My Memories of Kinsey Distilling

[ethangsmith]

Dave,

Do you perchance remember where they got the barrel stamps? I'm going to try and re-create the Michter's, Pennco, and Continental barrel stamps but it's going to be challenging getting the right stenciling and curvature of the lettering. If I can find a barrel stamp maker, I'm golden!

[dave ziegler]

Walking through the Plant is painful but not going and posting for history would be unforgiveable to me. Here are some more early Oct pictures in the Plant.

Pictures are from second floor and roof of Warehouse K.

1. Closeup of switches

2. Stenciling year 1951

3. Up on the roof looking back at warehouse Q the Fir observation room.

4. Barrels in second floor of K rotting in water leaking from the roof to the Point there is no lettering.

5. Picture of all of the switch headers.

I plan on a walk there this weekend rain or shine in is sad but I have to document every surviving thing I can.

Dave Z

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It Seems All The Nicest people Drink Old Hickory

America's Most Manificent Bourbon

[dave ziegler]

No story is complete without writing about my time working in the Warehouses. I spent half of the time I worked at Kinsey in the yard gang and half in the Warehouses. The very first job I did was rolling full wiskey barrels out of the racks to be dumped. I always loved the thick Blue alcohol vapors in the warehouses when they were closed a long time. The ceilings were 22 feet high on each floor and the vapors came down about 3 feet from the ceiling. The old wood and brick warehouses were interresting and the spaces between the racks were not for those that were big! I hated climbing the wood ladders in Warehouse D & E but that was how you got to the gangway between the sets of racks.

I will always remember seeing some barrels of Whiskey from the 1950's in warehouse E some distilled at Kinsey DSP-Pa-12 and some in phila at DSP-PA-1. I did everything from filling barrels to stacking the giant 360 gal ones to racking the regular 48 gal ones. Roll barrels to load out of warehouses and stood on the lift taking barrels up and the elevator in the old buildings running barrels down.

The real hard job was timing all the barrels to fall right on the dump trough I always declined that job if possible as mess one up and all of them would be off time.

Well this weekend I am returning to Kinsey to Give Ethan a deluxe tour in buildings I always love going there.

Dave Z

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It Seems All The Nicest People Drink Old Hickory

America's Most Magnificent Bourbon

[ethangsmith]

It was another great day at Continental. Dave was able to obtain access to all of the buildings for us so we were able to aid him in his hunt for artifacts. What we found today was quite amazing. Not only did we find a very nice barrel stave with a bung hole in it to refinish as a decoration, but we found lots of great paperwork, more electrical switches for Dave, some barrel parts for me, and several other small items. It's great being able to actually go somewhere and save true pieces of history. We also met up with 2 other guys that were there taking pictures. It's great to see people interested in the place in a good way and not there to vandalize it. In the back of one of the warehouses, I found something I didn't think I would ever find- a solid link between Continental and Michter's! It was a complete out-of-the-blue discovery- some paperwork that belonged to Theodore Veru, then an employee of Continental. Mr. Veru in 1980, bought Michter's Distillery from Michter's founder Lou Forman. There was rumor that many of the Continental guys were involved with Michter's too, but this just solidifies those claim in ink.

[tmckenzie]

well, what does the paper say? I am interested.

[ethangsmith]

The papers all had to do with advertising and importation of spirits. Nothing with Michter's, but it's proof that Veru was in fact an employee of Continental before buying Michter's.

[dave ziegler]

Tomorrow Thursday I am going to take a Picture of My Office Desk which now has 11 sets of Pilot lights, and one lighting explosion proof Candle and switches that light up from Kinsey Distillery and 26 sets in my office total! Sunday I got a never used Explosion proof Switch from Warehouse 38 from the very late 1940's early 1950's and mated it to two 1940 old time Pilot lights from Warehouse 38. The Company Electrician Paul wired it to turn one light on manual and the other light turning to the auto setting. I am glad I did as most stuff now has been stolen by the NO Good Vandels that raid the place from time to time. My goal is History preserved their goal is being bums that do not work and live by stealing from werever they can how ever they can. Had a Blast with Ethan -- Hey Ethan lets go one more time before Thanksgiving? Let me Know, and yes as I have said many times the Best Whiskeys for the most Part that Michter's had were made at DSP-Pa-1 Phila.

Dave Z

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It Seems All The Nicest People Drink Old Hickory

America's Most Magnificent Bourbon

[ethangsmith]

My calendar is getting really busy as Christmas approaches. I'll have to see if there is another weekend that will work.

[dave ziegler]

As I have said and posted before I have saved lots of Vintage Expolsion proof Switches and Pilot lights. Well here are a couple of shots of lights in my office saved from Kinsey by me and wired by the Company Electrcian Paul.

Pictures are

1. My Desk with 12 units including an Explosion proof late 1930's portable candle made into a desk light.

2. Side cabinet with large switch box from Government Building that turned on the pumps to send whiskey and Distilled water to the 1966 Bottling House. And five other sets.

