Couple takes apart and puts back together 3,000-piece steel house
Steve Snell and his wife Laurie signed a 30-year lease with the Historic Landmark Foundation of Indiana that will allow them to live in a historic Lustron home - built entirely out of steel in 1949 - located in the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore.
However, there was one catch. The house had to be disassembled into all of its 3,000 pieces, restored and moved three miles from one spot in the park to another, then reassembled.
Fortunately, Mr. Snell was able to take on the challenge as he had experience with the enamel-coated steel that the Lustron is made out of. The 25-year Inland and then Mittal Steel employee's first assignment was working with enameled steel for Whirlpool washers and dryers in the 1980's. He was also able to get Mittal's help to come up with an appropriate, durable coating for the exterior panels of his home.
Once the foundation is put in place at the end of the month, the house will be complete.
Another stipulation on the lease other than maintaining the home is to open it once a year to the public. A public showing is scheduled for October.
How many Mittal Steel workers does it take to change 20,000 light bulbs?
About 20,000 employees of Mittal Steel USA have agreed to take the Environmental Protection Agency-sponsored "Energy Star Change a Light" pledge to use energy-efficient lighting.
The company participated by exchanging each pledge for a compact fluorescent light (CFL) bulb and a fact sheet about the amount of energy saved by replacing an incandescent bulb with a CFL.
Mittal participated in the campaign as part of its overall energy-awareness initiative, with the goal of reducing energy use in its operations as well as in employees' homes.
The EPA estimates that the 20,000 Mittal employees' pledges have the potential to save more than 5.5 million kilowatt hours of energy and almost 9 million pounds of greenhouse gas emissions.
"These are the savings from each employee changing just one bulb," said Larry Fabina, coordinator of the company's energy-conservation initiative.
Rusting steel may be to blame for street light collapse
A rusting steel pole may have been to blame for an accident which took place in Regina Canada Tuesday, which involved the mysterious collapse of a steel light pole on a residential block.
Luckily, no one was injured by light pole, which came crashing down for no apparent reason.
Larry Christie, spokesperson for SaskPower, the company which installed the pole, told press that rust may be the reason for the collapse. He said that while the new poles being installed in street locations across the province are galvanized steel, there are still many ungalvanized street poles in use that are prone to rusting.
Mr. Christie said that the more common incidents of street poles falling occur when a pole is struck by a car or a piece of equipment, as the poles have a built-in feature to collapse easily when struck, so as to prevent motorists' deaths.
He insisted that the cases in which the poles fell on their own have been few and far in between. Still, it's enough to make you think twice the next time you walk under a street light!
Historical Society to turn old steel mill into museum
In Roebling, Pennsylvania, the Roebling Historical Society is currently cataloging artifacts from the former Roebling Steel Mill, built in the early 1900's, in preparations to turn a 170-acre portion of the historical site into a museum. Several artifacts have already been classified and placed near the museum's gates, including a 28-foot tall fly-wheel, once a main component in the mill's steelmaking process.
The 70-building mill is high in historical value, as it produced the steel cables used in such national landmarks as the Golden Gate Bridge and the Brooklyn Bridge. However, after closing in 1974, the site was used as a dump. By 1983, the Environmental Protection Agency declared the property to be in need of toxic waste removal. To date, the EPA has spent $46 million to clean up the site.
George Lengel, vice president of the Roebling Historical Society told press "We're in the middle of a project working with the EPA to restore the building to what it looked like in the 1940s, which was the heyday of the mill. We have several acres of land that will be converted into a sculpture garden, a museum with several galleries, a library and research room, also a conference room."
Roebling Historical Society President Donna McElrea told press that while the 2.5 million dollar deal with contracting company Preferred Real Estate fell through last week, once the museum is completed it will be the "gem of the property" that will make the site more attractive to prospective developers. Hope she's right!