National Museum of Industrial History, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania
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- Опубликовано: 8 сен 2024
- While on our recent roadtrip through Pennsylvania, we visited the site of Bethlehem Steel Co. in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. There you'll find the National Museum of Industrial History. This museum is a wonderful place to visit and learn about our nations industrial history and see all of the beautifully restored machines they have on display. It's located in the Bethlehem Steel Electrical Shop and has many early metal working machines, pumping engines and other industrial machines on display. We had a great time there and would recommend it to anyone to pay a visit.
#museum #industrial #industrialhistorymuseum #abom79 #bethlehemsteel
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I worked in the main machine shop at Bethlehem Steel's Lackawanna plant from 1966 to 1973. I remember turning down one of those herringbone gears that you stood next to in the video to make a shaft for one of the mills. My time there was quite an experience.
Nicholson files ......"never a dull moment!"
Half of my family worked for Bethlehem Steel. I’m a truck driver and I used to haul loads in and out of there for years and you just can’t appreciate how big this place was when it was operating. It had its own fire department, bus company, airport, hospital, and railroad, all contained within the property.
Most have no idea that it was a "city" within itself.
Geez, they apparently would have fainted if they had ever stepped into the real "STEEL"!
Little known fact, Bethlehem Steel had a plant at Sparrows Point outside of Baltimore. It was, at one time, the largest Steel mill in the world. It even had a ship yard and built Liberty ships during WWII.
A lot of steel went by rail to Sparrows Point for ship building, Especially structural and plate. I loaded tons and tons of it in the rail cars.
Bethlehem also had a mill on the southern coast of Lake Michigan in Indiana. They sold out to another firm overnight. They screwed everyone out of there pensions and benefits. Many people near retirement just retired and retired for long time suddenly had no retirement income. My grandfather retired after 42 years, 2.5 months after retirement he had to go back to work. He took a job back at the mill, after lots of lies and bull his first check he found out they decided to pay him 1/5th of his last hourly pay rate.
What is the most amazing is that the older the machine the more beautiful it is. Like the designs and art they actually cast into the machines.
This drill press at 8:54! The pin striping takes it to a whole new level
I find it very sad that ALL the industrial might has gone to China and all you have left is museums. I live in the UK and we are the same.
It's way worse than just sad, it's terrifying. Good luck winning ww3!
I work in heavy manufacturing, and you'd be surprised how much is tucked away in industrial parks all over the country. There are still foundries and forges and things being machined and assembled in every city. A lot of it lef for sure and we definitely need to get some shipyards cranked back up, but a lot is coming back, too.
A lot of the major steel mills in the U.S. have also had business taken away by domestic, so called "mini-mills" (EAFs) here in the U.S.
Well the American worker wants too much money,look at what's going on with the big 3...$50 a hour for unskilled labor ???...it's a joke
Where'd ya hear that? The stuff we have built in the last 10 years eclipses our entire industrial revolution
Back in the 60’s and 70’s you couldn’t move in that town when the shift change at “The Steel.”
My grandfather was a Head Roller in the 12 and 18” rolling mill from the 30’s to the 70’s
It was a great place to grow up in.
It's not just the thousands of jobs in those shops. It's thousands more engineers,draftsman and machinists that built the machines,made the cast iron and steel.
An enthusiastic wife like yours is very valuable!
There's an operational snow engine twice the size of that one, at Rough and Tumble, just a ways down the road, south of Bethlehem, in Kinzers, PA, along route 30. You should seriously check out their Thresherman's Reunion, late in August (3rd week/weekend or so). they have endless amounts of old mechanical stuff, engines, equipment, models, machine tools, on and on, and most of it is operational, or at least idling to show how it operated.
I volunteer in the machine shop & R&T and we'd love to see Adam on site
Very soon, nobody will be interested in the "old ways." I think the problem is that the "new ways" took away the caring and craftsmanship of the old ways. That is why the saying, "They don't make'um like they used to" is such an iconic statement. Great video!
On the whole I'm gonna have to disagree. I do think it will get more niche, but I'd compare it to the horse when cars became a thing, the ones that are left are the passion people, not the just-need-sh*t-done ones. I'm definitely on the young end of the spectrum here (and in IT) but I love mechanical design and would quite like a smaller manual lathe.
I've been a subscriber for many years but I have rarely posted comments. The story of Bethlehem Steel is a tale of American industrial prowess, pride and might but it is also Shakespearean in its tragedy, a tragedy brought on by hubris, greed and corruption. It has always stirred emotions in me so I needed to make a comment. I urge you to do the research and read of the enormous heights this great American company reached and how it died a tragic slow death from the 1960s through the 1990s. It will bring you to tears. So happy you had such a marvelous time there. It's certainly the steel industry Holy Land.
