----- Original Message -----

From: Bob Chaparro via Groups.Io

To: main@RealSTMFC.groups.io

Sent: Sunday, September 22, 2019 1:08 PM

Subject: [RealSTMFC] Photo: CB&Q Boxcar 134010

Photo: CB&Q Boxcar 134010

An image taken in 1931 from the Detroit Public Library:

https://digitalcollections.detroitpubliclibrary.org/islandora/object/islandora%3A230469

Click on the image and hold to temporarily enlarge it.

Description: View of two men unloading alum, via a hose, from a railroad freight car during the construction of the Chemical Building in the Springwells Station treatment plant, Detroit water supply system. Printed on front: "City of Detroit. Department of Water Supply. Springwells Station. Chemical Building. Contract No. FC-20. Building construction: W.E. Wood Company. File no. 831. No. 30. Date: 8-6-31. Photo by Manning Brothers." Typed on back: "Unloading first car of alum; air hose suspended from cable."

Dictionary Definition of Alum: The most widely used alum is potassium alum. It was used since antiquity as a flocculant (promotes clumping of particles) to clarify turbid liquids, as a mordant (a substance that combines with a dye or stain and thereby fixes it in a material) in dyeing, and in tanning. Other alums include sodium alum and ammonium alum.

Bob Chaparro

Hemet, CA