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| Georgetown Steam Plant, July 2019 (from Google® Maps) |
Early in 2026, some Seattle-area film photographers posted an invitation on the Photrio forum to meet at the Georgetown Steam Plant. That was a nice idea to meet other photographers from the Puget Sound area.
The Seattle Electric Company built the Georgetown Steam Plant in 1906-1907 to provide electricity for the city's electric streetcar system and for the interurban trolley. The plant was built near the Duwamish Waterway in the Georgetown area of Seattle.
The Steam Plant is a National Historic Landmark, a National Mechanical Engineering Landmark, and a City of Seattle Landmark. According to the GEORGETOWN STEAM PLANT Community Development Authority (CDA), "We use SHTEAM (Science, History, Technology, Engineering, Art, Math) to inspire the Community to envision and create a future where we all belong, and this historic building generates Community Power." HistoryLink has a detailed history.
Six or seven of us wandered around in the fascinating setting of pipes, machines, valves, ladders, and catwalks. It was like time travel to another era. My friends had a variety of cameras, mostly medium format. I used Kodak Tri-X 400 film in my Hasselblad 501CM camera with 40mm, 50mm, and 80mm lenses. My compact Linhof ProfiPort tripod supported the camera for all interior exposures. The light was directional from high distant windows, so all my exposures were in the ½ to 2 second range.
The mid-level catwalk may be the best way to get a sense of the scale of the machinery and piping.
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| One of two vertical Curtis steam turbines (40mm ƒ/4 Distagon lens) |
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| Near the base of the Curtis turbine (40mm ƒ/4 Distagon lens) |
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| Access gantry |
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| Boilers (40mm ƒ/4 Distagon lens) |
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| Steam piping. Is that asbestos sheathing? |
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| Steam piping with access ports (80mm ƒ/2.8 Planar-CB lens) |
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| Classic precision gauges (80mm ƒ/2.8 Planar-CB lens) |
6 comments:
Looks like a fun place to visit.
I assume it ran on coal, so a mixed blessing for the immediate neighbors.
What do. you suppose the dynamite was. used for?
The plant ran on oil for nine years, and then changed to coal. Coal use ended in the 1940s, and the boilers reverted to oil. Dynamite: unknown.
It was so interesting to view these photographs. I even looked up some of the terms you used about lens and camera and learned a little. I have always appreciated the way you capture industrial scenes. This would be a fascinating place to visit, but I don't see my being in Seattle any time in the near future! Still, I just got lost in looking at all the details. My thought on the dynamite storage was "why are those holes drilled into the door if there is dynamite in there?" Like an attempted dynamite heist?
Thank you! The holes in the safe were almost surely because the combination had been lost and a locksmith had to drill the mechanism. This certainly is an interesting place for people who like industrial machinery and 20th century technology.
I queried the DuckDuckGo AI and got the following which quoted Wikipedia:
"The most likely use was controlled blasting during maintenance of the coal-fired boilers.
Georgetown originally burned oil but was converted to coal in 1917. Coal combustion produced hard deposits of fused ash—called clinkers or slag—that could bridge furnace throats, clog ash hoppers, and stick to boiler surfaces. Before modern cleaning equipment, workers sometimes used small explosive charges, including dynamite, to break those deposits loose during shutdowns. Explosives have also been used in power plants to clear ash silos, chutes, and other fuel-handling equipment. Wikipedia
Fused ash, clinkers - very interesting. American cities in the 1900 era had huge disposal problems with clinkers. Much of Boston's Back Bay was filled with clinkers. That is why, when people in the 1973 oil crisis said we should return to using coal for home heating, it was an impossible proposal.
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