Fotoreproductie van ontwerptekeningen van pompen, klemmen en rails voor een creosoteer-werkplaats before 1867

This technical drawing of pumps, clamps, and rails for a creosote workshop was created by B. Crolet. It’s a photo reproduction, so we're seeing it at a remove, but even so, can appreciate its meticulous detail. The drawing is all about process, the industrial process of creosoting, which was used to preserve wood, especially railway ties. You can see the circular tanks in the drawing, and the pump systems that forced the creosote into the timber. The drawing itself would have been a crucial part of that process, guiding the making of a place for the process to happen! What’s most interesting is the way the drawing visualizes labor. Creosoting was a dirty, dangerous job. It was also essential to the expansion of the railway system. This drawing is a diagram of that industry: a meditation on the social impact of an industrial process. And it reminds us that even the most apparently neutral images are deeply embedded in social and economic reality.