A Life with Ghosts by Steve Gonsalves

Author:Steve Gonsalves
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Gallery Books
Published: 2023-08-22T00:00:00+00:00

During all its years of production, Sloss’s blast furnaces had to be fed coal around the clock, twenty-four hours a day. If they weren’t, they would lose the intensity needed to smelt the materials. This demand worsened already horrendous conditions, in which workers had to suffer constant ear-damaging noise and temperatures that ran well over 120 degrees (and as high as 150 degrees during the summer), all without breaks. Once using the enslaved for free labor was no longer legal, only the poorest and most desperate of workers would take on this aptly named “graveyard shift,” as it was akin to living in hell. Dozens routinely perished, while others suffered burns, heat exhaustion, heart attacks, and other debilitating injuries. More than a half-dozen workers even lost their sight in an on-site explosion. The furnaces were hot, angry, and unforgiving.

Incredibly, Sloss Furnaces stayed in operation for almost a hundred years, until the demand for iron lowered, costs skyrocketed, state and federal laws forced humane working environments, and pollution grew too high. There’s no way to know how many lives were lost or permanently damaged from working within the horrific environment at the plant. Regardless, it seems that some of the workers who died on the grounds are still there to this day—reports of slamming metal sounds, screams, apparitions, and being pushed by unseen hands are all commonplace occurrences on the derelict grounds.

Sloss Furnaces slag pots, circa 1906

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS PUBLIC DOMAIN ARCHIVE

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