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Trash
and Burn: The Sound of Pre-Operational Architecture in Self-Test
In 1983 I briefly worked at a powerplant called "BRESCO", that burned trash to produce energy in Baltimore, USA. These are raw and slightly processed audio recordings taken from that time period and location. Garbage
trucks would enter the plant to dump their refuse into a "receiving
pit". From this area, a crane with a huge mechanical claw scooped
up three or four tons of garbage at a time and dumped it into the
feed-hopper of one of three processing units. At the bottom of the
hopper, "ram-feed stokers" pushed the trash into a boiler
with an internal combustion chamber that burns at 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit.
The plant can burn about 2,250 tons of trash a day. Inside
each feed-hopper/boiler-unit is a set of slanted metal grates, arranged
in rows resembling stairs or bleachers that move back and forth. It
slowly transports the refuse through the fire and allows for complete
combustion to occur. It takes about one hour for any single piece
of garbage to pass all the way through the furnace. Prior to the plant coming into operation, I was able to wander through the facility and record the sounds of various locations around the plant, including the interior of the hoppers, where just a few short months later, the fires would be raging. I used a stereo handheld cassette recorder. The sound of the "grate system" being tested as it echoed inside the towering 90 foot tall boilers was haunting, and mesmerizing. Pressure release valves, pumps, and hydraulic systems were all being run through their paces from the central control room, with some systems coming on-line and self-testing. Other sections of the building were still under construction. I felt priveledged listening to the sound of the building, knowing that it might never be heard this way again. I was later fired from this job for an "improper attitude towards the machinery". Seriously. Some
of the recordings have been lightly processed. Some are raw unprocessed
recordings. Track B2 is heavily processed and re-sequenced. download:
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