Day 108: At Least They Point Up

2026-05-25

Hello! It's a federal holiday in the US which means I get the day off. I was helping with a class on community development at my school (hence the article yesterday written after a long week of classes) and now I'm just relaxing. I might even go for a walk later.

We're still looking at photographs from the art market. It was really cool, because now I get to talk more about the factory!

They had a tour going on, and someone explained how it used to work and its function in the current day. As usual, I didn't retain all the information, but I remember one fun bit.

They had a steam engine, and while it's not the exact same model as the historical factory used to have, it's similar enough for their purposes. Every bit is lubricated with oil, and it hooks up to belts and wheels to power different things.

When the steam engine was first built and used, the exhaust (hot, hot steam and water particles) would be fired out not through one of these chimneys pictured, but to the side. Out, not up. And the exhaust just so happened to be at eye level.

If you walked by at the exact wrong time, you would be blasted by hot steam in your eyes. They've fixed it now, I think.

While the replacement steam engine still serves functional purpose (they had staff working on clay on that day), the factory also doubles as a museum and archive site to show the history of the local area and how this claymaking district helped to enrich it.

Personally, I just liked the guy giving the engine full beans and letting it run out of enough pressure before safely leaving to show us upstairs. Yes, there's an upstairs. A topic for tomorrow, I hope.

Cheers,
David