3. Back corner of my office with another Explosion proof Candle into a lamp and a set of pilot lights.

Back shelves with 6 sets of Pilot light/Explosion proof switches and some of the working tube radio's from my years of collecting them they all work and I use them every day in my office. I have 18 radio's in my office.

Dave Z

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It Seems All The Nicest People Drink Old Hickory

America's Most Magnificent Bourbon

[ethangsmith]

Yay! The coveted and rarely seen photos of Dave's work space! I'll bet the room looks awesome with the ceiling lights turned out and all the switches and lamps lit!

[dave ziegler]

Finally here are some Plant pictures, gotten with Rod and Ethan be sure and look at the Pictures I posted on my two other threads this morning.

1. George Kuterbach on rail in kinsey brick & wood waerhouse F

2. Looking up through to top of racks Warehouse F

3. & 4. barrels in warehouse F that never got dumped and whiskey evaporated and barrels fell apart.

5. Shorty Keller on rail warehouse F

6. Old 1892 Kinsey Warehouse B with racks and everything else fallen down.

7. My Old Friend Warren Eashbach "Eagle Beak" He loved being called Eagle Beak and always said the Nose Knows! Warehouse M

8. Sprinkler Main in warehouse F

9. Two abandon Fork Lifts in warehouse M

10. Ethan and I saw these strange barrels in warehouse P Sunday a week ago they are thinner wood and have 3 big steel rings. Anyone Know what they were?

Well I have a few more pictures to post soon but for now I have posted on all 3 threads and will leave it at that for a bit.

Dave Z

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It Seems All The Nicest People Drink Old Hickory

America's Most Magnificent Bourbon

[ethangsmith]

I can see my lantern shining off in the distance in the barrel loader photo. It's amazing how big those warehouses are. That lantern is a Star trainman lantern and it looks like a tiny little light dot in the photo. Shows you how wide they are inside! As an extra note on the odd barrels. You can see they are also not tapered in any way, but instead are completely cylindrical. The rings are very large and look like they would fit on rails or some sort of track system. These barrels were all in close proximity to a dump trough and were pretty well rotted. They may have even been made of pine, judging by how rotted and soft the wood was. All the other buildings with dump troughs either have nothing nearby or a bunch of old re-used barrels that were filled with rye mash or bourbon mash "whisky" at one time. We also found several scotch barrel heads here and there, most of which were bright yellow and said "Inver House" on them and had a bung drilled into them.

[dave ziegler]

On a typical day working in the Explosion Proof warehouses we would go to the first wasehouse on our list with our Lead man. You would look at the pilot lights on the dock to make sure there was power.

Next go in the stairway to the floor you were going and throw the big floor switch. The door would then be able to open as they had a type of electric door Lock. I will take a picture on one next trip.

Then you went to the big electric Header which I have posted pictures of Look to see its pilot light was lit and turn on the sections you wanted to be powered up. Then each rack section had its own lights on explosion proof switchs like the ones I have on the pillers, the Old Crouse / Hines type 1930's/1940's. The cealing would have heavy Blue vapors from the top down about 3 feet. The cealings were 22 feet high.

Throwing the big switches turned on the explosion proof conections for your lift and then it was time to either pull barrels or rack them. Also some of the warehouses with dump troughs on the first floor had pumps that would pump the whiskey through a canister Cloth Bag filter then a tank in there and then to the bottling house tankage headed for the Bottle house.

Warehouse C was like that with its dump trough right in front of the tank and there was a cloth canister Filter bag then a 2,000 plus holding tank. Then Pipes right to the 1966 bottling house. last time I was in there I saw the lousy vandels had broken the filter canister right off its mounting. Amazingly there was some Old 25 year old dirty whiskey laying in the bag!

We would travel to two to three warehouses somedays pulling and loading for a warehouse with a trough or pulling and dumping at a warehouse you were pulling from if it had a trough.

There were 3 or four gangs that did this job. The day went by fast and in the summer it was nice and cool in the warehouses.

Dave Z

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It Seems All The Nicest People Drink Old Hickory

America's Most magnificent Bourbon

[Luna56]

Great reading as always, Dave, thanks.

Cheers!

[dave ziegler]

Luna 56 thanks for the Kind words! It is my hope to tell all I can about Kinsey and Publicker. I was off from work this week and went and found a brand new Red Glass explosion proof glass and a brand new 1940's housing to screw it into I also found a mint explosion proof switch, so I am going to make a red desk lamp for my office when it is done I will post a picture. It was raining today and as I walked around the plant it seemed so weird that everything is in ruin and abandon like it is. I stopped and stood and just looked around and it was sureal for me.

When I left there Fall of 1971 everything was in perfect condition, and to see it like this even after all these years and times I have been there seems very weird.

I wish I could save everything for History but I can't, still I try to save everything that has to do with the place when I can.

I stopped at warehouse N today and stood on the dock and just closed my eyes and thought of the old 1941 Ford flat trucks racing back and forth hauling full whiskey barrels to be dumped. It is so sad to stand there and relise that the place just became to old and no one wanted it after Mr Neuman died, and Publicker closed . If only someone other then the man from NY bought it, it may well be still being used but he is of the type that buys things to write them off. And let them go to ruin!

