Pouring Iron: A Foundry Ghost Story (Hardcover)

by David L. Weitzman (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal
Grade 4-6-When young Howard visits the historic Knight Foundry in Sutter Creek, CA, he finds more than Russ, a worker who demonstrates iron casting. From the shadows come the ghosts of skilled foundrymen from the prosperous days of the past. Acting as an apprentice to these specters, Howard learns to pack sand in the drag, ram the mold, and prepare for the pour. The next day the furnace, heated by tons of coke, is ready to melt the scrap iron. Soon Howard, Russ, and a crew of workers ladle the hot metal into the molds and produce cast iron wheels, gears, and weights, just as it was done in the past. Weitzman's dramatic, sculptured pencil-and-ink drawings clearly show the foundry, tools, and processes, and the "ghost" workers appear in several archival photographs dating from the turn of the century. Unfortunately, the attempt to make a personal story out of a technical process is less successful here than in the author's naval history, Old Ironsides (Houghton, 1997). The mixture of fact and fiction, past and present is, in this work, a transparent device that tends to confuse and detract from the explanation of the step-by-step process of iron casting, which is the real subject of the book. Still, the fine illustrations, the display of labeled tools on the endpapers, and the book title itself should attract readers interested in machines and manufacturing.
Shirley Wilton, Ocean County College, Toms River, NJ
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Description
Howard loves to visit his grandparents in Sutter Creek, California. Nestled deep in the Sierra foothills, the old mining town provides a glimpse of the Gold Rush days. One can almost see the prospectors galloping down the hill, their saddlebags filled with gold nuggets, or feel the heat of a pour day at the water-powered iron foundry, where equipment was made to accommodate the rush to mine gold from the hills. The old Knight Foundry is Howard's favorite building on Eureka Street. Built around 1873, the foundry still operates today. Invited inside the heavy rolling doors, Howard meets iron men of the past and present who show him their craft: how patterns are created, molds are made, and molten iron is poured into shapes to make everything from huge water wheels to delicate machinery parts. Seen through the eyes of a modern-day apprentice, this fascinating look at one of America's earliest foundry machine shops provides readers with a wealth of information. Engineering, design, history

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 9-12
  
• Hardcover: 40 pages
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin (September 28, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0395841704
• ISBN-13: 978-0395841709
• Product Dimensions: 11.1 x 9.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #2,207,211 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Short, and complete, with excellent illustrations, July 7, 1999

By A Customer

POURING IRON, written for "young people", presents a superbly illustrated and detailed description of the casting process at the Knights Foundry in Sutters Creek, California using equipment characteristic of about 1900. The approximately 26 pages are unnumbered (the inflated claim of 40 pages must include the covers and blank filler pages). Unfortunately the little book is written the first person which is awkward and annoying-especially in this particular case. An unnecessary and distracting device is that the young visitor is led through the foundry by ghosts. Since the foundry still operates, ghosts are unnecessary-real workers and their stories would be more interesting.