Exploring Boston's Ancient Power Plant - 120 Year Old Control Room!
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- čas přidán 30. 10. 2023
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In this episode we're exploring one of the most incredible abandoned industrial sites in America - Boston's L Street Generating Station. The plant dates back to 1898 and was a central part of the Boston Edison system for over a century. Inside we find some of the most opulent architecture we've ever seen inside of a power plant, as well as an incredibly epic control room.
The music used during the location introduction was made by our friend @JamesonNathanJones
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Now a senior citizen, I was able to witness some of these ancient devices (in operation) when still a young man. The USA, and indeed the whole world, continues to go to great lengths to keep the lights on and the subways running. Thanks for your courage and great camerawork that brings back memories of days long gone. All of these devices were built to demonstrate technical prowess, serve the customers and of course, to make money. It goes without saying, but what this video must omit, is the dozens of technical operators who manned those switchboards and communicated and laughed as their days passed. In your video, it is commented, paraphrasing, if you get your hands between this and that, you are dead. Yes, we all knew that, it was survival of the fittest. Many of us suffered tremendous electric shocks and lived to tell about it. They used to say, if you get a big shock, the next day, you will feel great. It happened to me, I can vouch for the truth of it, but would not care to repeat the experience.
today us-americans are known in the european states for having warnings in thier microwave manual ...not to put a guniea-pig for drying... well, in these days, they where a lot more intelligent PRE-1968 people... The hippies and leftist (teachers, univers.) dumbed most of the western societies down... IMAGINE (you will know that) EVERYTHING seen of tech. here was build WITHOUT a dumb computer! SKILL! pure skill and wisdom. Nothing you find today. Neither for architecual works.
Well, as a watchmaker I have the right to be oldfashioned... (born in 1989 xD ) but it's more the style than to be "oldfashioned"
Thank you so much for sharing your experience! I so often wonder what it would have been like working in places like this.
As my grandpa still says to this day in regards to being electrocuted by things that big, "It's a once in a lifetime experience best kept to being a once in a lifetime experience" followed by his dry worn out laugh.
Just an FYI...Logbooks at power stations were legal documents. They were written in ink for each shift and the operator in that "spot" was responsible for documenting activities at the specific location. Tampering with those logs was an offence usually accompanied by dismissal! I worked at a NY metro area power station for 7 years, the site was closed in 2008 because it burned coal. The plant was built in 1948 and supplied grid power daily for 60 yrs. I loved my job there and cried when it closed!
It just amazes me how much detail went into building the old power plants and how quickly they built them. Like the turbine halls are tiled floor to ceiling, the trim along the control panels etc. Todays power stations are just concrete and cladded steel beams. yet it takes far longer to build and the cost to build them is so great, they don't add any artistic touches.
Today, all the government "red tape" slows down construction to a crawl.
Is it not all the safety precautions that make the process longer? curious
modern power plants have more tech in them. but yeah amazing how fast they did it back then
Labor protections?!?!? Who needs 'em!
In all seriousness, labor was cheap, materials were plentiful. Building costs more today because it's generally a better finished product (bigger, stronger, faster) and we have a lot more labor protections. The US could have modern policy that makes things like housing cheaper, but that's a policy thing not a market thing.
@@aerosma5021 That and getting tons of permits and inspection certificates!
As someone from Massachusetts who studies the current energy transition and loves industrial history, I cannot thank you enough for sharing this with us. Great work.
Seeing some of the fixtures that will be lost...bummed thinking about what could be salvaged. I REALLY hope they let a salvage crew in to save....anything old and neat.
This kind of stuff is so cool, especially how the older areas were decorated. Also, 'current'... I'll see myself out.
@@JoeTheGreat Our building is up the street from this - former Navy machine shop, built in 43. We have one of the original cranes, no. 4. If you wanna see how it used to look, look up South Boston Naval Annex, Building 53. The other 3 cranes are still in use by the fishery and auto shop we share a building with. Those two share a maintenance department, and while waiting on an oil change some years ago, one of those guys told me that when they were painting the cranes, they encountered WWII era graffiti on one of them. Didn't have the heart to paint over it.
As far as original building elements over here... the original substation is intact, albeit bypassed through modern equipment. There are a handful of original fixtures, and the original freight elevator was turned into an office - with the elevator button panel used as the room's light switch. Neat stuff.
Oh, and an old, VERY loud, single tone raid/drill siren. We joked briefly about using it as an alarm on the can line, but that thing is.... way loud for anything indoors. Still have it, though. Much of the building has been modernized but there are little remnants here and there.
