Founded in 1929, the Alloy Products Corp. specializes in the production of pressure vessels for use in sanitary, industrial, and general purpose applications. This catalogue, likely used by salesmen, contains...
Founded in 1929, the Alloy Products Corp. specializes in the production of pressure vessels for use in sanitary, industrial, and general purpose applications. This catalogue, likely used by salesmen, contains dynamic photographs and renderings of a variety of such vessels, whether intended to be on a factory floor or a truck-bed. Each photograph has accompanying typed, detailed captions, typically including technical details and specifications. There are several rather surreal images including extreme close-ups of the products, and oddly-composed images of people standing next to the tanks for scales.
Because the manufacturer specialized in custom goods, a number of the photographs include information about where the specific featured products were delivered. A “1250 Gallon oval Allegheny Metal milk truck tank with 17” manhole, 2” outlet and valve, insulated and covered with 16 gauge aluminum sheeting, complete with under structure and can racks” was “[d]elivered to Sunshine Dairy Company, Milwaukee, Wis. on June 29th, 1929.” These specifics lend a strange sort of intimacy to the experience of flipping through what would otherwise be fairly anonymous industrial mementos.
Almost exactly halfway through the album, there is a photograph of seven men in a workshop. This, as the caption tells us, is the shop for Alloy Products Corp. The caption reads “View of machine shop showing hand screw machine, milling machine, planer, lathes, drill presses, etc. All machining for LIFETYME [sic.] products is done in this shop under our own supervision.”
Alloy Products Corp. remains in operation today, with two facilities in Waukesha.