JHolland:
Thank you fr posting the photos of the old bridge crane and then following up with more photos of what Cyclops manufactured. In the last set of photos, a steam driven ammonia refrigeration compressor is shown. It utilizes a steam engine with Corliss valves and valve gear, which was fairly standard practice amongst builders of steam driven refrigeration compressors for many years.
Apparently, Cyclops was a firm that produced a diverse range of products. When I saw the bridge crane photos, I initially figured Cyclops was some combination of iron foundry, structural steel fabrication shop, and machine shop. The steam driven ammonia compressor put Cyclops into another league from the type of work needed to build bridge cranes.
My guess is the bridge crane was hand-powered, as a lot of the smaller bridge cranes, particularly in powerplants were. The thinking was that powerplant bridge cranes might see only infrequent use for overhaul or repair work in plants which otherwise ran 24/7. I worked in a few smaller powerplants which still had the hand operated bridge cranes. These were OK if the weather and ambient temperatures were cooler. In the heat of summer, opening a 10 megawatt steam turbine for inspection with a hand operated bridge crane was a miserable job.That was a good 40 years ago, and the millwrights on the job were pulling on the chains of that old bridge crane in relays. We asked one of the plant operators why the management (it was a small municipal powerplant) had stuck with the hand operated crane. The answers are not printable here.
My first experience with a hand operated bridge crane was in the foundry at Brooklyn Technical High School. It was a very light capacity Whiting bridge crane and we moved various foundry equipment and a big ladle with it. Of course, as kids of 14, being introduced to real industrial machinery, we thought of working that bridge crane as something of a lark. Years later, we had a Whiting 10 ton hand operated bridge crane in one smaller hydro plant, dating to 1915. We used it to erect three new vertical hydro units of 1 megawatt each. Heaving on the chains to raise and lower the main load got old, so we hung an electric hoist off the hook of the main load block. That left heaving on the chains to move the trolley and bridge, which was not all that bad. The hydro turbine work started at the bottom of flumes which were about 35 feet deep, so heaving on the chains to raise or lower the main load block 35 feet (plus whatever additional height above the floor and other machinery) got real old real fast. The electric hoist was probably a "Coffing" or similar, and it made a world of difference.
We've come a long way with bridge cranes. When I started my career, bridge cranes generally had an operator's cab if they were powered. Some had a set of "pull ropes" so a man on the floor could run them. The cranes with the pull ropes had quite a few ropes to move the main bridge, trolley, and hoists. A skilled man running one of those types of cranes would almost run along with the pull ropes when he had the bridge travelling at full speed. I used to liken it to a man driving a few teams of horses, and a good man on one of those cranes never had to look at the tags labelling the function of each pull rope. We had some of the older bridge cranes in the smaller hydro plants with the old "trolley car" controllers for the various motors, and even a foot-operated gong like an old trolley (tram to our European and UK brethren). All of those old bridge cranes were initially upgraded with pendant controllers, enabling them to be run from down on the floor. Later, the old cranes were retrofitted with radio controls, and the operators walk around with what we call a "belly box"- a control box on a belt with little joysticks like a radio controlled model airplane might have. Quite a long way from the old hand operated bridge cranes, for sure.
There were a number of firms around the USA who built steam driven ammonia refrigeration compressors. Some got into what seemed to be similar types of machine work.
Like Cyclops, most have vanished and no trace of their buildings remains in the cities they once were located in. This thread causes me to think of the firm of deLaVergne. Originally, they had a large plant right in Manhattan (New York City). They started out making steam driven ammonia compressors and whole refrigeration systems for breweries, ice plants, and similar refrigerated buildings. At some point, they got into the building of "oil engines", and I believe it was on the Hornsby design from England. I am not sure when deLaVerge closed their shops in Manhattan, and believe they were, for a time, located in Poughkeepsie, NY. Eventually, Baldwin Locomotive Works took over the diesel engine portion of the business, and the name ceased to exist. Up until recently, in an abandoned meat packing plant near East St. Louis, Illinois, there was a large deLaVerge steam driven ammonia compressor standing derelict. It is probably long gone to the scrappers.
There were so many shops like Cyclops around the USA, and now, almost no trace and very little formal record of them remains. Each of those types of shops had an engineering department, a drafting department, and a "plan vault"- a fireproof room in which the drawings were kept. Shops of this type also often had a separate fireproof building in which the wood foundry patterns were stored. Large numbers of men and boys made up the workforces in these shops and supported their families.
Now and then, a building from these types of businesses survives, but is usually converted to some other use, with "loft housing" or upscale apartments or office space being the norm. One such building that survives from the era when we had so many engine and machinery builders is the old Meitz and Weiss engine factory in Manhattan. Meitz and Weiss built a variety of hot bulb engines, and did it in a factory building in what may be "Little Italy" in Manhattan. I doubt if anyone in or around that building has a clue as to what once was going on in that building. Cyclops Iron Works, being in San Francisco, is now in the high rent district, and if any fragment of their plant still stands, it is probably in much the same usage as the old Meitz and Weiss engine factory.
Even Oakland, California- the former industrial city across the bay from San Francisco- is now being "gentrified". Old industrial buildings and old residential properties are now being modernized and converted, with high property prices and high rents to match.