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The piles were moved revealing a scrap gon that is being unloaded. Good to see CN and Neenah Foundry ironed out their differences and are working together again.
The Perran Foundry and Wharf stand on the level valley floor at the navigable limit of an inlet leading to the River Fal. The foundry was one of the three largest in Cornwall and is considered one of the most important surviving industrial monuments of its period in southern Britain.
Perran Foundry was established by the Fox family in 1791, trading under the name Foxes and Perran Foundry Co, and between 1858 and 1879 under the name Williams & Perran Foundry Co after the Williams family became major shareholders. It manufactured a wide range of mining implements and steam engines. During this period a complex of leats, foundry buildings, stores, facilities for transport and other services, offices and worker's houses was developed. By 1860, the works covered six acres and employed 400 men. It continued in operation until a decline in the fortunes of the local mining industry forced it to close in 1879. The machinery and patterns were auctioned in 1882.
This site is due for redevelopment
Established in 1873 by Samuel Knight to construct and maintain the heavy machinery necessary for mining and timber in Gold Country, Knight's Foundry is the last foundry and machine shop powered by water. He developed an early water-powered turbine, using a nozzle that shot water off-center from the collecting cups so as to allow some of the kinetic energy from the splashing water to be converted to work, that is turning the heavy machinery that were necessary for the shops. By the 1890s the foundry was quite successful, among other things creating the very Knight Wheels that ran the company, some of which ran the first hydroelectric plants in the nation.
In 1883, Lester Pelton's competing wheel beat Knight's wheel in a competition, eventually becoming the industry standard. Samuel Knight soldiered on, creating other equipment, including the Knight Dredger Pumps used to dredge up silt on the Pacific seaboard. Knight died in 1913, and gave the property to his employees, who ran it as a machine shop for producing specialty parts (much of the work at the foundry remained run by hand). Among other things, the Foundry produced the iron work for the California State Capitol.
The last owner-employee passed in 1970 and the property went to a former customer, who ran the place until 1996, when his retirement and an economic downtown finally closed the plant. The foundry ran as a museum for a brief period, but finally shut down over high liability costs. It was reopened in 2016 as a museum.
The foundry has three large lathes that were originally powered by the Knights Wheels and Pelton Wheels but now just run on motors. Craftsman use the lathes with saws and planes to design a pattern, which is then placed in a casting flask.
Sutter Creek, California
Documentation sur l'industrie minière, la sidérurgie et les utilisations de l'acier compilée par l'artiste, 2008
Taken during a tour (partly for Members of Anthony Powell Society) of Whitechapel Bell Foundry, London on 5 December 2009. A history of the foundry can be found here.