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A trip in to the Old Continental Bottle house 1966 State of the Art


dave ziegler

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On Saturday I took a mask and a good flashlight and took a trip in total darkness to get some pictures of the inside of the 1966 Bottling house that Continental built from Warehouse U which in its time was the worlds largest one floor warehouse till they moved Liqour Bottling to Kinsey from Phila in 1966 and created what in its time was the worlds most mondern Bottling House. It was so dark Pitch dark that in brightening the pictures some colors will be off. I will be sending these pictures to Jeff and when he can he will put them on for me as my computer at home just will not do it but I can send them to him from my work computer and they will be here for you to look at Please look for the atachments after the title and then the pictures will be there. They had many lines and many tanks inside and the building ran 3/4 of the front of the plant. I also shot some pictures of the inside of #38 Blend & Gauge building and the outside of the bottling house and its special incoming black colored tanks now that they have mowed there. I wanted to get these pictures while I could still get in to get them and ended up with an Asthma attack but I want the History in pictures to be preserved and this was one of the last chances I had to preserve it on the SB. They had when this was running the ability to make around 1/2 a Million cases of Whiskey those days. It was very sad to walk through and see all the ruin in there, it is in worse shape then any building there and I have shots of the lab with old bottles laying around, the building is so large and long that I took a shot halfway back of a tiny light coming through a hole in the metal roll door at the far end and it is really in the distance. One of the neatest sets of pictures are the ones of the incoming lines marked Blender,Gin,Vodka,Scotch Whiskey. In its time the Continental Bottling house was one of the most amazing operations ever made and a tribute to the Chairman of Continental Distilling Simon Neuman! Please comeback to look when you see the atachments marked on this thread. I am very proud to have worked for Continental and very sad to see there show place Kinsey Distillery sitting in ruin. I hope that the pictures I have put on and these will show what a amazing and great place Kinsey was and what a great Company Contiental Distilling / Publicker Industries was!

Dave Z

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Here are some of Dave's recent pic's of the Bottle House:

A quik note Having not worked in the Bottle house I was not sure how many Bottling lines where running I found some old Paper work for sales bussiness stating that they had 11 continueous bottling lines running at all times during shifts. And I found a paper stating at that period of time during one of the years they had made 463,000 cases of Whiskeys Ect so far for output

Dave

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A quik note Having not worked in the Bottle house I was not sure how many Bottling lines where running I found some old Paper work for sales bussiness stating that they had 11 continueous bottling lines running at all times during shifts. And I found a paper stating at that period of time during one of the years they had made 463,000 cases of Whiskeys Ect so far for output

Dave

I made a special trip back to get these pictures for History It was cold and very dirty in there and Pitch dark I went with a flashlight a mask and my Digital Camera and then had to lighten them up on the computer but they turned out ok. In its day with the 11 lines running it was a powerhouse of a bottling Plant and if you look on the pictures of the lines you can read Blender, Gin, Vodka and Scotch I have sent some more pictures of the outside and inside to Jeff, they had around 250-+- people working in this building during both shifts and 600 people had good paying jobs and Lives when it was running. I sent Jeff some pictures of the Black Incoming tanks as you can see them now that they mowed and cut around them. I don't know if I will ever get back but my Memoories will go on and when I am gone the pictures here will live on for History I hope everyone enjoys all the Pictures I have put on by the help of Jeff to remember Publicker / Continental / and Kinsey Distillery which was a wonderful place to work for a 19 year old Kid! Note the Picture of the special Telephone near the tanks inside made to be explosion proof for emergenys and the old Timkin paper graph telling how things were running, also some of the lines and tankage in there, there were many more tanks and as I have said before they had 2 Million Gallons cap of tankage in the plant. Aso the 2 pictures of the Laboratory in the bottle house. Continental had 4 Labs one at the Plant one at the DSP#1 Phila Location one at Chesnut St in Phila and one in Essington Pa plus a cooperage Plant there too!