Breaks my heart
What we did to our heavy industry in the seventies and eighties was beyond criminal. Thank you Adam for sharing your trip.
Have some vey old machinist tools that i purchased at auction many years ago. They were owned and used by N&W railroad to build steam locomotives back in the day. Whats interesting is that N&W always engraved a date on every new tool purchase that they added to their machine shop. These dates range from 1901 to the early 1920's. 100 percent of these tools are still in great shape and completely operational to this very day. I will often pick one of these up and still use it to complete a job or task. They built these tools with just as much precision and care 100 years ago as they do today, and they most definitely built them to last. It has always been a great honor to own a piece of history that helped build this great country into what it is today
The Industrial Revolution is hands down the most captivating and romantic era of all human history…it should be properly labeled the Industrial Renaissance. It boggles my mind of how these guys invented not only these tools, but the tools to make the tools that make the tools that make the machines that then make the other machines. Even the Johanassen blocks blow my mind. You’re blessed man. Blessed.
Thanks for the memories Adam! I worked in that plant for a few years in the mid-70's. Had my Overhead Crane operator ticket. Beam yard (shipping) and BOF cranes mostly. A few assignments in Machine Shop #2. 😀
My South Bend 14-1/2” lathe was first delivered to the Beth Steel electrical repair department at the steel plant in Sparrows Point, Maryland, in 1946. That photo you show about 4 minutes in showed all those electric motor shaft assemblies, and now I know what my lathe was used for. Very cool!
Adam I Machined many bearing blocks those gears are for and the Rollers the hot steal rode on thru the mill.
Abby and Adam...thanks for visiting the area. We live just 1-hour north of this area of PA. The Lancaster/Bethlehem/Hershey area is a fantastic area to visit. It was great that you shared our country's heritage of innovations, inventions, and our nations steel industry. It's sad to think of the massive amount of talented individuals and skills we've lost over the years that made us such a world wide leader in manufacturing throughout the whole northeast region...from Connecticut and Massachusetts through Ohio and beyond.
Fantastic video. It should be mandatory for kids to go and see this history.
Adam, I watch your videos all the time. I never knew this museum was there. i live just about 30- 35 miles from there. Thanks so much for bringing this into my home .
Spent 4 years at Lehigh. Besides an expensive engineering degree, I also learned how to operate machine tools, taught by Dick Towne and Herman Bader, both also Lehigh alumni themselves. This was the late 90s, so most of the steelworks was still just an abandoned wasteland.
I’m proud to say that I grew up not to far from the old plant. I worked with guys that had been there their whole lives before they shut down. In the plant I worked at we had a few of their their very large mills that we bought from them in the 70’s, still being used today!Really sad to see how bad it’s gotten all over PA. Most all the mills and mines have shutdown. Not very much heavy industry left.
It's so awesome to see how excited Abby is to see these things and learn about what your skillsets are. At the same time she can appreciate how the industrial side lends itself to the textile industry. You guys are great.
Those big double helical herringbone gears in the thumbnail, were invented by Mr Citroen before he started making cars.
This is where the Citroen car badge comes from
Fun fact, the line shaft ended once the electric motors came into being, but weren't widely accepted until the invention of the V belt.
The V belt was invented by Allis Chalmers
Those punchcards on those looms eventually led to modern computing. Lookup Charles Babbage and Ada Lovelace.
Hi Adam. Maybe try visiting the industrial heritage museums in the UK. Or at least outside the USA....? They're a little bit older than in the USA and also super interesting.
Thank you so much for stopping by and representing our home town and the industrial history behind it! My family is on the board of trustees for the museum and I am sad to say that the museum doesn’t get the funds and admiration it’s deserves. I thank you for showing your community the great things the museum and area in general have to offer!
My uncle who has sadly passed away couple days ago has worked there for 33 years and not missed a day in his life
Sorry you lost your hard working uncle.
What a wonderful video, I follow both channels and enjoy so much. Hats off to you and Abby 5stars. Rodger from Lambertvill Mi
As a Chief Machinists Mate, I had to climb into the sump, and inspect these gears. I had to lay on my back, exhale all the air in my lungs, and slide under the Bull Gear in order to inspect the after end...side...of it. Good thing I am skinny.
What an amazing thing they have done I personally got to see the mill when i was 11 years old my grandfather worked there and he took me there wow that was 50 years ago lol
The jacard-like silk loom cards were the precursor to IBM punch cards…. Thank you both for kindly sharing with us your visit to this magnificent museum and the glory of American inventiveness that it captures.
