Mill D - Ground Floor Front Area


Graffiti: MMM MMM, That's Good. Corrosive.

On the way up the ramp, one finds two rather humorous pieces of grafitti.

 

Graffiti: Paper or Perish

So which one does this mill fall under?

 

At the top of the ramp is this freight elevator, which is in rather bad shape.

 

This probably wasn't the original location of this pump (if that's what it is). C. Demaine confirms that it is indeed a pump, coupling, and electric motor (to drive the pump).

 

A bunch of pipe lengths are stacked up and there is a bunch of powder on the floor.

 

I wonder what they were doing there. Well, I wondered until it was pointed out by someone in the industry that these are probably not pipes, but cardboard paper tubes.

 

Near some windows looking out on the creek, one finds a tank on a raised cement block.

 

A broken half-bag of some chemical sits in the corner doing its thing.

 

Proceeding a bit more towards the front of the mill, one runs into this rather new-looking contraption.

 

C. Demaine and others have informed us that this device is a Sentrol paper sheet scanner, used to determine the characteristics of a paper sheet for quality-control purposes. Some are optical, but this particular one uses a radioactive source and detector to perform its measurements - however, the radioactive source on this particular machine has been removed (luckily). I find it curious that there was no NRC plaque on the machine (at least not on the part we saw), but perhaps it was removed when the radioactive source was removed.

 

Unfortunately, the flash created quite a glare on the control panel for this device, but on the larger image, some of the writing should be legible.

 

On the powerhouse-side of the mill, is a horizontal tank with a "Calgon Bulk Liquid Service" logo on it. Perhaps this is the tank filled by the "Waste Treatment Polymer" fillport that is visible on the front of Mill D. (One wonders what exactly was treated with the waste treatment polymer, and what the polymer was.)

 

The floor drain grates/troughs run here as they do through the rest of the lower floor.

 

The gas that this meter measured was perhaps used to run some various water and other heating devices found in Mill D. At least, I assume it may have been so, as the paper machines themselves were almost certainly run off of steam and electricity, and the former Mill D power plant was nowhere near this meter. I do wonder, though, why the heaters were not also run off of steam -- but perhaps at one point, the boilers were operating at maximum capacity and additional heating was needed, which would be a good reason to use gas equipment.

 

It seems like a funny place for a shower...
(But C. Demaine notes that the presence of a safety shower usually indicates that there were nasty chemicals in use nearby. I had not considered this to be a safety shower, none of the safety showers I've seen were enclosed or had curtains on them, but perhaps this is what it is. It would certainly explain why the shower was located here.)

 

Near the shower are these cubicles; they were probably either part storage bins or personal storage for employees.

 

This part of the Mill contains lots of horizontal tanks.

 

...

 

And some more electrical stuff. C. Demaine adds that this is a bank of Allen Bradley MCCs (Motor Control Centers), and that someone has removed all of their innards, although they wouldn't be worth that much.

 

Here's one of the front doors to the mill.

 

And a spiral staircase going up.

 

Go upstairs from here.