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VINTAGRAPH • WPA • WWII • YOU MEAN A WOMAN CAN OPEN IT?

War Machine: 1942

November 1942. "Flotation machines at one of the copper concentrators of the Utah Copper Company. Its plants at Magna and Arthur in Utah are treating vast quantities of the copper so vital for war purposes." Photo by Andreas Feininger for the Office of War Information. View full size.

November 1942. "Flotation machines at one of the copper concentrators of the Utah Copper Company. Its plants at Magna and Arthur in Utah are treating vast quantities of the copper so vital for war purposes." Photo by Andreas Feininger for the Office of War Information. View full size.

 

On Shorpy:
Today’s Top 5

stadium?

I'm curious about the way the floor slopes up. Is the system using gravity to pass material from one machine to the next, or did they just happen to convert a concert hall or sports stadium into a copper refining factory?

Not an empty seat in the stadium

For the big game between the dynamos and the automatons.

It looks like robots ...

... in a large university lecture hall.

stairstep installation

I wonder about the stepped configuration. Did the slurry flow downwards in grades as it was processed? There must be some hidden plumbing that transferred the slurry to and from these vats.

To Infinity And Beyond!

An impressive scene that reminds me of barbershop mirrors.

Odd Robot Out

This is a newer style motor. Still it's all so primitive compared to today.

It points out just how difficult it was to win WWII for a nation with much fewer people than we have today. They truly were the Greatest Generation, because everything they did had to be done the hard way, from 1000 plane raids for one target to hundreds of flotation machines for what would be done with maybe 5 or 10 modern ones.

A simple process....

Well, I thought you just "smelted" some ore and out came the copper... but see below. Apparently just one step in a pretty complex process:

Ore Concentration by Froth Flotation.

Froth flotation

was developed in the early 1900's and is one of the fundamental industrial refining processes that make our technological society possible. In this case, a slurry of pulverized copper-bearing ore, water and surfactant chemicals is introduced into each of these centrifugal machines. A bubbly froth containing the valuable mineral component is whipped up and skimmed off for further purification. It's like a Copper Cuisinart.

Without this process, metals like copper and lead would be too expensive to produce very many shell casings, iPhones or car batteries. All hail froth flotation!

Call the Doctor!

Is this where little Daleks come from?

Odd Robot Out

Fourth row up, fourth from the left.

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