Sad Obiden is shutting these places down. We need to vote these crazy folks out of office.
This place should be preserved as a museum. It is a piece of art.
Thanks for the video!!!
About 2/3 of it is already torn down. Rest of it will be down in the next month or two im guessing.
I think it's becoming an MLS stadium
No, it needs to be demolished and repurposed.
The maintenance costs would be high and Visitor numbers/admission fees would not cover it.
It would be just another burden on the tax payer.
@@AzureStarline What's an MLS stadium?
@@AzureStarline What's an MLS stadium?
One of the only CZcamsrs that actually stick to what they're good. Haven't veered off trying to get us to believe in ghosts or demons. Pure exploration content 👌🏼
They did have a short-lived ghost series, but true for the most part. Love this channel.
lol like that dumbass exploring with josh
@@willypthree922yeah it was called bumps in the night or something. I liked it
I think they realize theyre too good for that, and i also have a feeling both are skeptics. I've seen them on occasion use some of these so called ' ghost tools' and they totally dont buy into it, as they should lol. Mosr abandoned channels may start getting into the paranormal stuff because they get more views out of it, or..if either they start to lose views and subs, but like i said i think they are TOO good at what they do to sink that low. Some have been subbed to them for 10 years, like me, atleast i think its been 10 yrs already lol, and i don't think they have ever lost the views or subs cuz they have been putting out quality almost from the very beginning. Thats why i've stayed for so long. Another reason is they don't try to be obnoxious like most other channels.
Yeah I liked it too. They said nothing ever happened so they stopped doing it.
In my opinion, you guys are as much artists and journalists as videographers. Thank you so much for showing us this AMAZING window into America's industrial, architectural, mechanical and electrical past. Absolutely loved this exploration. Also... thanks for just exploring and explaining...no "click bait" about ghosts, hauntings, etc. Two thumbs up guys.
They are also becoming curators of the 19th and 20th century industrial revolution. I think over the last five or so years they have begun to realize their station in life. In the beginning, going places you know are forbidden is cool, right? But, then you realize preserving history has become a calling.
If you enjoyed doing this one, you would love going through the old nuclear plant at Hanford, WA. It is frozen in time, from the secretive 1940's operations that built the weapons that ended WW2. They left the scientists offices exactly the same.
You can see Heisenberg's desk with all his notes, memos & instruments still there on top. You also get to see a great deal of the whole cleanup operation, plus cooling tanks turned into fish hatcheries & other repurposed places. I interviewed there and got to tour the old town. There was still a few buildings and streets. The old school was still there too. But that was a few years ago and I'm not sure what is still up. Oh and the Hanford Reach is gorgeous! Lots of deer, ducks & other wildlife. It is all a standing memorial to how dangerously intelligent our species is.🙏🏼😔
like this so they see it!! please!
WA is awesome secretly for places like these. There is also Satsop nuclear plant that was decommissioned, you can see the parts of the old stacks and some parts from inside, but it is no longer abandoned, so lots of new security hang around.
@@breannathompson9094 wow, i wish my country had abandoned stuff i could explore
@@breannathompson9094Satsop was never finished. They never installed any generating equipment and never got the reactors built.
I’d love to see Hanford, because my grandmother worked there.
I retired from G.E. Power, so this brings back lots of memories roaming around power plants. Those old plants with the tiled walls are pretty cool, huh?
That's cool, what job did you do at G.E.
Cathedrals of energy. Back when technology was still magical.
As a steam freak and a former Performance Engineer with an electric utility; thank you for a very informative and enjoyable tour of this amazing facility. You all did a great job, it is an amazing facility. The Georgetown Plant in Seattle and Battersea in London are probably the closest to this in terms of age and amazing design and architecture. These early plants were "cathedrals of power", and the general public was even allowed to tour them way back then.
@15:18 the steam engine was a vacuum pump to pull a vacuum on the condenser during startup. The pressure at the exhaust end of the steam turbine and in the condenser was close to 0 PSI; the vacuum pump was needed to lower the condenser pressure down so the steam would flow through the turbine to the condenser; otherwise, it would not work correctly. The vertical cylinder is the steam engine, I believe, the three horizontal cylinders are the vacuum pumps.
@44:31 in the 1960s, the electric utilities began building units with the boilers and even turbines in some cases outdoors to save on construction costs; the first one was built in Houston, TX (sadly since demolished.) The walls were built around it so the general public did not have to see the naked boilers. With the exception of a couple of older plants built back in the 1930s; the power plants I supported in SE Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas and Mississippi had outdoor boilers; although most did have indoor turbine halls.
