March 2010 – This Apparatus Must Be Unearthed

Dear Mr Supercomputer

Post author:Concrete
Post published:March 31, 2010
Post category:Industrial Rochester
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A return to Sykes Datatronics, a relic of that alternate reality where the Genesee valley was the cradle of the computer age. They did give us the floppy disk, the automated answering machine (press 4 for more information), and some of the first database software. And a big abandoned factory near the soccer stadium. Now that's a relic: original Macintosh, still in its box One of the weirdest things about this place is its floors. Despite being a solid concrete structure, the wood floors warped into crazy ridges up to two feet taller than the building. Squish. Say dirty. (Programmers...)…

…and Steel

Post author:Concrete
Post published:March 21, 2010
Post category:Industrial Niagara
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After leaving Flintkote, we went downtown to one of a few abandoned steel plants in Lockport. Parking wasn't so easy to find, with the one garage abandoned, the streets were parked up. This particular steel mill had sections of Quonset hut and prefab building, clearly newer than the rest of the complex. Interestingly, their business was sheet metal, so maybe they used their own product to create their factory. If you seal a building with 12 foot fences, close the gate so people can't do what we just did! Now that's a dirty window! The rest of the photos here.

Flint…

Post author:Concrete
Post published:March 21, 2010
Post category:Industrial Niagara
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A return to Lockport, without the snow this time, to see the place we saw the first time, with the water tower. After doing some research on it, we discovered that it is the FlintKote factory, which at one time made asbestos roofing and tiles. Which mostly explains why it's abandoned now, and thoroughly surrounded on (only) three sides by a barbed wire fence and big orange hazmat signs. After making a poison ivy-infested path through the unfenced woods, we climb through a stone window onto the assembly line Reinforced floors for giant, missing machinery The heating or power plant…

Red, White and Grue

Post author:Concrete
Post published:March 6, 2010
Post category:Rochester Underground
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Playing with flashlights in a local drain... in the rain. T3h 5p1d0rz! Might not look like it, but these things are alive. The drains of Rochester were built in 1888-1890 by Emil Küchling, later to become the first professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Rochester. His developments in rational scatology included enclosed brick sewers like this one, which has been abandoned since 1974. However, you can still hear the roar of torrents of excrement a few feet away in the side tunnels. Until you think about what is flowing, it looks and sounds like a peaceful, wild waterfall!…