Chesley Bonestell's Lost Industrial Lithographs #28 of 32

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Carbide Furnace Room, Lower Level

It's hard not to marvel at how we've lost touch with the epic scale of the structures that make the things a society needs. (In this case munitions, alas; but later, fertilizer.) Chesley Bonestell made these images back when such things were still celebrated.

This series will conclude on Friday.

 And for those who came in late . . .

In 1918, Chesley Bonestell was commissioned to create a series of lithographs chronicling the construction of the government cyanamide nitrates plant in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. It would be many years before he began painting the astronomicals that made him famous, but he already had tremendous technique.

The lithographs disappeared from public view not long thereafter.

Recently, my wife, Marianne Porter, and I bought what we think is a complete set of 32 at an auction. We had electronic files made of them, which we'll be posting here, one every weekday until they're all online. Then we'll make a torrent containing the complete collection in high density form, for whomever wants them.

All the images are in public domain. You don't have to ask anybody for permission to download them and you may employ them however you wish.

 

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