One thing I'm not entirely sure on this but I do know that in some cases but not sure if back that far there would be needed to be a source of DC oftentimes DC was needed not only for control but also providing power to excite other equipment my guess would be some system will be there somewhere to provide DC for the station at one point it was actually more difficult to get DC power from AC.
Sometimes this would be a motor generator or other systems and or mechanical rectifiers which is goes a bit beyond what is easy enough to explain in comments.
But there's something rather interesting that I've seen in person this was below my old high school.
No one really knows what this was but some people have their suspicions that it was something that well most people are not supposed to know about.
But whatever was going on there it required a copious amounts of DC power.
Some people thought that had something to do with the old tram system AKA trolley line.
However all of the voltages were wrong.
Plus that had been discontinued many years ago.
This equipment was still being maintained and it was a mix of the old and new to keep the old working.
Also this was the first time I've ever seen a working work your artwork rectifier in person at least the big ones.
There was at least 20 different voltages.
Most seemed non-standard!
Is the interesting thing is they called where all this was a catacombs at least that's what it was known in the area what's the witch didn't even realize there's anything down there other than the school basement.
Interesting thing to wear doors that opened from the wrong side could not be open for me inside the building.
As well as there was some type of rail system very Narrow Gauge clearly Electric.
Cargo probably more than likely.
Sometimes the lights would flick right different times was down there with some people and they were saying about that time the power would be flickering keep an eye on the equipment.
A lot of stuff would come on online when this was happening.
Several people who did complain about flickering lights like a heavy load in the area at the same time so something was up.
Also huge Banks of batteries.
We know that there was some civil defense related stuff but this just takes the cake.
There were stories of people just shouldn't be there just not a lot or even coming from a door that did not open from inside like I mentioned.
But Blended in well enough that no one noticed unless you know what was going on.
It's interesting that there was what looked like a light communication gear colored lenses and such and shutters in some areas where you wouldn't expect.
That little league underground power distribution and DC conversion station really makes you think.
Doesn't really seem like a bunker sort of thing it seems more like something else but I know that there was a bunker in the area of eons ago but it might have been connected with this as well slight chance of this.
I was told there was access to some sort of Bunker through the building as well but I don't think it's the same passageways.
One of those doors did go to a catwalk system it never ventured that way it was a bit scary Heights I was okay with the ones on stage for those not so much!
In addition to the Mercurial converters what appeared to be motor generators and from what I could gather from some of the information about this was wide open in considering the last of his life front Supreme something authorized personnel only just signs saying danger high voltage and keep clear and indicating that the equivalent of livefront notifications.
Although if we heard anyone coming whichever once in a while there would be we might see one of those rail cars come through being pulled by something we would just take cover since no one knows really was going on down there.
Also some sort of pumping station my guess was dewatering tunnels as well as Banks of huge blowers that was probably just keeping air flowing in ventilation..
And in the area there were some things that seemed like air vents that would just go into concrete that didn't exactly stick out like a sore thumb.
And there's one area where I know it was between two sections of the grid and things just went underground from both sides but never seem to go anywhere and I'm thinking that was where this was fed from.
One never knows what goes on in plain sight this is not conspiracy theory people are still trying to figure this out from what I understand
Did you work for GSU?
Yes,!later Entergy
@@survivingworldsteam Grew up in S.E, Texas. GSU was a great company. Too bad they built that Nuclear plant.
@@jollyjohnthepirate3168 nuclear power and their cost overruns did in many a electric utility in that era. But I enjoyed my time working there.
41:38 That Mitsubishi CRT television is one of the largest models ever produced. Very rare.
those are pretty sick. mid 80s, 40 inch?
Worked in SB for 17 years and drove by here a thousand times and wondered. Now I know. What a treat, thank you
It really shows how in ~100 years time, how we have went from wonderful works of art to simplistic structures, from fashionable to being only about function. One, and many, can hope that the developer keeps their word of making this beautiful power station into a more modern work of art while retaining the former beauty. One expensive project for sure, but would be worth it in the end.
Most of modern power infrastructure is not densely populated with workers any more. You just have rooms with equipment humming away 95% of the time. Back in the day a plant like that was like a town busy with people. What a difference a century makes.
Thanks for visually preserving history
Its great that they are planning to repurpose the building, preserve some of the old to show the public. Better than watching it decay into nothing. Least now all those who drive and jog by will get to see and appreciate this building from the inside. This is how recycling should be. Would be great to have you guys tour this building once its complete.