It’s strange to see all the machines and know that no computer was used in any aspect of it!!! The design, build , and operation of them. It’s sad to see how much of these skills have been lost to computers!
Thank you for visiting us. Please come back soon. September we have Steel Weekend.
Castings on those old machines are amazing. Just imagine the work it took to make the moulds for them. It wasn’t just about practicality back in those days. People actually loved what they were doing and put effort in to making things. Nowadays it’s just all about speed, quantity and money.
In 1963 I went on a class trip there while it was in operation. We watched the I beams being made ....VERY scary!
AFAIK.. the steel for the Eppire State Building came fom there. They used "just -in-time" production. What was delivered was installed, since they had no room for laydown.
Joke of the day was that steel was still warm when they installed it.
Thanks again for sharing all of this 👍👍👍👍
Nice tour I remember when we was moved to Pittsburgh PA in 50' the river was red-oxide cause all foundry around it and big vessels transporting the steel .
I did a job at Bethlehem Steel while working for Maintenance Service Corp. If I remember right, it was the last company in the U.S. making virgin steel.
BTW, when I was there they were still using coke gas for heating and a byproduct of that was used for red dye oloring agent.
Love the painted scroll work on the machines. I'm sure that the actually came that way from the factory.
My grandfather and uncle both worked at the steel. Born and raised in Bethlehem, and that car show was probably cars and coffee. Cool to see someone explore from outside the area.
Hello Adam and Abbey. Your video brought back memories that I had forgotten about. Back in the late 60's I enrolled in a two-year vocational school to learn machining. Our class teacher at the time had an inside friend at Bethlehem Steel Corp. in Buffalo NY. The complex was perhaps as huge as PA's park. That tour guide took our class through the whole complex from the pouring of steel from the Basic Oxygen Furnaces to the rolling mills to the machine shops. What an amazing experience. Thankyou two for rekindling my memories. BTW, if you ever experience the pouring of steel very close out of giant ladles it is something you will never forget. Sadley, that is what you pointed out as the most dangerous jobs. Take care, both of you.
The restoration is amazing but I think we'd all rather go see the dirty werehouse of the stock machines!
Just imagine the noise level inside those shops
Make America Great Again !
Get you a partner that dances in excitement outside an industrial museum!
Facts
At 20 years old, I walked into the E.W. Bliss Company in 1969. They made all kinds of products for the steel industry. Machine tools that made rolling mill housings. They would be assembled to check everything was machined correctly, and it was square and true. Coilers and reelshafts. Very intricate machining and fitting on reelsfafts, hours, and hours. The machine tools were huge. The big gearbox that powered the rolling mills, when completed, and a couple of bolts in one of the shafts, with a 2x4, you could roll over the gears. Same ones you are standing next to. Smooth as silk.
Worked on plenty of Bliss presses and equipment over the years. 👍
I lives 2 blocks from there, tons of cool history in Bethlehem Pennsylvania.
ok,, this place just hit my bucket list. thanks for showing this guys!
"all these old metal bones are from the machinery that made America the greatest industrial power on the planet!"
"Wow! Mr Curator, what replaced them?"
"...Replaced? We tore it all down to make apartments and offices, kid, nothing replaced it."
I live in Bethlehem. Been to the museum and trestle half a dozen times. Saw some of the stuff in storage and got to drive the locomotive. Glad you liked it.
9:40 Where I went to Trade College, a few blocks away, was a full woodworking shop, in action making profit and fur nature and custom moulding for re-storing market, and it was line shaft driven.
Out back of the plant was a "Drive Shed", instead of the old steam engine it had a fairly modern GIANT electric motor. one motor ran the entire factory! :) Many of the woodcutting bits were modern tungsten carbide, but the custom molding and wood trim cutters were all High Speed Steel and custom made for the shop.
I assume it's long gone now, that was well over 40 years ago!
I have a George Scherr Machinist Tool Chest. George Scherr Tool Company later became Scherr - Tumico that made machinist tools.
The two gears out front are to a gearbox that turns a 44 inch or big rolling mill there would have been two large drive shafts that would have connected the rolling mill to the gearbox and the gearbox had babbitt bearings I know this because I work at the Steelton plant in maintenance so we still use those gear sets in different parts of the mill and the overhead crane is 250 volt DC the the crane in the Steelton plant are like that.