Dave

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Here are some of Dave's recent pic's of the Bottle House:

I just showed my pictures to an engineer at work and he said the Big Cabitnet with Paper Disc is a Honeywell Strip Chart Recorder, used to measure differances for day to day for Quality reasons. I mistakenly called it Timkin as the old ones from the late 1930's in the still when it was standing said Timkin I remember from my Yard gang trips in there to sweep and keep the place clean at all times even though it had not been used since the mid 1950's. I am glad to work where I can find great people to help me keep the facts right!

Dave

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A quick note Having not worked in the Bottle house I was not sure how many Bottling lines where running I found some old Paper work for sales business stating that they had 11 continuous bottling lines running at all times during shifts. And I found a paper stating at that period of time during one of the years they had made 463,000 cases of Whiskeys Ect so far for output

Dave

Hi Dave,

Thanks for posting pictures of the bottlinghouse :grin: :grin: I've been looking really hard to see if there's a difference between now and then. I know the machinery will look different but the outcome will still be the same. Not much left of the bottling lines to compare.

I noticed the incoming feed lines are floor level. That's very unusual, to be in a open area. All of ours are up high and on a "Platform" with a floating drain.

In the second row, picture #1 I noticed right off the bat a "filter" (center) Inside that filter there it is a really thick piece of felt like material that we call a "sock"... That sock prevents large pieces of char, dirt, from clogging the stems in the filler. It's on all lines in bottling operations.

Thanks for posting :grin: :grin:

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Dave,

I have been following your stories... thank you very much. I much enjoy reading them.

Emerald

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Dave,

I have been following your stories... thank you very much. I much enjoy reading them.

Emerald

Hi Emerald glad you are enjoying my stories I want to keep the History going and tell the stories while I am alive to do it. I have not written anything the last few days as my wonderful old Beagle / Springer Nikki died and I am having a hard time as we got him when my Mother was living and now they are both gone. When you are totally alone life is very hard. I will be trying to do some writting soon as it will keep me busy and that is good when you are alone. Be Well Emerald!

Dave Z

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  • 1 month later...

I am very glad that I went back those times and got these Pictures I did, in a way it was a theraputic thing for me having almost died Jan 2007. Going there the memories just came pouring in. In my mind I could see the old trucks roaring back and forth hauling barrels and the trip into the 1966 State of art Bottle house was important to me just for the sake of catching some history before it is taken away! Even though you can't see to much it was total drankness that day in there and I had 3 flashlights the pictures came out ok as you can see. I wanted people to see how big the Bottle house was it was really Big. It was at that time the biggest Bottle House in 1966. The Building ran 3/4 of the front of the property. When it opend it had around 450 to 500 people working in it 2 shifts and OT 5 days a week. They could load 3 Box cars out front and still do 3 to 5 Trucks at the end. I remeber the few times I got in there being amazed at all that was going on the one end was a maze of Stainless tanks some in my pictures but not half of what there were and still are in there. then the many Lines and through the last wall at the end the cases would be put on pallets and stored till shipped all in this one long Building. When it was set up it was a work of art and the greatest Bottle House in the world in 1966. Simon Neuman always did things big and this made the old Bottle House In Phila look like a toy! Since it will never be again I have worked all I can to preserve the History of Continental and Kinsey and of the Vision Of Mr Neuman a Man who when He made His Mind up went to work and got it to Happen. Today People would rather close a company to get a one time Profit He saw profit as a growing process where everyone gained in a long and large Process which led to Greatness, His Legecy Is He Was A Man of Great Ideas and not afraid to try something New and Publicker Industies and its companys will always be remembered by me as an American succes story and Power house of a company maker of Industrial Alcohol that supplied nearly every Medical Company in the USA, and world Maker of Wonderful Whiskeys, Ryes and other Liqours, and Maker of Dry Ice a real inovation at that time to catch the Carbon Di and use it right out of the Distilling process for Dry Ice! All these and the other things I have said speak of Mr Neuman and his Leadership!

I will as Long as I live be Proud that I worked for Continental Distilling and I hope my Stories and Pictures in these differant threads will give great insite to Publicker IND!

Dave Z

Old Hickory America's Most Magnificent Bourbon

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Here is another picture taken in the 1966 Continental Bottle House Last fall, one of some others I have to put up yet.

