Summary

Black and white silver gelatin photograph, view looking towards the north-west corner of Electricity Sub-station Number 2, Kodak factory, Coburg, November 1958.

In this image taken at ground level from Building 2, Emulsion Making, Electricity Sub-station #2 [located at the north end of Building 7, Testing], appears to have been completed externally. Straddling the top of this windowless brick building is the first major leg of the services gantry system, where the final lagging and protective metal shields are being applied to the large pipes in the section east of this building.

Electricity Sub-station #2 was one of three sub-stations on the site (#1 in the Power House, Building 11, and #3 in the Garage, Building 14). Each supplied an adjacent group of buildings or equipment with three phase 400 volt electricity. In this case, the outgoing circuits for this sub-station supplied Buildings 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 &10. There were two separate incoming circuits, one from the Coburg City Council Supply, and the other from the Power House alternators. Each building could be switched to either one of the incoming circuits.

All services to the factory buildings were reticulated from the central Power House via a gantry system making a striking visual feature of the complex. The gantry carried the following services: chilled water at 3ºC for cooling and air conditioning; ethylene-glycol brine at -9ºC for chill rooms, low dew point drying and emulsion chilling; saturated steam at 70Kpa for emulsion heating and air conditioning; saturated steam at 700KPa for emulsion heating; condensate return to boilers; compressed air at 550KPa for machine actuation and instrument controls; electrical cables at 415V 50Hz 3phase, distilled water and clarified water for emulsion making and testing, plus water from the fire pumps for the building sprinkler systems. The steam, chilled water and brine pipes were all heavily lagged and clad for efficiency and protection reasons. The steam pipes in particular had large loop sections to allow for expansion.

Kodak manufactured and distributed a wide range of photographic products to Australasia, such as, film, paper, chemicals, cameras and miscellaneous equipment. Its client base included amateur and professional photographers as well as specialist medical and graphic art professionals who used photography, x-ray and other imaging techniques.

This photograph is part of the Kodak collection of products, promotional materials, photographs and working life artefacts collected from Kodak Australasia in 2005 after the manufacturing plant at Coburg had closed down the year before.

Description of Content

A gantry system carrying pipes and cables follows the side and over the roadways, and in particular over a windowless brick building. At the far end, metal scaffolding is in place where cladding is being applied to the pipes. Five workmen can be seen around the worksite or walking along the road leading to Building 1 Gatehouse in the distance.

Physical Description

Black and white silver gelatin photograph printed on light weight paper, landscape format.

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