All, Would anyone happen know what this thing is and what it was used for? www.modelrailroadforums.com/photos/showphoto.php?photo=2020 Tom
Looks like it was something which could pour. Is it close by to any sort of past or present day smelting, metal refining, foundry type facility?
I clicked your link to the source of the picture. It is labeled "mixer." Is seen in another picture near some cylindrical concrete structures like silos. Could it be a container in which various ingredients for smelting are mixed before being put into blast furnace? The source says TC&I Ensley Works. Why not research that name?
It's a hot metal mixer for the open hearth furnace at the former Ensley Works steel mill in Birmingham AL. Molten pig iron from the blast furnace is taken to the mixer in ladle cars or bottle cars. It provides a place to store molten iron until needed by the OH and also mixes iron from several BF taps, helping even out the consistency. When the OH is ready to charge another furnace, the mixer is rotated to pour molten iron into a ladle, which is transferred to the furnace and poured in.