Dave

Old Hickory America's Most Magnificent Bourbon

======================================

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Here is another shot of the Singer Bottling Machines in Building O. The Bottle House is so big it takes a long time getting shots and most of it is so dark. I hope to get some more one of these days

Dave Z

Old Hickory America's Most Magnificent Bourbon

===================================

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Here is a couple Pictures of the Bottle Of Kinsey Silver that Ludy gave me plus some of the other Empty Collectable bottles he gave me. First two Pictures are the 4/5 Pint of Kinsey Silver which I enjoyed two shots from, next a old Kinsey Gold bottle 1944, and a old Kinsey clear bottle 1942, Next one I have wanted for years an Old Treasure whiskey Bottle, then a mini Pinwinnie Bottle 1/10 with its box! I listened to a few stories from Ludy and got a rare picture of the Distillery in 1937 which I borrowed and will post on my Memories thread! These Bottles were all bottled at the Linfield Bottling house 1966

Dave Z

Old Hickory America's Most Magnificent Bourbon

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Dave,

What kind of whiskey is Old Treasure? I see that it is blended in Belgum???

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Jeff The Information I have found states that Old Treasure ,was yes from Belgum and was completely blended of 12 year old straight Whiskeys! It states on the Bottle Every Drop of this fine Whiskey is 12 years Old! Its smoothness can only be achieved through this careful Long aging! 86 Proof. They imported it and botted it at Linfield and Lemont Ill Bottle house. Boy makes me wish it was a full bottle, bet it was super stuff! PS the bottle date on the bottom is 12-66 the year I started there Distillery D-90 their number.

Dave Z

Old Hickory America's Most Magnificent Bourbon

===================================

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  • 2 weeks later...

Well I went for another walk in total drakness for the sake of History and here are a few more 1966 Bottle House pictures from Kinsey! Sometimes I think I must be nuts crawling through weeds, ticks and holes to get there, then walking in Must, mildew, mold and bad air for history but it is a passion of mine to get all the pictures I can for the history of Kinsey Distillery, and even though I have bad Asthma I still go and do it for the love of the history of Kinsey. Here are some new Bottling house pictures I even climbed up on to the Platform where they had some more Tanks to get shots. I hope everyone enjoys these. Pic 1 is a safety sign the other side of a two sided one.

Pic 2 & 3 are Bottling Machines pic 4 another shot of the Tax seal machine it cut & numbered all tax seals, note old seals laying there with gloves as if they were coming back! Pic 5,6,7,8,9 are the tank platform and Piping I climbed to get pictures, and pIC 10 IS THE HOLE IN THE WALL FOR THE FIRRST LINE NUMBER 1 A.

Dave Z

Old Hickory America's most Magnificent Bourbon

======================================

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I have to admit even though it is moldy and dirty in the 1966 Bottle house now, it is always exciting for me to get there and find things to get pictures of to preserve for History and I enjoyed climbing the Platform to get the pictures of the tanks! When I am in there I think of the many People who worked in the bottling around 500 on two shifts! Names Like Ludy and Bud & Pappy and so many People I can think back and see them working there. On the Publicker Brosure I put a picture of here on the thread Bottling machines and other stuff were pictures of the Linfield Bottle house inside and the Bigler street Industrial bottle house at that time and Ludy when I gave him a copy saw a Lady he knew in one of the Pictures on the far right standing on a Platform there, Her name He said was Josephine Peiffer If you go to Pic set seven on the thread bottling machines and other stuff on the bottom row of the brosure second pic I think, pictures far right on it last pic you will see a actual picture of her in the Continental 1966 bottle house doing industrial Alcohol ! These Memories will now be saved do to the Pictures and stories, they are stories of a great Company and the Great work force they had and a Chairman who was a born Leader of Men and always took the chances that paid off to make the company a great Leader in what they did, Mr Si Neuman!

Dave Z

Old Hickory America's Most Magnificent Bourbon

======================================

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  • 1 month later...

