Molten steel! It takes teamwork and trust to successfully pour molten steel out of an extremely heavy ingot into a small mold. The recipe for molten steel is iron ore and scrap metal, mixed and heated to 2,900 degrees.
This is one of the last pours of molten steel that will come out of this ingot. This 107 year old facility, see “Made in America” here, is closing and moving to a brand new facility in Wahoo, Nebraska, about 40 miles west of the current site. The new plant is already up and running, so I felt very fortunate to have the opportunity to capture some last images before this plant is gone forever.
While the molten steel in the ingot is 2,900 degrees, the building wasn’t as hot as I expected, not like the blast furnaces in the giant steel mills I’ve visited. I couldn’t help but think that most of the metal in these old buildings would be cremated as part of another recipe of cast steel at the new facility. Hmmm, the ultimate in recycling.
Thought for the Day: Industry is the soul of business and the keystone of prosperity. Charles Dickens
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