In the begging of electrification, the technology was new, magic, mysterious and marvelous. The builders and owners wanted to demonstrate this and built these ornate plants to show off the new technology. It was probably amazing to work there in the hey day.
I worked there in 2007-2008 overseeing a crew emptying the place of combustibles before they locked it down.
I spent 13 months there and was literally one of the last people to walk out of it before it locked up for good.
Such great memories I got from your video. I wandered those buildings in awe that year.
I have one of those log books in my attic from 1910 I kept as a souvenir. Rumor had it the Smithsonian wanted that last turbine but didn’t want to pay for the demobilizing and transportation costs. Sad to see an American Relic left to rot.
That white and green tile was exquisite and I’m glad to hear they want you to turn it into something relevant.
Thanks for doing your video. I have a lot of pictures from that place and now a video to go with them.
Your work is appreciated 👌🏻.
Glad to see your comments, Shane. I was there at that time as well.
Scanning the book and making it available online in pictures would be cool
Got home from work and can sit down and enjoy this video. You have to have time and calmness as some are quite long..
In the late 1970s, at the electric utility I worked for in Duluth MN, we still had 60 Hz to 25 Hz frequency converters in operation to supply power to: grain elevators, downtown building elevators and pumps and the city's water pumping station. The switches were mounted on the surface of marble slabs standing up on end.
That's where I live. I have always wondered what the inside of the power station that is on Superior St. looks like as well as the steam plant.
i got a tour of that place when i was in elementry school 40 years ago. I grew up in east boston
I could almost see all of the hands and the tools and the equipment used to build that place. I like thinking about that aspect of significant old places like these.
You can almost hear the roar that must have been heard by everyone who worked inside there. Imagine the expertise that they all would have possessed back in that time.
I appreciate the architecture, the detail they accomplished and took pride in creating. I'm not sure why exactly, but I've always been fascinated by lighting and fixtures. They say so much!
Thank you for preserving another excellent record for history.
I have to applaud you guys for documenting places like these for future generations to explore with you/learn about since most anyone wants to do anymore is tear down these beautiful historical structures and leave them empty plots for decades. Sure some are too far gone to save but quite a few do not have to end on a low note.
What an amazing plant! Glad they are saving some of it so the history isn't completely lost. Thanks as always for bringing this piece of history to us.
That building is beautiful!! The brick, tile work, lights, switches, floors, control panels, arches, big windows, and even the old machinery was done beautifully!!! Such a gem of a building.
I love seeing industrial heritage like this, i am from the UK but early 20th century design echoes across the Atlantic. Even if only a part of this building survives its a triumph that these buildings are starting to be valued again. Inter war buildings across the UK are being torn down at an alarming rate, difficult to heat 100 years old and full of asbestos, people don't want to be bothered but they are a snap shot of an incredible moment of our social and industrial history. The wonderful handwriting in the log book is copper-plate. Looks just like my grandmas handwriting and she was born in 1922 and schooled in the 30s.
You would think with its historic significance, this building should be preserved, being the piece of history it is.
Boston should turn that place into an Electrical Museum. What works of beauty and art!!
Are you a lady with stunningly long hair? I adore those ladies who grow theirs that way, describe it please?
@danielobrien1571 bro you're down bad horrendous 💀
The company redeveloping it has a website, Hilco Redevelopment Partners. Just search that with L Street Station. They're just going to turn it into modern mixed use space, sadly. They're doing the entire area around it, I think. And the station will stick out like a sore thumb from the pictures.
🤣@@danielobrien1571
Or a homless shelter 😮💨
As a life long Masshole/suburban Bostonian it's cool to see you guys did a video around here. If I'm remembering correctly you guy's have done at least 1 other place in MA. Lot of cool old places all around New England.
Funny I was just binge-watching old PP vids when this came up....WOO HOO!
Amazing guys just amazing, thank you for sharing.
It is so amazing the detail they used to put into the old machinery, switches, etc. Everything was built to last forever and be beautiful.
Fantastic guys! Being a past Bostonian, this was extra special to watch! Thank you for all your amazing work! 😊
Such a beautiful place, part of history and it is sad that they want to demolished it 😢 today's world have no respect to history or historical places like this.
I'm from the suburbs of Boston originally. The government of that city is a cesspool of communist ideologues. Historical revisionism runs amok. There is no regard to anything but pushing forward the agenda.
Exactly. You'd think that Boston out of all the places, would fight to keep history alive. Go figure.
