{"product_id":"1920s-salt-works-factory-photographs-set-of-3","title":"1920s Salt Works Factory Photographs | Set of 3","description":"\u003cp\u003eHere we have a set of three antique gelatin silver photographs documenting the salt industry factory of Sarnia, Ontario, each one mounted on its original gray card and signed in pencil \"W.A. Couse, Sarnia.\" But the set has one of the best focal points I’ve ever seen in an antique industrial photograph. More below…\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLong before Sarnia was known for its refineries, it was known for salt. In 1902 the Cleveland-Sarnia Sawmill Company drilled a couple of wells south of its plant looking to diversify, hit gas instead of brine, and burned for six hours before Sarnia's fire department got it under control. They tried again anyway. By 1904 the Empire Salt Company had a charter and eighty solid feet of rock salt at 1,700 feet, running nine hours a day, six days a week, burning the sawmill's own scraps for fuel. That operation eventually became Sifto. These photographs land somewhere in that stretch of the story, before the Sifto name, when the work was still being done by hand in long wooden sheds.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe first photo puts you inside the evaporation floor, a row of shallow brine pans running the length of a plank and timber shed, steam still rising off the surface, roof trusses receding into the distance in about as clean a one point perspective as an industrial photographer ever managed by accident. This is the room where brine got boiled down to crystal, and you can feel the heat just looking at it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe second photo steps outside for the exterior, the works themselves raised up on a forest of wooden piling and cross bracing to keep the whole operation above the marsh, an oil derrick visible off in the distance, a rail car parked at the near end waiting to be loaded. Whoever built this thing was not shy with the lumber budget.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe third photo takes you into the bagging room, where a row of women run belt driven industrial sewing machines to stitch shut sacks of finished salt. You can make out \"Century\" and part of \"...Salt Co. Limited...Ontario\" printed on the bags stacked at the machines. One of the women looks straight into the lens mid stitch, and that one accidental glance does more to humanize the whole operation than the other two photos combined.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAll three carry the same pencil signature on the mount, \"W.A. Couse, Sarnia.\" Couse advertised locally as a commercial photographer out of a shop on Front Street, phone 212W, and sold flowers out of the same storefront, which tracks for a small town studio operator trying to keep the lights on. A photocopy of his period newspaper ad rides along with this lot as backup for the attribution, not as an antique in its own right.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe mounts show the wear you'd expect from a hundred years of sitting in somebody's attic or archive box, softened corners, some toning and light foxing on the card stock, and one mount has a small closed tear at the top edge that stays clear of the image itself. The photographs underneath are in good shape, decent tonal range, no real fading to speak of. Nothing here fights the pictures for attention.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIndustrial photography that survives with this kind of completeness, the room, the building, and the hands doing the work, all from one photographer and one plant, doesn't turn up often. How many chances do you get to hold the whole operation in three photographs at once?\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe antique occupational photograph comes out of an old Michigan estate. The set was likely produced in the 1920s. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEach photograph measures about 9 1\/2\" tall by 12 1\/2\" wide. The photographs have patina from age throughout. Please see all pics as they are part of the description. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI ship FedEx to street addresses in the continental USA only (no PO Boxes). Free shipping on the old industrial photography set. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe factory women ran the show. And what a glance.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Mad Van Antiques","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43242854645837,"sku":null,"price":175.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0116\/3637\/5610\/files\/IMG_9591.jpg?v=1783997596","url":"https:\/\/madvanantiques.com\/products\/1920s-salt-works-factory-photographs-set-of-3","provider":"Mad Van Antiques","version":"1.0","type":"link"}