I am hoping when colder weather comes to get some more 1966 Bottle House Pictures as it is so dark and so big a building that I have to be careful the Flash light does not die when in there. All the tanks on the above picture are labeled things like Rubbing Alcohol and were being used in the early to mid 1980's till 1986 when they still made industrial Alcohol plus solvents and Custom Whiskeys for sale to others bulk. Also made and Bottled Anitfreeze theirs and other companys like Esso, Shell Mobil and many more even Pine Oil. It is always hard for me to see it rotting there, I find myself wishing I could buy it and fix all the buildings up and that I could have some how saved the old #12, and wish I could save the remaining Old Buildings out front. But I will keep it alive by writting and telling of what was an Amazing Place!

Dave Z

Old Hickory America's most Magnificent Bourbon

Kinsey The Unhurried Whiskey

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  • 3 months later...

This sunday I went through with my New High power Digital camera and got a few new shots inside the 1966 Continental Distilling Bottling house which that year was the worlds largest and most High Tech bottling house for Whiskey!

Here are some of the shots

Pic 1. Front Docks to service Box cars and trucks at the same time note How long this building is as when you see the Inside pictures you can not see by eye from one end to the other.

The Building was setup with 4 basic rooms, front room end coming from Building H side warehousing of Filled cases of Whiskey and Plant Maintaince on the back side. all rooms had docks. Section 2 Lines bottling and of finished Product going to warehouse end to be skided through wall, Lab Lunch Room and Offices on the back side. Section 3 Loading of Bottles and all stuff needed Lines begin. And section 4 all the way at the far end Tankage of incoming Whiskeys from Big Black tanks Pic 2.Black tanks.

Pic 3. Looking toward far end these shots were taken in total darkness I pointed My Flashilight then holding my New camera in one hand turned off the light holding the camera in that direction and took the pictures some of them look like the lights are on great Nikon Camera!

Pic 4. Looking toward the Warehouse H side of the Bottle House

Pic 5. Another looking that way

Pic 6. thru 7. Bottling House Lunch room Old Vending Machine for Pastry can be seen

Pic 8.thru 14 what was the Linfield State of Art Laboratory

Pic 15. Line B-2 coming from section 3

Pic 16. Line B-2 in section 3 note Emergency Light above it was state of art those days to have this so my Safety Guy where I work now says

Pic. 17 & 18 Takage above

Pic 19. Pipes coming from section 4 incoming whiskey

Pic 20.Looking back toward Lab & Lunch room

Pic 21.thru 23.Safety Signs

Pic 24 Looking back toward end near Warehouse H

Pic Fire Box Location.

Hope these are enjoyable I have fire Tower Pictures Plant pictures and old from Bottle house and Mantaince Barn pictures to post later.

I am very Pleased at how good the Pitch dark pictures turned out and will go back to get Tankage shots in the 1966 Bottling house soon as you can see from the Pictures it is dirty and bad air so most times i wear a mask and do not stay long!

Dave Z

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It Seems All the Nicest People Drink Old Hickory

America's Most Magnificent Bourbon

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While taking Pictures in the 1966 Bottling house I found a folder of pictures and parts discription for the Bottling machines they were using I scaned them and will now post them. I also have the written manual pages. I brought them home to save them for Distillery History. These were real Black and white photos and I hope they are readable. The booklet says on the cover for Bottling Line A-1 which is one of the the Pictures I posted yesterday where Line A-1 came through and part of it.

If you look on the page before Pictures 14 & 18 are Line A-1! That was the line these bottle machinces were on. Also if you look at the second to last picture here you can see bottles on the Bottling Machine in the Picture.

Dave Z

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It Seems All the Nicest People Drink old Hickory

America's most magnificent Bourbon

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Nice pictures, Dave. Looks like you are getting the hang of the new camera...in no time.

Thanks for working so hard on this project. It sure is fun keeping up with all the photos and commentary. The stories behind the pictures really helps put substance to the images.

Do you think there would be any good information concerning distillation proofs and mashbills in the lab?

