looking over the wall towards the woods, there is no opening??

City workers lounging and the job is almost completed.

 

Jackson C Gott – Architect

28 Tuesday Nov 2017

Posted by in engineering, water history

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I was asked the other day if I knew who the architect of the Clifton Gate House was? I could not find any information after a couple hours of research. Of course, an internet search took me to the Maryland Historical Trust, where it is noted the architect is unknown, so I decided to look through all the Engineers Annual Reports here in my office. I also looked through a lot of drawings.

I found this. Not for the gate house itself, but for the keepers cottage. In very faded print it names the architect for the cottage as Jackson C Gott.

More research revealed a couple interesting photos and prints concerning Gott. He designed two local buildings. The Maryland Penitentiary.

And the Eastern Pumping Station, which I talked about a few weeks ago. Here is a beautiful print I found at the St Croix website.

Below is the Keepers Cottage next to the Clifton Gate House. I do not have time to fix this glass plate negative, unfortunately.

There were two other ramshackle buildings near the gate house, put up by the water engineer to protect the valves, in a pit.

Two drawings of the water mains at the gate house.

Below shows the location of the venturi meter, added later.

Here is the plans for the building. No architect and it comes from the water engineers office. Curran, Martin and Kenly.

With all that said, looking at the three structures: Gate House, Pumping Station and Penitentiary, I would take a long shot guess and say that Jackson C. Gott designed the gate house. Most prints and photos are from the DPW collection except for the recent Pen photo and the EPS print, which is mine.

Eastern Pumping Station aka Food Hub

25 Wednesday Oct 2017

Posted by in Baltimore, engineering, water history

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Went to check on the status of the work being done at the old EPS down on Wolf St. (Not to be confused with the Eastern Avenue Pumping Station). The first thing I see is a new roof on the old Gay St. Yard, which later became City S/R 06 then part of the Transit and Traffic storage yard. 

Below is what the building looked like when it was first built.

This was about 1902. 

Sign on the gate showing what is going on. The gate was opened so I invited myself in. Something I’m not sure of, because I thought the Pumping Station was a Historic Place, why does this banner show it as a flat roof (green)?

The building to the right is what it originally looked like. 

This building was just recently put up. It is called the Food Incubator (Best to go to the Foodhub website for more info on this) I went inside here to find the general contractor to ask permission to roam around. Granted. He told me the City no longer owns these 3-1/2 acres. They were bought. And soon to be rented out. The new roof, as shown in the first photo is only to help protect the property. It will be up to others to fix the buildings.

The pumping station ready to be rented out. Someone actually went thru and cleaned the inside of these buildings. I was here in 2014 and it was a mess.

Hallway up to the 2nd floor.

A room with a view.

Heading towards the next building…

Last time I was here, I was able to go up and down this spiral staircase.

Last night’s rain splattering on the floor.

These shots are all of the old maintenance shop. They made valves and hydrants here.

The maintenance shop, in middle, and the storage yard. P.S. to left. 

I think this sign should have been at the front gate?!

I believe this was the workmen’s bath house. It is completely gutted now.

This is the rear of the first building with the new roof. Steps inside are shot, so I took the scaffold up.

Nice new roof. 

Headed across the yard to one of the shops/carriage houses. The blacksmith shop had burnt down a few times.

Here is what the above building use to look like.

Hard hat area.

Looking from stables back towards main buildings.

Random engineering craziness!

This was from the Food Hub’s brochure. When I was in front of the building, this was all grown over. Although the date says 1890 my notes tell me that this Pumping Station was completed in 1891.

If you send me your email, I will send you a brief word document covering the history of these buildings.

200th Blog

20 Friday Oct 2017

Posted by in water history, Writing

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My WordPress Dashboard tells me that this is my 200th blog post. So, since my blog is called Water and Me, maybe I should write something about water? Trying to think of something profound or water history worthy! I know – Don’t Drink The Water!!!

In 2006 I started writing about water history, doing research and then eventually writing a small book, mostly on one of the water tunnels that supplies water to the Montebello Filters. Here is the Lantern Slide I saved from the dumpster, that started it all:

This is what I had to say about it in my book: “While working with one of the lantern slides, I noticed something odd, that in a tunnel, where workers were excavating, there were train tracks that came to a dead end under what looked like a giant boulder. This particular slide came from a box from around 1938, so I asked Richard if he had any information on an event of that year that was of interest. Sure enough, he showed me the Annual Report covering the year 1938 where it was reported that an explosion had occurred in the building of the Gunpowder Falls Montebello Tunnel. This notation in the report was only about a half a paragraph long, nothing more than a blurb, so I decided to investigate it further.” And I have been investigating water history ever since. Ten men were killed in this explosion and it was just a blurb in a report!

After years of refining my skills at research, I came across so much more information on this explosion. It is amazing what you can find these days on the internet. I found this photo and purchased it from the Baltimore Sun.

It shows the ten dead African American miners being hauled out. My research has taken me to draw the conclusion that this was no accident. That because of the Union troubles going on back then (Fighting between Unions for membership), this was a case of murder.

Sometimes historical research is not pleasant. Just as much as present day research can be unsettling. Like my comment above to not drink the water. I don’t drink it because of the research I have done concerning the fluoridation of the water system. But, I will save that for another post…