Two weeks ago there was an article in our local paper that they were going to move all of their printing to another city. It appears that the 39 year old equipment here is in serious need of an overhaul and would cost millions to being up to date. So a newspaper in a larger city will now print our newspaper for us.
Unfortunately this has also meant that there are 20 people without jobs in our community. I hate to see that happen, as I see it happen too often as our clients start outsourcing their engineering work instead of keeping it local... but that is a whole other topic. This one here is about splorin.
So when I read the article, one of my first thoughts was, "I want to see this thing and take pictures." Not only to feed my own curiosity but I also like to think that my pictures preserve a bit of history.
For a few days I rattled my brain trying to think of ways to get into a place that is pretty much open 24 hours a day and sneak into the printing area and take pictures. I was pretty well stumped. Then one evening while talking with my dad he asked if I had read the article, I affirmed that I had and shared my desire to go inside and take pictures but not knowing how. He reached for his phone and made a phone call. Bam. I had my in.
(Note: I am not mentioning much about the history of the paper and such, because I am unsure if Frank should have allowed this. I will say that it is one of the oldest papers in Texas, and was established in the mid 1800s, shortly after Texas declared itself Texas.) Sweet! A friend of my dad's provided a service to the newspaper for years and is friends with the guy who was in charge of maintenance on this machine. Next day I get a phone call asking when would be a good time for me to come by. Freakin sweet. I was pretty jazzed.
I had visions in my head of what I might find, but I did my best to not set myself up for disappointment with expectations.
I was however, not disappointed. When we got there I was introduced to "Frank" (not his real name) Frank walked us back through a warehouse, to a short flight of stairs that was topped off by a closed door, that was once painted a vibrant orange, but has faded over the years. Upon the door was taped a sign that had been simply printed on a desktop printer, laminated and affixed to the door with tape, I quickly grabbed my phone, as it was the most readily available camera at the time and snapped a quick picture:
Door by
Road Extx, on Flickr
What was in front of us now were more stairs, one set directly in front of us led down to a dark space, Frank said that is where the paper rolls were loaded into the machines. The other set of stairs led up and to the left. The air was very cool here, I imagine that the machines put off a lot of heat so there had to be massive air conditioners to keep up with the heat.
The other thing that struck me was the smells, there was the common and familiar smell of newspaper, but this was overlayed with the smell of dust, and ink, and some of my favorite smells that go along with machinery like this, oil and grease. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. Before I opened my eyes I heard the light switches click on, what was in front of me was a true mechanical behemoth.
I could not keep myself from saying "Oh wow". What was before me was a room that was probably 80-90 feet long, 30 feet wide, and perhaps 30 feet tall. Every inch of it was taken up by this machine. Did they set the machine and build the building around it? Ad this is my first fail moment of this. I did not get a picture of this view.
I suck.
Frank visited with us a bit, enough to know that the machine was 39 years old, and he had worked there for 30 years keeping it running and that it is to be sold and removed. I swear I could hear the sadness in his voice on that part.
I'll get to posting pictures now. Sorry, I got a little wordy. I'll get picture-y now. Note that I did not edit these much, pretty much straight out of the camera, other than a little cropping and straightening.
This first pic is between two segments of the machine. The paper is still strung up from the floor below where it feeds to the top and then through a series of rollers through the actual segments that print on the paper. The blue sections on the left and right are areas that apply the ink. Obviously the one on the left applies red ink.
1.
Machine by
Road Extx, on Flickr
2.
Ink Roller by
Road Extx, on Flickr
3.
Roller by
Road Extx, on Flickr
4.
Roller by
Road Extx, on Flickr
5.
Buttons by
Road Extx, on Flickr
6.
Machine by
Road Extx, on Flickr
7.
Ink by
Road Extx, on Flickr
8.
Counter by
Road Extx, on Flickr
9.
Guage by
Road Extx, on Flickr
10.
Dial by
Road Extx, on Flickr
11.
Paper Feed by
Road Extx, on Flickr
In another room there were more machines, this is where the papers were folded, bundled had inserts, inserted and were sent to the trucks down what looked like a fun slide, but when I asked was told there were bars installed to just allow papers bundles to pass and nothing bigger.
There were two of these set ups
12.
Inserter by
Road Extx, on Flickr
13.
Thing by
Road Extx, on Flickr
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Warning by
Road Extx, on Flickr
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Work by
Road Extx, on Flickr
16. Dab
Dab by
Road Extx, on Flickr
17.
Slide by
Road Extx, on Flickr
That dark space down the stairs is next. Frank left us after a few minutes to get back to work and told us to go where ever we wanted to, just not to push any buttons and to be sure to turn off the lights. Thank you Frank.
18. These little trolleys held a roll of paper and allowed people to push them from the ware house to the machine.
Paper Trolly by
Road Extx, on Flickr
19.
Paper by
Road Extx, on Flickr
20.
Sign by
Road Extx, on Flickr
21. Behind these buckets were large tanks that contained the inks. I assume that people could fill a bucket and take it to the areas to ink the rollers.
Ink by
Road Extx, on Flickr
I have more photos, I'll work on going through and uploading some more if anyone wants to see them. I only had about an hour as my escort had to be somewhere, I seriously could have spent hours in this place photographing every inch of these machines. Just glad I got to see them.
Does this even fall under Urban Exploring?