I had no idea that was in Bethlehem! Thanks for the quick tour. Going to visit for sure. And looks like they're running that massive Snow engine on December 10 2023. 😀
Everytime I see 150 years old marvels of engineering I wonder what will be left as our legacy in 150 years from now.... iPhone15? Don't think so.
Might not call Iphone a 'old marvel', but I guess one will see one at museums in 150 years)
Very cool! Thank you for sharing, can you imagine working in a shop with all of those line shafts, the smell in the air, oil & belt material dripping on you!!
I had visited the museum back in 2021 on a whim when I showed up way to early for a get-together with friends. Having grown up going to steamtown every fathers day, ive grown an appreciation for the large machinery and all the different applications each machine specialized in. Although i dont know much about the machinery, its super neat to have this video pop up in my feed, although ive only watched a few of your videos, this took be back to that day, wandering around the museum and unknowingly stumbled across some of the best preserved machinery ive had the chance to see. Its such a shame that they have so much more in storage that the public cant yet see. I’ll have to make my way back there one of these days. Thanks for
If I visit US one day, this would be my must visit tourist destination.
My great grandmother worked as a welder at fitzgibbons boiler company here in Oswego NY during ww2 wich produced army tanks for the war
Such a disgrace that your government allowed, correction, made sure, that all those manufacturing jobs left your shores.
My country's governments (all political shades) did much the same, and it (Britain) was the starting place of the industrial revolution.
This summer, I visited a former tin mine in the far southwest of the UK which is now only a museum.
It was a fascinating place, and they had a few examples of old machinery on display. To my horror though, they had a literal yard filled with what looked like very old machine tools. Lathes, Milling machines, horizontal planers, stamping machines, all lineshaft driven, and all sitting outside, rotting away in the great British weather (to be fair, the southwest gets some lovely weather in the summer, but it also gets the brunt of the North Atlantic storms, as the mine in question was literally on a cliff overlooking the sea.
To be clear, I don't blame manufacturers in the far East for turning out goods so cheaply, and indeed, on the short term, the availability of those cheap goods has probably made all our lives better, but at the cost of so many hundreds of thousands of jobs, and more importantly this has seen the near permanent loss of skills and experience closer to home.
Its a crying shame, but I'm glad to see such a beautiful museum in your video.
Domestic "mini-mills" have taken their toll on the larger, integrated steel mills in the U.S. as well.
Thank you for sharing this amazing place. As a blue collar kid growing up in 1960s and 70s Cleveland I was inside many machine shops. Most are sadly gone.
I am from Cleveland too! I will ask the time honored question that only Clevelanders know as proof one is from Cleveland, East side or West side?
East Side: Euclid
Lorain Ohio here
Amazing how large that complex is! Thanks for showing us around.
6:10 Look at the decoration and craftsmanship that went into these machines. These things meant something to the people who made them.
This is part of why we love you the most ....... A Giant Kid in a Giant Candy Store! The video was fantastic and you two were great in the time you took to comment on all. Thank You Dearly!
Seeing the picture with all of those American flags felt like a weak punch in the stomach. I felt filled with pride then thought about what most Americans under 30 would think.
I'm in my mid 20's and loved to see those flags, but I understand where you're coming from.
People that purchased machining tools back then got there moneys worth. Not only you purchased an expensive precision machine but you got a beautiful piece of equipment in the process.
Being born in Allentown hospital and raised in Whitehall for 23 years, I thank you for this video. Our family tree had quite a few limbs working at Bethlehem Steel
Thank you for showing us such a Great place.
I'm from that Area all Steel mill county
As someone who was born and raised in Bethlehem I'm happy to see its starting to get the attention it deserves. Growing up here it was a bunch of abandoned Bethlehem steel buildings and over the years it has updated and renovated a lot of properties. From the hotels and the casino to the museum and the businesses that are popping up all over 3rd st in Bethlehem I am happy to see the growth and the interest being drawn into this beautiful city. This is just the tip of the iceberg. Over the next 20 Years I can't wait to see what they add next. This town has so much history and kids nowadays need to see how far we've come to get here. This town helped build it all, Helped us win wars, helped us advance faster than any other country in the world and that's all thanks to towns like this on the east side of the U.S.
Love Bethlehem forever
It’s a skeleton of what it once was. A memory is good, still having it, is better. Bad Trade of these bs business to only have mementos
Adam, did you happen to notice that all of the American flags only had 48 stars on them? Interesting...I saw them and thought, 'something is off with those stars', counted and sure enough,, only 48...
thanks for sharing this with us, totally interesting and makes me want to go myself, bring a friend, enjoy the history!
It's neat too that Abbey shares your enthusiasm for all things industrial and machine...I'm not sure who was more excited to be there!