@@VitoVecciaIt's the whole state of Massachusetts. My ancestors slaughtered redcoats on bunker hill over very minimal taxes. Now look at the place...
Are you a lady with stunningly long hair? I adore those ladies that grow theirs that way, describe it please?
Not demolished. It's being redeveloped into mixed use. Look up Hilco Redevelopment Partners L Street Station.
What an incredible building. With the right renovations, it would make a great art gallery!!! So very hope they do reuse.
You've given us history, captured on video what is now gone. I've lived by these temples of our technological history for over 40 years. When they were living and breathing you could tell the current demand by how many smoke stacks were steaming (There used to be 4 stacks then replaced by the 2 modern ones).
Now vanished.
But my dream to be inside came true thanks to you. Wow ! Takes one breath away such industrial design. Brilliant. Thank you.
It is truly amazing how folks of a time gone by actually took pride in their work with the design and layout of the power plant. The detail with the tiles, marbling, light fixtures etc are truly beautiful and a marvel of inspiration!
Google maps street view still offers a little bit of what the outside perspective looked like on this plant, taken back in November of 2022. And even then it was already under a form of piecemeal demolition. 😢
Such a magnificent building too. Should have been restored to its former, if non-operating, glory.
Keep it up Proper People! Keep it up, and help preserve all the wondrous architecture that the past had much better taste in!😎👍
I'm from Schenectady NY, I get excited everytime you find a GE part made in Schenectady :) my grandparents all worked in those factories!
What a neat place.! My mom still writes fancy that way. She took a caligraphy class when she was young and she still writes like that to this day.
Schools used to teach penmanship. They don't even bother to teach the kids to write or read cursive writing now.
So awesome. My father grew up down the street and worked there as an apprentice
I was able to see L Street in operation in the early 1990s as a Boston Edison subcontractor, pretty cool seeing those turbines in action.
Been watching them since 2017, they’ve inspired me to explore some really cool locations. Proper people are hands down the best urbex CZcamsrs, they actually care about the history and background of every place they visit. It’s not often anymore you see content that is interesting and straight to the point with the full history and story, like they have done.
Welcome to Massachusetts, where they literally just lock the doors on a building they don’t use anymore and completely forget about it. Rarely do they scrap anything.
Old industrial sites make me feel so sad for some reason. I suppose it's just the reminder of the passing of time. I think of all the life and energy put into those places. Even the company names on gauges, levers, and other equipment - those were entire companies dedicated to the industry which supported employment and manufacturing in small cities across the states. I see the admin sites and think of the office conversations, newspapers being unfolded on break, people celebrating together, crying over loved ones lost in war, and more. Of course, everything was hazed in smoke from all the cigarettes. Thanks for the beautiful filming/documenting of these places. I love the way it helps bring me into what it must have been like.
Wow, it's amazing how crap the modern building is compared to the old. Thank you guy's for these amazing vids.
Love the way you guys recorded the sounds of your walking about this humongous power plant. Your footsteps tell the story of how desolately abandoned this place is. Awesome video! One could so easily get lost in this maze of hallways, stairways and rooms. Your choice of music could not be more appropriate to the setting here! Can you imagine the complexity of maintaining all this equipment!
That control console at the start with the 30's vintage vacuum tubes would be the perfect addition to my mad scientist lair!
I just love the level of research you do on these, rather than just pure exploration. Also great to hear they are preserving the better part of the building.
Love your power plant episodes, so interesting. I'm the person who always wonders what's up inside these old buildings. Grateful you guys show us! Thanks for another great episode.
These colossal industrial building explorations are absolutely my favorite episodes, great work guys in discovering these places and going out to them for us to view.
Been binge watching older episodes and I was pleasantly surprised to see this new upload. Cool to see you guys are still at it! It's incredible to see some of this old stuff still somewhat intact. I hope the individual pieces like control panels are sent to museums or given or sold, or otherwise put in good hands instead of just destroyed.
Holy schnikes. I used to not care for the powerhouse videos but your enthusiasm for them is contagious. Now I pee myself with excitement (just a little) every time I see you've uploaded one. This is already my new favorite.
That plaque at 5:30 - I work at the facility where that was made. Some of the machines used to produce it may still be in use today.
This building would make for a fantastic set for some sick industrial horror movie. Plenty of halls and stairs to run from the perpetrators.
It would be amazing if they restored the control room and made it available for viewing! I am fascinated by old power plants thanks to TPP :) Many thank yous to them as always for sharing!
I work for the company who built that facility and worked in there from time to time when the substation, frequency changer, and New Boston (the 1960's units) were operating.
