February 28, 2014

Nitrosamine Walls - The Abandoned Rubber Factory (Part 2)

After my business trip, I am finally able to continue the story about the rubber company.
As I've mentioned in my last post, the company in question was founded in 1856.
In 1870, a company producing similar goods was founded in an another part of the region and took over the "Rubber-Comb-Company" in 1929.
After the war, the facilities of the new parent company were almost completely destroyed, so soon after the war the production was relocated into the buildings of the subsidiary.
The rubber combs produced in this facility were appreciated by hairdressers worldwide.







































Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Revisit

February 25, 2014

Nitrosamine Walls - The Abandoned Rubber Factory

This factory belonged to one of the largest employers in the region.
It was founded in 1870 and produced in this facility until 2009, when the production was relocated.
The origins date back to about 1850 when - a decade after his brother Charles Goodyear discovered the process of vulcanization - Nelson Goodeyr discovered Ebonite (hard rubber).
The son of an industrial pioneer purchased the patents for the European market.
His brother, in turn, collaborated with two other industrialists in 1856 and together they founded the "Rubber Comb Company" on the site of the location I was able to visit this weekend.

So much for the story of the company for now, more will follow...here are the first photos.

Oh! And in case you've been wondering about the title of this new series: The building is under monument protection and since 2009, various investors that wanted to turn it into apartments have backed out because of the massive nitrosamine contamination of the building walls. Guess they're afraid to expose their future tenants to carcinogenic toxins...

































Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Revisit

February 23, 2014

Kodak was here - Abandoned Factory for Photochemicals (Part 2)

Here's the next load of pictures I took at the abandoned former Kodak film production factory.
The lab buildings were obviously built in the 1970s. While the larger building was apparently a production facility, the smaller of the two buildings seems to have been used for educational purposes; we found small lab rooms and classrooms.
A lot of the production equipment has been left in the building and was spared by the copper thieves, probably becuase the large installations have been integrated into the building which makes it virtually impossible to remove them.
Still, the vandals had their go at the glass installations, cylinders, condensers - nothing that was made of glass was left in its original state.

































Part 1 | Part 2

February 21, 2014

Kodak was here - Abandoned Factory for Photochemicals

In the USA, Kodak made photography a popular past time entertainment by producing cameras in an industrial scale as soon as 1888.
In 1923, a number of buildings were constructed in a part of Berlin for a German film manufacturing company, the "Glanzfilm AG".
This company was bought by Kodak in 1927 and expanded to produce black-and-white photographic film as well as X-Ray-film and the required chemical reagents.
In 1945, it was confiscated as "enemy asset" and put under trust administration and from 1956 on it was operated as "people owned enterprise".
Large parts of the huge complex have been turned into luxury apartments. Only two lab buildings remain and are probably awaiting their demolition.

Here are the first couple of photos from the tour with my brother.
And yes, that teddy bear was a bit spooky.




































Part 1 | Part 2

February 20, 2014

The Laboratory - Abandoned Pharmaceutical Company (Part 6)

Alright, here it is - the final post about my first (and until now, only) visit to the abandoned pharmaceutical company.
It has been more than two months since our trip there, and the sights as well as the smell and the fine, relatively untouched decay are still very much alive in my memories.
So much so that I definitely have to go there again the next time I'm in the area.

This post is actually a good intermission between the last series about the abandoned cable manufacturing plant and the next one. It finishes my first real "laboratory" series and is a pretty nice starting point for the next series about another anandoned chemical factory...Kodak used to have their X-Ray films manufactured there...so stay tuned for the next post.
Coming soon...the Photochemical Factory...



























Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6
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