I noticed,
I mean that is how they should have been since Hawaii and Alaska were not states yet.
I grew up in that area. It was pretty ghetto back then but now the old buildings are getting fixed up. I love red brick and steel windows.
What a great “tool” for educating us all about the massive industrial age. My father worked in a melt house steel mill.
Loving your tour (and other tours). I'm at the part of the tour looking at the loom using punch cards. Those looms were known as Damascus looms and were the first use of what became computer technology centuries later.
Totally awesome, I look at old machinery and think of the 10s of thousands of men that laid in bed at night thinking about a mechanical problem the were trying to solve or improve upon...
Worked in a old steam plant love it steam is power baby love steam
You should check out a Main Engine Reduction Gear, from a Naval steam turbine powered ship. Double Helical, Double Reduction...The Bull Gear is double helical, and between 25 and 30 feet diameter.
Been there, done that too.
Oh my goodness!!! That is incredible, are those the machines that make the machines that make everything !!!! Wouldn't you just love to see that place alive and running full bore the place would of just RUMBLE!!!! Incredible absolutely gorgeous thank you I could look at that machinery all day long !!!!
By the end of WWII, Bethlehem Steel was the nation's largest defense contractor, and had produced an astounding 73.4 million TONS of steel.
I used to haul steel beams from that factory back in the 80s. With a mack truck built in nearby Allentown.
Wonderful history lesson here. As you mentioned, that most of the machines and people back then built the world we live in today. How cool would it be if the people of today were to use machines "here" in america to build our world of tomorrow. Really enjoy your videos as you have taken me all across america and back allowing me to see stuff that I would not have been able to even with the time and dollars. Abby keep thinking up cool places to go and Adam keep filming where ever you end up.
There's a really interesting section about card punch looms in episode 1 of Connections with James Burke. I'm sure you could find more information from there if it still strikes you. Of course Connections is an absolutely great show that I'm sure everyone here would love.
Thanks for sharing this with us, Adam and Abby.
I work for at a former Bethlehem steel mill and being in the steel industry I think some people in the comment section might be surprised with what this country still has as far as being able to make steel and what it can still make.
All US manufacturing is low-output compared to even the 60s. Having more tiny shops doesn't really help anything.
God save America. Thanks for sharing! Stay Healthy!tfs
Lets hope God can do what others can't
What astonishes me more than the machines and the people that run and maintain them are the minds that created them to solve the problems on hand. I didn't even know this place existed. I've always heard about Bethlehem steel being that I live in Harford county MD and it's not all too far from me but I have DEFINITELY got to visit that place. Thanks for this nugget.
So cool to see one of the true giants of steel production from when America itself was THE manufacturing giant, sadly seeing this now silent but wonderful complex is yet another reminder of how badly weve sold out our manufacturing capability - and indeed the whole country. RIP USA.
Don't overlook all those domestic "mini-mills" which have taken a large amount of business away from "the true giants of steel production." They're partly to blame too.
Jacquard-type looms go back to the 15th Century. Jacquard himself patented his first loom in 1804. The punch cards are similar in function to the punchcards used in IBM tabulating equipment and then computers in the 20th Century.
Nicholson files are now made in Mexico and Brazil and I quit purchasing them when I discovered they weren't controlling the warping.
I currently buy from Grobet-Vallorbe in Switzerland. I still have three Nicholson files that are made in U.S.A.. I have Boggs Tool Sharpening in Paramount sharpen the files about once in five years.
It must be awesome that your wife is so interested and excited by this stuff too! I thought that was pretty awesome. Id be in awe by that file wall in person too!
American precision museum, Windsor VT.
Has a lot of early pieces from Springfield where Smith and Wesson, colt and others got started.
Thought you'd like to know.
Safe travels.
Nice to see Abby likeing the trip, good woman
would have loved to see the blowing engines in action, these places always make me sad, here in the uk we were the workshop of the world, all gone now to be replaced with fast food restaurants
Fascinating
what a beautiful museum
Awesome. Thank you
You both did a great job presenting the history of how America was built. So I'm sure you talked to the right people. When is the video of all the other buildings and archives going to be out? I can imagine them letting you document all of the stuff we couldn't see. It might help them get funding to preserve and restore history that will be lost without people like them and Abom.
The Snow engine is called a Corless because of the Corless valve gear used to time it. I watched a loom weaving cloth at Gatlenberg, TN in 1971 using punched cards for the pattern being woven.
This is sooo cool 😎
Awesome, wonderful.
I will visit them . I’m from New Jersey 😊