Climbing a chimney

[allmark]

These are pictures from the Tehaus mine in upstae NY. My friend wanted to climb up to the top and check it out. It is a furnace used in late 1800 to early 1900 to melt iron ore from rock. The stone is all dry laid.I climbed the outside and repelled down the chiney to set a rope so he could ascend. His first climbing experience.

 

[allmark]

This is him on the way up theinside of the chimney

 

[allmark]

This is the top.

 

[allmark]

All that steel was forged.Its amazing how precise they were with tools of the day. I wonder how they got those pieces up there. Ropes and pulleys??

 

[charlieb]

Awesome!
How tall was it?
How long did it take to climb? Had to set chocks or anchors?
What was it made of?--any idea?

 

[flying_kiwiman]

talking about chimney's.... a mate of mine from N.Z. sent me this pic the other day... looks like fun!!

 

[glens]

I wonder if they used a conventional felling cut or maybe went with the Humboldt?

 

[allmark]

The chimney is 60' according to info we found.Its made with steel and wrought iron made in a puddling furnace in 1800s. The rest is charcoal and bricks made at local kilns at the time. In the 1840s it was at peak with400 menworking to extract 50 tonsof material to make 14 tons of iron daily. This was later sold to National lead co where they discovered titanium which was used during WWII for paint. The whole plant was shut down in 1990 and buildings are presently being torn down.

Here is a pic showing how they built it.

 

[allmark]

This is when it was completed

 

[Rupe]

HAve you guyrs heard of Fred Dibnah? He used to fell chimneys in the seventies using a felling cut.

He'd remove bricks from one side, replacing them wooden supports until he had a felling cut shaped hole.

Then set fire to the lot and run for it.

 

[Rupe]

He used to have an old bicycle horn as a warning signal.

http://www.vanl.freeserve.co.uk/audio/itsgoin.wav

 

[allmark]

Thats cool...even as it falls it functions as a chimney..

Hopefully that wont happen in tehawas since the property was recently purchaced by the Open Space Initiative.