Your name really fits, no breaking and entering where there are clearly measures to keep people out, no fear of getting caught (which I can only assume is because there is no reason you could be held liable), and no deviation from the content you have always made!
They were truly temples back in the day, so much better than the ‘functional’ building we have today!
16:22 it's a debris shiel;d, if the top were to blow out, it would help keep pieces of metal from flying out and injurying people and components
That fuse box! What a great piece of art. Tile and huge windows to die for.
Watching you walk through this old plant I could almost picture how awesome of a museum it could be. Boston Museum of Power and Technology. It would fit in well with the Boston Science Museum which I loved as a kid.
Especially if things like the switch boards had a section turned into interactive displays, low voltage so it's safe of course. I would have loved throwing switches and watching gauges move as a kid. Along with video and audio explanations of what everything did.
Smaller, or full size, versions of the large steam turbine kids could walk in like a plastic playscape with moving parts they can manipulate to demonstrate how it all works. A turbine in a clear acrylic tube turned with an electric motor, a smoke generator to show steam flow, valves and buttons to turn it on and off, speed it up and slow it down a cut away generator that turns and some gauges and lights that dim and get brighter simulating power increasing and decreasing. Right next to the original. all with video and audio to explain what things are and how they work.
Testing lab with gadgets and measuring devices to play with. Restore the phones and communication equipment like those dials from the control room to working condition. Kids could play with those with other kids in other sections to learn a bit on how communication has changed from times before cell phones. Spaces in between can be filled with other technology displays showing progression of time from including future concepts. Like battery tech, Power generation, Motors, Communication. Even the original safety signs and tags could show the history of lock out tag out and teach the importance of work place safety and how dangerous early tech and industrial jobs were.
Then of course restaurants, gift shops, vendor space for arts and gadgets. in what ever space is left over. Could be a really cool place for school field trips and family trips if done right.
Without question, this has to be one your most outstanding videos ever.
Thanks as always for using the tunes guys :)
I drove past this place for many years. Always wanted to.see.inside. Thanks for this.
I’ve driven past that place a thousand times. Never even thought about it. Wow !
Thank u so much guys. This was amazing to see. Some of us would have never seen this if it weren’t for you keep doing what you do.
Thank you guys for having the balls to do what I wish I had the balls to do. You’ve explored so many cool places, and this one is a welcome addition to those explorations. Cool stuff.
The amount of knowledge and experience that passed through that room is irreplaceable imo. I’m not sure we could start from scratch like they had to. The style of the machines and buildings are amazing on top of everything else.
My dad worked as a carpenter at a house across the street from that plant back in 1978.
Let's give these guys some likes. They've earned them.
CZcams Notification “proper people’ &
‘abandoned power plant’
My 2 most favourite notifications!
Me too.❤
At 36:43 that long panel is an "annunciator board" to give a graphic visual of state or condition of the device being monitored. ie, water level low, pressure high etc
Absolutely beautiful industrial style. One of my favourite aesthetics, the detail in this building is gorgeous and that control room hits everything I love about industrial design. Wow.
I like all your videos, but those old power plants are my absolute favorite
Appreciate the comprehensiveness because most likely it has never been documented on video like that
It's unbelievable how much sophisticated artistry they incorporated into these purely functional buildings.
What a great building and contents. I love seeing these old power plants from 100+ years ago. Thanks for an excellent tour.
You guys rock! Gotta check out park city Utah! Cool old silver mine rock processing building up there to explore and shaft building!
I've been in a few historic things myself courtesy of the tours.
This is kind of along the lines of this since steam power was involved!
That and electrical power derived from Steam.
If anyone's ever heard of the world's largest steam hoist somewhere in the United States.
This is one of the places I went to many many years ago when I was much younger.
Absolutely fascinating if you ever have a chance to go.
And also another interesting place I still want to go back and do the behind the scenes tour is Biltmore Estates.
Originally would have been powered by DC dynamos and battery power when the dynamos were not being run.
This place was designed in such a way that if when AC power became available system could be switched over to run from AC and DC being generated locally from the AC power coming in it was meant to be future-proofed even back in the day.
And there were items that would still need DC power even when the AC became available.
Such as large Motors much more in addition.
If I remember correctly some of the DC was used to charge smaller batteries for some of the other systems that Grand on low voltage.
Although there were some the systems that are operated by what cell batteries probably something along the lines of gravity battery or otherwise something that would actually be a liberal battery jar.
