“Deep Well To Ash Hopper” brass tag

[pa-dirt_nc-sand]

Front and back pics from a cellar hole near Pittsburgh. Any idea what this could be for?

 

[Joe-Dirt]

No idea. Has your hearing been restored?? I’ll bet that sounded good

 

[ticndig]

At that size and the position of the hole I doubt it's a tag. I think it is a cap to the deep well on the ash hopper.
ash hoppers are used at coal fired power plants .

 

[islamoradamark]

I think ticndig is on to something and that hole is for a tool to insert to pull cap off to have a looky to know what be below

 

[creskol]

I think that is the cap to the deep well in which they keep those fearsome ash hoppers.

 

[ticndig]

An Ashtonishing insect for sure...

 

[Doubter in MD]

I'm thinking like ticndig. I think it was part of an expansion plug.

 

[Red-Coat]

It does indeed look like part of an expansion plug that presumably relates to the collection, handling, or disposal of coal combustion residues from a power plant boiler or something similar. I can’t reproduce it here since it’s copyrighted material, but see this paper “Pneumatic Conveying of Coal and Ash” (in thermal power plants) and note figures 10.1 and 10.2

http://nguyen.hong.hai.free.fr/EBOO...eumatic Conveying Engineering/DKE292_Ch10.pdf

Coal combustion residues generally go to either wet ‘ponding’ or dry landfill and are sometimes also used as a component for construction material (roads, pavements etc).

Bottom Ash and Slag collection is usually via water-filled tanks or hoppers located under the boiler. Water in the hopper quenches the hot ash and causes it to fracture into smaller sizes such that it can be sluiced out of the hopper for disposal.

Fly Ash is usually collected in dry hoppers below an electrostatic precipitator and conveyed by blowers to silos for temporary storage. Then it’s discharged into pug mills, mixed with FGD (flue gas desulfurization) scrubber sludge and goes to on-site landfill or into trucks for off-site disposal/use.

 

[pa-dirt_nc-sand]

Thx all for your insights on this piece.

Initially I thought I had found another West Penn Power power pole ID tag. Yes, it sounded great in the hole. I found a similar sized piece with the center hole for with stamping regarding an old coal company, I had this ID’d as a coal car or coal cart tag that would be screwed into the wood body.

I think this piece was definitely hand stamped since the stamping on the one side started to move in from the perimeter, so they stopped before finishing and then did it correctly on the opposite side.

I’m thinking a Ash Hopper is part of a fairly big operation. Maybe the resident of the cellar hole worked in the steel or coal or power generation business and took this piece off as a souvenir.