Till the day I die I will try to write what it was like to be part of the Kinsey / Publicker / Continental Distilling story. Picture a beautiful Park and that is how Kinsey looked back then.

Dave Z

It Seems All The Nicest People Drink Old Hickory

America's Most Magnificent bourbon

[tmckenzie]

Good work Dave. I am willing to bet those odd shape barrels are not barrels at all. But sections of wooden pipe.

[dave ziegler]

Thanks Tom never thought about that. Here are a couple of my new creations of Kinsey/Continental Distilling Explosion Proof Historic parts made into lights for History. Here are some pictures of completed lights and my New Red Light Explosion Proof Light being wired by my Friend Paul the Company Electrician.

1. & 2. Being wired now I will take a picture of My completed desk setup next week. The Red Cover was still in a box covered with Hay for shipping.

3. This explosion proof Light to eliminate a Liquid Site gauge on the Old tanks in DSP-Pa-12 Lives on in my office. When the Poeple who said they were fixing Kinsey were there before they tore the DSP-pa-12 down they robbed the metal switches out to scrap and never got to scrap this one it and the other really Old 1930's parts were in a big scrap barrel and I brought them home to save them for History I also as taught when I was young and worked in a museum labeled where they were from and dated when I saved them.

4. !930's Appleton Pilot Light with Matching switch from the Old Still with the Pump 2 Plate from the 1966 Bottling House.

Saving every part I can of what it takes to Operate today and Back in the day a Distillery is all part of My saving of History for Publicker/Continental/Kinsey.

These may just be parts to operate but with out them you do not distill.

Dave Z

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It Seems All The Nicest People Drink Old Hickory

America's Most Magnificent Bourbon

[ethangsmith]

That should give off a nice red glow.

[spiderblues]

Hey Dave! Those switches & plate look familiar

Glad you got them home & wired up. I'm sure they look great when lit up. Can't wait to go back soon.

What's up Ethan?

Here's some pictures from our trips:

11/6/11 (First Top Bunch)

http://photo.net/photodb/folder?folder_id=1000007

11/13/11

http://photo.net/photodb/folder?folder_id=1020180

11/19/11

http://photo.net/photodb/folder?folder_id=1020596

[ethangsmith]

Hey man what's up? I think this spring we'll have to make a serious expedition down once it gets warm. Make a day of it and see what other cool items we can find! Come on spring!

[spiderblues]

Hey man what's up? I think this spring we'll have to make a serious expedition down once it gets warm. Make a day of it and see what other cool items we can find! Come on spring!

Sounds good to me! Though we may make a few trips between now & then

[dave ziegler]

Well I have finally gotten my last two old switch sets wired by my Electrician friend at work Joe so here is my Red explosion proof lamp from warehouse #38 only warehouse ever numbered and my late 1930's amber lens water proof switch set from warehouse K dock.

First pictures are my newly made Explosion proof Red lens lamp.

Then one of the little dock switch and light and a couple of shots of my desk. I also have a clear lamp cover and after the first pictures I changed the bumb to a small clear one which looks better then the big frosted one.

Number 5 picture shows the lamp with the small clear bulb.

On my desk you can see my Explosion proof candle lamp which was built this past spring and my lighted v shaped Site glass light from the old DSP-Pa-12 still plus a pilot light and switch from the 1930's from the still and Pump one and pump two plates saved from the 1966 bottling house!

Dave Z

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It Seems All The Nicest People Drink Old Hickory

America's Most Magnificent Bourbon

[spiderblues]

The lights look great as usual Dave!

[dave ziegler]

Well we are in a mild winter right now and my thoughts go back to working at Kinsey during the winter months. Right now with no snow and faily mild weather we would all be cleaning alot in the yard gang. I would put in to sweep the Old Buildings such as the DSP-Pa- 12 still and the grain drying building. I loved weeping and exploring the old still. The Old Honeywell quality chart machine had new disc's in it dated to Late Mar 1951 the date it was stopped being used. As a young man I wanted to learn as much as I could about Kinsey Distillery. One winter we swept all the fire excapes out in the 14 explosion proof warehouses what a dirty mess with lots of dead birds laying in there.

The one fall we went into the Old Jacob G Kinsey Bottle house which Continental used to make all their Liquors till the day in fall 1979 they closed the door on making spirits forever!

They had gotten a Large order from Jacquins and wanted the place spotless before the ladies came over from the big Bottle house. The Kinsey bottle house was loved by the Ladies they dubbed it Happy House because they could sneek a drink easier there. I loved the Old Philip Singer Bottling machines in there on 3 Liqour bottling lines.

It is hard for me to see it ready to fall down completly in the near future and in general seeing the whole place going down the drain.

When I walk there I see in my mind all the people I knew there and the Old Trucks roaring down through.

Dave Z

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It Seems All The Nicest People Drink Old hickory

America's Most Magnificent Bourbon

[mike22487]

It looks like ill be making another trip up to PA in early March, maybe the 6th to the 13th, I'm not sure on the dates though. I would like to explore Kinseys 2 times while I'm there (if I have the time) if you are up for it Dave. Ill let you know the dates when it gets closer.