I actually have preserved a couple batteries I found at a place that had some old systems where to get this system up and working although doing other functions that used to but they like the look of it and thought it become nice to repurpose.
Essentially kind of a control that annunciator setup.
There's all kinds of interesting gizmos and gadgets from the Antiquity most of which were of course long unused.
Oliver since remnants there it was easy enough to repurpose.
This included an old electric gas ignition system for the original gaslights.
Did they even have the old what they called pear pushes in the bedrooms operational or could be gotten back to use courtesy of modern parts but using the original wiring.
Is rather interesting how the cabling was run essentially it was kind of look like horseshoe shaped pieces of wood or wood cleats for the low voltage almost like a low voltage version of tubing knob wiring almost but not quite more like open wearing on cleats.
There was also a primitive fire alarm system in this place and Ashley was still operational apparently it has been updated with modern or at least more modern heat sensors and no clue as to what originally was the Sounder it had been retrofitted to a later system that had a large Mercury battery in some sort of sound or annunciator but I know those things made it real racket at literally Wake the Dead but then again it was a fire alarm so I had an alarm system.
Who are the people I used to know when I was younger.
They had this huge place at one time it was also split up and then back to a single residence.
They had the same sort of system probably the same vintage indoor manufacturer.
That is the one that had been cobbled into the original at the other place for sort of an update.
Essentially how this one worked is that all the sensors they are on a Bakelite base some were painted red the housings metal few events at one end in the top cover.
What does basically was was a large heat sink as thermal Mass.
Coupled with a bymetallic thermal switch.
Don't remember what the temperature rating was.
The sensors themselves were wired in parallel no zoning or anything.
The wiring him out at the Shelf in the upstairs hallway where is the original Mercury battery would have been a huge one.
And the Sounder itself more than likely there was a switch of some sort the silence system if need be.
And I was told that the system did actually still work and it had gone off a few times for some odd reason.
And since this thing was obnoxious and also obsolete you know it still served its purpose originally.
The wiring for this was repurposed.
More than once.
In one of the bathroom cabinets in all the bathrooms.
And a volume control / switch as well nothing commercial made but DIY.
And yes this has to do with the conversion of the system to something else.
Originally they were using this to pipe audio through the whole place.
Then the next thing was it was used as landline telephones extensions.
Although the person that had done this didn't realize even though he had mentioned this that the sensors for the short the two wires if they went off rendering the phone system useless but then again you might need it back then you may not have been able to get to another phones and cell phones didn't exist not too many pay phones in the area either and other factors.
Gods of the old sensors and needles to say after bringing it up got the rest of them and yes did one of using them for some projects rather interesting devices.
Even use them in some homemade devices is overheat indication.
Had one in my brother large dummy load for DC.
In a couple of scratch built power supplies from Salvage components that ran rather hot but then again output control was essentially heating coils a big fat rheostat.
One of which even used the fan out of a old heater as the cooling fans another one uses a scrapped in salvaged bathroom exhaust fan for this
Thank you Brian and Michael for your posting this video on this power plant back in the day when power plants first came on line for the birth of electricity 👍
I did part of my apprenticeship in the power utility's transformer maintenance workshop, really interesting shop. we had one of those transformer faraday cages, the top opened up like a crab pot so you could lift the transformers in with the gantry crane. you did NOT want to be inside that cage when it was energised. its quite possible to fill the inside of the cage with very large angry arcs. have to test to worst case scenario... had huge resistive loads, a big motor with a brake, a similar switchboard to set up your test configuration. all looked late 40's, except for a few data loggers and modern test hardware wedged in amongst the bakelite. lock the cage and apply power, run your test. In our setup, the one key was captive to the main switch and the cage door. you needed to move the key from the door to the switch to turn on power inside the cage.
I've taken myself on a tour of the old Fremantle power station, very cool vibe to that building, very art deco and stylish. similarly it was a bit of a vanity piece for the city, so quite lavish. the turbine hall has become an unofficial art gallery for big works of graffiti. haven't been there for a long while, but there is something about the vast power potential of a turbine hall...
Thank you for capturing such beautifully constructed architecture! It’s pretty awesome that they’re going to keep some of the history in place!
Great video guys. Wish I had known you would have been around and in my neck of the woods. When you stated the book entries from 1921 were 99 years old... Did you film this 2 years ago and just upload it today? Much of this site has changed in the last 2 years.
Awesome thank you!
