I'm not sure if I've seen this first photo until recently. If I had, I didn't look closely at it. Notice the building and the shed in the lower-right corner. A railroad engine is approaching them.
They are sitting on the east bank of Oyster Creek. The creek is difficult to see because this photo was taken before it was dredged and widened. Another train engine is rolling over the bridge spanning the creek.
I don't have an exact date, but I looked closely at the left-hand side of the photo and can barely see the back of the Eldridge home among the tree branches. That means the photo was taken after 1908, probably not long afterward.
Another interesting thing is that the camera is pointed westward on a tower or platform, probably a railroad water tower.
These next images show the interior of the Char House. If you're down at the Farmer's Market on a Saturday morning, stop by the museum and watch the slide show of 38 photos showing the construction of the Char House in 1925. (The Museum will be closed this coming Saturday, March 22nd, however.)
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| Testing gallery where samples of liquid sugar were taken for quality-control purposes. |
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| Tanks containing bone char through which liquid sugar percolated downward to remove impurities and ensure the refined sugar would be white. |
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| Bottoms of furnaces where bone char was reburned (purified), so it could be reused in the percolation tanks. |
