SUBJECTS of INTEREST
BILL EASTER
Steelworks
I find iron and steelworks, and blast furnaces in particular, to be the most extraordinary almost alien-like structures. It never ceases to amaze me that we, such tiny human beings, can construct such vast, complex and powerful machines. And around them all the ancilliary machinery and plants that are needed to feed the furnace with ore, cokes, oxygen and astonishing amounts of energy. Railway tracks run across the terrain and our view is filled with giant conveyors, chutes, ducting and pipework moving stuff back and forth. And, for all the men and women that are employed at these sites houses, public and social services appear, catering for the everyday needs of the folk that travel to work there every day. Entire communities and over many, many years...
1 a dramatic sky, the Tata plant in the distance and a white dog in the dunes - an extraordinary moment at IJmuiden 2 at left the vast oxysteel plant at IJmuiden, blast furnaces to the right 3 highlanders relax in the dunes while blast furnaces lurk behind the dyke 4 the complex structure of the blast furnace caught against a stormy sky 5 torpedo wagons take the molten metal from one of the two blast furnaces at IJmuiden to the oxysteel plant 6 a maze of zig-zagging conveyor belts and enormous ducts carry coal, cokes, hot air and exhaust gases back and forth 7 part of the harbour and cokes plant caught just before sunset
1 the former 'NedStaal' plant crouches behind a dyke at Alblasserdam 2 the grime and dirt of the 'NedStaal' sheds seen from across the Noord waterway 3 the complete NedStaal factory seen from the road bridge over the waterway 4 the former Carsid cokes factory at Charleroi during demolition sometime in 2015 5 more zig-zagging conveyor belts over this desolate road in Charleroi with sheds in the distance 6 a panoramic shot of the same spot with blast furnace at left 7 workers houses lie close to the Tata plant at Port Talbot 8 a semi-derelict site with the Port Talbot blast furnaces in the distance 9 the sheer mass and heft of an old Bessemer converter at the Kelham Island Museum in Sheffield