Saw a museum display of a 1902 cupola furnace and the brickwork was still perfect

I was at the industrial history museum in Pittsburgh last month and they have a whole section on early steel. The cupola furnace from the old Jones and Laughlin works is just sitting there, and you can get right up to it. The firebrick lining looked like it was laid yesterday, not a single crack or sag after all that heat and time. Makes you think about the guys who built it with just trowels and levels. What's the oldest piece of kit you've seen still holding up on a job?

4 comments

4 Comments

rivershah1mo ago

Can't believe that firebrick held up over a hundred years with zero cracks or sagging.

sandrah692mo ago

Yeah, that old firebrick is something else. My grandad worked maintenance at a paper mill, and he always said the secret was in the mortar mix and letting each course cure slow. They didn't have the fancy gear, just took their time. I've seen some original cast iron pipe from the 40s that's outlasted all the PVC replacements because they overbuilt everything back then. Makes you wonder what from our time will still be sitting there in a hundred years.

avery_nelson2mo ago

Ever see that with old chimney flues? The lime mortar they used seems to last forever compared to modern stuff.

avery_nelson1mo ago

Man, that's the thing - we're so obsessed with cheap and fast now that nothing's built to last past the warranty. Wonder if any of our modern concrete slabs will even be standing in 50 years, let alone a century.