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Jeff I have never seen any Papers on mash bills as the the Still in Linfield was not used after spring 1951. There no papers from Phila that I have seen other then telling them stuff. I would be willing to bet that when they abandon the big stills down in Phila you would have found some stuff like that but after Overland wrecking cought the place on Fire that was it then then Dep & osha stepped in and it is no more. When things are open where there are papers I always try to find some interesting ones. I found lists of Whiskeys they wanted to sell they had there before it closed.

I will check out papers in the Lab again next time can't stay in there long as very dusty wear a mask and damp in there but lately seems better and one never knows. They may have some tests on stuff they were going to bottle.

Alot of the leftover whiskey burned up in L building when Kids set pallets of them on fire. Nothing left now but ashes. When I sip my Old Hickory I just have a hard time in believing that Continental / Publicker is gone. As I always say if Mr Si Neuman was alive today so would Kinsey Be, and I am willing to bet there would be a new Still operating there, as there was talk of that from the old timers when I worked there. Mr Neuman loved the Kinsey Plant and would come up at least once a month to drive around it. After building the New Bottle house He had High hopes for the Place that he called a jewel on the River!

Dave Z

____________________________________________

It Seems All The nicest People Drink Old Hickory

America's Most Magnificent Bourbon

____________________________________________

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Back in 1974 / 1975 When Publicker decided to Make a Liberty Bell decanter for the Bicentenial in 1976 for their Philadelphia Blended Whiskey little did they know the trouble they would have! First the early Ones had a crack at the seam and leaked there and when they tried to return them the company that made them refused so they had to sue from what I have been told! Then when they got the good ones boy did they present a leak problem alot of times! They had advertised so much they had to go ahead with the project.

They even Had a back label on the 1975 Bottles telling people to look for the Libery Bell decanter at their Liqour store and it had a picture of it. I luckily Have couple of these demo bottles with the picture label.

Ludy told me they took hundreds apon hundreds of them down to the dump that had the bad seam. He gave me two of some he kept as they looked so neat. I also have some I bought one being full but everyone I had to glue a new Cork on the top as that was another problem the Cork broke all the time on them! This was another losing deal for them and 3 yrs later they quit the Whiskey Bussiness!

Dave Z

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Philadelphia The Heriitage Whiskey

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Jono I would be willing to bet that some of them could be used again, when they had the auction those just were not sold and have sat since 1986. Not being in the bussiness anymore I also would not be surprised if they don't still use that type as they were very good and well made Bottling machines. Everything they ever bottled there they used those type of bottling machines in the mix. Ludy used to have one of his big jobs was setting them up and repairing things on them. Back when I went in the big bottle house back in around 1967 to do some moving with the yard gang it was quite a sight seeing 11 lines all running perfectly and at each end a fork truck hauling the finished product to the back side storage, the whole time trucks and Box cars were being loaded and the place looked like a city in there with all those people each doing their part as whiskey bottles filled continuosly. There were that year around 450 to 500 poeple in the bottling house on 2 shifts. And as Ludy told me the building is about 2 football fields in length. At the far right end where the big black tanks are were many tanks and lines for each type of Spirit. I have pictures on here of the plates that say incoming-- Bourbon, Gin ,Scotch, blended ect. I have since brought home two of those old tags. They had millions of gallons of tankage there. And no job was to big for that bottle house. It is hard to picture the day ending and everyone going home and things shut off and the next day nothing ever was turned on again but that is what happened. The old Refridges still have old lunchs in them its sireal for me when I go there. The first time I did I just stood and looked and I thought where has all the time gone and why did it have to end this way? I found myself imagaining the old 1941 ford trucks roaring back and forth with barrels to be dumped and people out back of the bottle house taking a break and the old bottle house cranking out some Peanut Liquor. But no one was there but the birds in the air and the breeze from the river and the noise of creeking doors in the old abandon warehouses. And plant Maintaince empty and no trucks or old cars anywhere except for the old 1958 Ford Continental / Distislling Dump truck that was used to haul things down to the dump and go get stuff!

Dave Z

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The End Had Come To A Place so Great Why Did it End And How Can This Be?

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_______________________________________________________________

It Seems All The Nicest people Drink Old Hickory

America's Most Magnificent Bourbon

_______________________________________________________________

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