Summary

Black and white silver gelatin photograph, view angled upwards, taken from the north-east corner of Electricity Sub-station #2, and looking north-east towards Building 11, Power House, Kodak factory, Coburg, November 1958.

This image features the final stages in the installation of the services reticulation in the already constructed services gantry running from the Power House. It follows high above the side of the roadways towards the production buildings to the left of image. In the section shown here, all initial reticulated services (under stage 1 Power House) appear to have just been completed, although some scaffolding still remains about the bend section to the right of image. The Power House building, including the Marley cooling tower, appears to be completed externally.

All services to the factory buildings were reticulated from the central Power House via three major legs of 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 steel trussed gantry carrying large pipes high above the road level follows the roadsides from a building on the horizon towards buildings to the left of picture. A cooling tower is prominent above the horizon while building contractors huts and workshops are scattered around the site in the foreground. Four workmen can be seen walking about the site and some scaffolding remains erected around the gantry to the right of picture.

Physical Description

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

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