#97196 Ink on Drawing cloth . Coal wheel for Pittsburgh H. C. Frick Co.
Collaged with period photo from the mill & professionally Framed
Frame Dimensions 20 x 28"
Cloth Drawing Dimensions 15 x 24"
This is the detail drawing for the wheel on the mine car that Lorain Steel of Johnstown, Pa. (later U.S. Steel) built for the The H. C. Frick Co. It is a work of art. When drawing with ink on cloth there is not much room for error. The original integrity of the drawing is intact from October 12, 1921 . It is complimented with a period mill photo and professionally framed.
The drawings I use in my artwork are all original drawings that I purchased from the shuttered US Steel plant in Johnstown, Pa. This drawing was recovered from the drawing fire vault located in the 1800s steel mill that eventually became U.S. Steel, Johnstown Works. U.S.S. sold the Johnstown plant in 1984. It operated until @ 2018 when the HQ building was demolished with most of the mill.
That plant was the captive "Job Shop" that produced thousands of railcars , machines, and castings for other US Steel plants and third-party customers around the world.
The process from design to metal fabrication is illustrated in the photos here.
These drawings are some of the last remnants of Big Steel that raised American families, built America, and remind us why Pittsburgh’s football team is called STEELERS!
Over the years, I salvaged a large inventory of mill drawings from my customers at U.S. Steel and Bethlehem Steel. We had both mills here in Johnstown.
Along with the Drawings, I collected original photos of the plant and its products, and employees, plant documents and catalogs of the machines and rail cars they build. I also took my own photos of the plants before and during demolition.
Dr. Zaborowski with the Digital Public Library of America has lent her time and expertise to digitize much of the drawings and ephemera for posterity. So, if you like further connection to these works, visit: https://digitalarchives.powerlibrary.org/papd/islandora/object/papd%3Aacacc-jsic
In its' heyday, USS Johnstown Works employed @1700 workers. The engineers designed and drew the plans along with a pool of draftsmen. They melted iron ore, converted it to steel, shaped it, rolled it. Expert carpenters made precise wood patterns for the foundry pieces they poured. Then skilled steelworkers fabricated and assembled machines, industrial railroad and minecars. They shipped the final products to sister US Steel plants and third-party customers in Pittsburgh, nationally and worldwide.
When the jobs went overseas, they left their clothes, gear, old spice and girly calendars in their lockers and walked away from their family sustaining jobs. I have attached photos that roughly parallels the sequence of events that these drawing subjects followed. Some I shot & some are vintage commercial photos that I purchased . I spent 16 years servicing the mills and mines as a Westinghouse representative. The last 4 photos are me in my time on the job and later salvaging remnants of my customers as they faded into rustbelt brownfields.
These are remnants of Big Steel that raised many a family and remind us why the Pittsburgh football team is called STEELERS!
United States Steel Corporation, more commonly known as U.S. Steel, is an American integrated steel producer headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with production operations primarily in the United States of America and in Central Europe. The company produces and sells steel products, including flat-rolled and tubular products for customers in industries across automotive, construction, consumer, electrical, industrial equipment, distribution, and energy. Operations also include iron ore and coke production facilities.[2]
Once the largest steel producer and largest corporation in the world, (after the Mafia re: The Godfather Part II) It was the eighth-largest steel producer in the world in 2008. By 2022, the company was the world's 24th-largest steel producer and the second-largest in the United States behind Nucor Corporation. Though renamed USX Corporation in 1986, the company was renamed United States Steel in 2001 after spinning off its energy business, including Marathon Oil, and other assets, from its core steel concern.
Pending regulatory and shareholder approval, US Steel is set to be acquired by Nippon Steel, Japan's largest steel producing company, for US $14.1 billion. The deal, announced in mid-December 2023, retains US Steel's name and headquarters in Pittsburgh.
