JF Ptak Science Books Quick Post
The running title at the top of the page in the Journal of the Franklin Institute (September 1860) reads “Straightening a Colossal Chimney Stack”, which attracted my immediate attention. It was constructed in 1859 in Port Dundas, near Glasgow, Scotland, and evidently needed some help in being straight-out perpendicular. The chimney was 454′ tall, and the tallest in the world–it was also one of the tallest masonry structures in existence. And it needed straightening.
“The tallest chimney was built at Port Dundas, Glasgow, Scotland, 1857 to 1859, for F. Townsend. It is the highest chimney in the world, (454 feet,) and one of the loftiest masonry structures in existence. It is, independent of its size, one of the best specimens of substantial, well-made brickwork in existence.”-September 8, 1895, Page 17, The New York Times Archives
The structure turns up in this delightful illustration of the world’s tallest structures in Rand, McNally & Co.’s Universal Atlas of The World. Edition 1896 (as #7):
