Posted 11 years ago
Tinkerbell50
(2 items)
This is a small metal plaque attached to a very heavy piece of steel that is 6 1/2" tall x 4 " w at base & 3 " w at top I don't know much else about it. The small plate in center says Boulder Dam Colorado River
Hope it didn't weaken the dam when somebody nicked that!
That's a cool dam plaque! :)
Building Boulder (Hoover) Dam
3-inch-diameter pins Used in Penstocks in Lieu of Rivets
Placing the 12-foot long sections, some weighing 185 tons and others 135 tons, into the plugged diversion tunnels along with smaller penstocks in their lined tunnels was another major challenge. A 250-ton-capacity cableway was built which swung the pipe section over the canyon and lowered it with 10 cables coming from the cablecar. The largest sections were locked together with 3-inch-diameter pins; smaller sections were joined with hot-rivets. The workers found it hard work to drive the 3-inch diameter pins into their locking holes because of the great size.
I have only seen about 4 of the rivets with the plaque. Also I believe they were presentation pieces, instead of being purchase. They weight right at 8 lb. each.
Taken from: http://www.romanconcrete.com/docs/hooverdam/hooverdam.htm
There is a picture of one of the rivets, at the Dam part of the tour. You can see it at the link below.
http://historyofseth.blogspot.com/2007/03/techready4-and-surfaces-2007.html
I have the same medallion, without the chunk of steel.