It has gotten to the point that any steel mill that is still in business is worth noting.
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| Rick Rupert posted Here is Williamsport Wire Rope Company plant as it was in 1923, many of these buildings are still here today and part of Wirerope Works Inc. Gene Romanowski: Bethlehem Steel owned it for a number of years. |
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| Gerry Meyle Sr. posted Mahanoy Plane Rope Wire Shipment by the Williamsport Wire Rope Company. Reading Railroad Magazine, September, 1928. James Torgeson shared |
This is the only building I could find that has the architecture of the buildings in the engraving. And it is owned by Jasper Steel Fabrication, Inc. But I would expect a viable company to have replaced many of their buildings since 1924.
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| 3D Satellite |
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| Rick Rupert posted Williamsport Wirerope, Bethlehem Wirerope, Williamsport Wirerope Works, Wirerope Works Inc., basically in continuous operation since 1889. |
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| Rick Rupert posted The former Bethlehem Wirerope Division, about 1969, Williamsport, Pa., now Wirerope Works Inc. Wiremill is lower left and the massive 600,000 square foot ropemill at upper right, entire complex is 44 acres. Duane Hertel: Went for an interview at the Wire mill in Tonawanda. While I was waiting I noticed that everyone who worked there was missing fingers some multiple missing fingers .I got up and left I'm a Guitar player I need all of my fingers! Rick Rupert: Duane Hertel Ouch!, yes quite a few missing and fractured fingers mainly due to getting pinched between the wire and the drawing block, then there was the guy in the ropemill who tried to stop his rotary strander by sticking his arm in, fortunately just a broken arm! Jon Marantz: Worked at a scrap yard in Niagara Falls, NY. We used to get huge wooden spools (markedBethlehem) of very heavy wire rope from the NYS Power Authority. It was used to hold an ice boom together at the end of Lake Erie at mouth of the Niagara River. I was set out each winter to keep the ice out of the hydro electric plant intakes. It was constantly being changed out. Had to be torched into 3’ lengths too soft for a shear. Had to be very careful not to set the spools on fire during processing. Thinking the rope was at least 4” in diameter! Rick Rupert: Jon Marantz We can make up to 7" rope! James Torgeson: Served by both the Penn Central and Reading at that time, IIRC. Rick Rupert: James Torgeson Yes, most of incoming rod and finished rope was by train, ropemill still has tracks inside for the high tonnage reels of rope. |
Rick Rupert posted two photos with the comment: "Here is our new replacement reelstand at Wirerope Works Inc, it can hold up to a 70 ton reel of wire strand of the type used on suspension bridges, behind it is the stranding machine, it is 320' feet long and can hold 72 bobbins of wire up to 1500 lbs per bobbin, capable of making up to 5" or more of strand, machine and original Krupp reelstand were installed in 1968."
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| Rick commented on his post Here is a picture of the original Freid Krupp take up reel stands that were on both our wirerope closer and wire strander machines, one retired in 2010 and other in 2022. |
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| Comments on Rick's post https://www.unionrope.com/company/history |
The Reading Railroad went right by the plant, but the Pennsylvania also had an industrial spur that served the plant. According to a USGS map, today's remaining railroad tracks are owned by Lycoming Valley.
The industrial spur that goes along the north side of the plant is still viable because a scrap yard has a cut of four gondolas.
They list several other applications of wire rope such as structural strand.
In addition to traditional structures such as suspension bridges, other structures now use cables such as cable suspended roofs.
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| 1965 Williamsport Quad @ 24,000 |
The industrial spur that goes along the north side of the plant is still viable because a scrap yard has a cut of four gondolas.
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| Satellite |
I wonder if a dragline uses some of the longer wire ropes that are made.
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| WireRopeWorks |
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| WireRopeWorks_mining, p35 |
They list several other applications of wire rope such as structural strand.
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| WireRopeWorks |
In addition to traditional structures such as suspension bridges, other structures now use cables such as cable suspended roofs.
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| WireRopeWorks_structures, p8 |
Given the height of modern skyscrapers, elevator ropes probably get rather long.
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| WireRopeWorks |
Rick Rupert posted two photos with the comment: "Huge 5 1/2" diameter wirerope closed on the the largest rope closing machine in the world, 188' feet long, fully loaded weighs 520 tons including payoff and take up reelstands, can make rope up to 7" in diameter."
Carl Pangia: Why closed?
Rick Rupert: Closing is a term in the industry when individual lengths of rope are twisted into a larger rope, we have been in almost continuous operation since 1889!
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Rick Rupert posted three photos with the comment: "Here is an old school 250 VDC load center and the decommissioned mercury arc dc rectifiers that fed it with 6000 amps of DC, the load center is still in use but is fed by solid state power rectifiers now."
Dennis Shannon: Ya baby the old WW11 decommissioned navy ship parts were common back in the day. Walk on the backside of the slate and scratch your head.
Rick Rupert: Dennis Shannon We used hydraulic steering and rudder units for machines for take up stands and capstans.
Joseph P Logue: The mercury arc were also used on main drives in the old days. They were water cooled.
Rick Rupert: Joseph P Logue We had 4 big wire draw machines that used AC motor driven DC generators to supply the machine's DC motors and thyratron tube controls to vary the field voltage to change the speed, all replaced with thyristor DC drives in 1991.
Mike Duman: That reminds me of the wire mill in Johnstown used to be Bethlehem wire now Liberty wire.
Rick Rupert: Mike Duman This is the former Bethlehem Wirerope Division plant in Williamsport now Wirerope Works Inc.
Paul Baran: Pretty sweet! We have a few 250v DC machines running where I'm at, even 25hz Ac power! Them mercury rectifiers are something cool to see! I've seen YouTube videos of a guy powering em up,Pretty cool!
Rick Rupert: Paul Baran These were used up to late seventies, each can has about 5 lbs of mercury in it.
Clyde Tippy: looks like what I used in the mill.
Rick Rupert: The DC loads center feeds about 28 Vaughn wire drawing machines, each with 3-6 DC motors as well as DC cranes and hoists.
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