Weston made some beautiful instruments and meters. The architecture is outstanding, they built buildings so nicely back in those days, Cast iron railings, light fixtures, tiles in the all the rooms. Lots of glass, arched windows, even the overhead crane ways were a works of art. Logs books are really cool to find. Nicely done boys, thanks for the tour.
its cool that you guys showed off some of my city's (Schenectady, NY) exports. we made some of the finest machines and GE was a major game changer to our town.
Places like this made America great. Thank you for documenting it.
"STEAM AND GAS ENGINE CLUBS" ARE IN TO HISTORIC EQUIPMENT THAT YOU LOOKING AT. These pieces of historical power plant equipment would being BIG MONEY at Antique Auction. These marble swicth boards and generators bring up a $1,000 each. This equipment needs to be rescued. There is about 100 Steam and Gas Engine historical societyies clubs east of the Mississippi River that would like get there hands on that equipmenet like that and me. "IT NEEDS TO BE RESCUED" to be put into Steam and Gas Engine Power MUSEUMS.......
Back when things were built to last and time to obsolesence was measured in decades. At the papermill where I work we have control systems that are 1 year old and already they're obsolete and we can't get parts for them. Meanwhile our hydro plant with 1912 to 1917 GE/Westinghouse generators and circuits works just fine right down to the leather belt governors that control flow to the hydro wheels. Cool video, thanks much.
Awesome video as always The Proper People. This was such a epic and amazing place it sad to see so many beautiful place full of history lost to time thanks for all y'all do to video them before there torn down.
i wish the company's that own these places could be convinced to allow people to take 3d scans and close up photos of historical equipment for documentation before scrapping at the least. :(
Money hungry land developers are truly a bane on antique architecture
This development group is doing way more right than any other similar project I've seen. Too many (basically all) of similar stature and potential have just been demolished without a trace left behind.
@@TheProperPeople that's great news to hear! These places should really be kept around. Make the building safe, and preserve it. Nobody does this kind of construction anymore. Once it's gone, it's only memories and pictures that keep it around.
Very happy to! hear the oldest portion will be used. Really interesting video. Thanks for all the research!
Power plants from this era are things of unbelievable beauty.
One thing to be very careful about in places like that is large high voltage capacitors that do NOT have their two output terminals shorted together like they are supposed to when not in use. Without a short across their terminals to keep them at 0volts they slowly charge up just from energy in the air and then can zap an unsuspecting person who gets too close. At the energies involved they can kill someone instantly, or, in extreme cases, blow your appendages apart by making water inside you boil and turn to gas in an instant. Large high voltage capacitors can be very nasty, especially because they can be dangerous even when the power hasn't been on in decades. Basically they are lightning in a bottle.
That's a myth. Stray voltage on capacitors leak into the air, not the other way around. Now, there are some exceptions. For example, wind across the surfaces of plate capacitors can build up a charge. But it doesn't look like there was a whole lot of wind here.
These old power houses are works of art, its sad what the country has become 😔
Sad Obiden is shutting these places down. We need to vote these crazy folks out of office.
@@jaysmith179 💯
@@jaysmith179what the hell does Biden have to do with closing old contaminated buildings? I’ll wager money a local committee was the sole decider. And based on the age, and the clear signs of abatement containment I imagine the building is terribly contaminated with lead and asbestos.
@@jaysmith179 this place was decommissioned when George Bush was in office, but sure, continue to blame Biden for everything 😂
This is the Best power plant I have ever seen. Ya hit the jack pot. I'm so happy Ya were able to explore the place.
I will never for that control room. So huge. I love the fact ya could tell us what things was, I really enjoy and have to watch again. I know I have miss a lot the first time.
Thanks for the tour Michael and Brian! 😮 That place is so cool! Happy holidays to you and your loved ones! 😎🤘❤️🎄🧑🎄
the state of pristine preservation is remarkable, normally when a power station shuts down, it's usually because it's poorly maintenanced to the point of having to build a new one elsewhere, why did it shut down? it clearly could've just been upgraded to remain operational
That real estate near the water is just too valuable to have a power plant there. Consolidated Edison in NYC removed generation capacity from high-value areas and relocated it into less desirable places by increasing the power concentration in existing plants through technical upgrades. The land at the vacated locations was sold for billions of dollars.
Love these old power plants. Heres an Eerie thought most of the people in those documents yall were looking at are dead.
That's such a beautiful place, I love how much more ornate we used to be. The musical nuances were really apt, great video sirs.
Thank you once again for this!. Exploring, specially power plants are my favorite episodes to watch, and explore my self also. The main reason why I started follow your channel @theproperpeople a couple of years ago, keep them coming! Cant wait for the next power plant/ industrial explore from you guys!