Cloud Factory

meaning Michael Chabon's term for the Bellefield Boiler in his novel The Mysteries of Pittsburgh

as in

date 1987

authority "Secret Life: The Bellefield Boiler." Pitt Magazine (January 1992): 4.

and displaying the wit and affection that have, in part, enshrined his reputation, Jamie Van Trump wrote of the Bellefield Boiler: "With its marble floor, its white terra-cotta walls, and its instrument panels of marble and brass, it seems almost like a ballroom for machines, where the intricate, precise movements of the generators constitute a sort of perpetual mechanical ballet."

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Sources:

Ambrose, Roy B. "Steam Heat for the Civic Center." Carnegie Magazine (December 1945).

Sachs, Sylvia. "Keeping the Heat on Oakland." The Pittsburgh Press, 11 January 1981, 18-19 (Roto).

Rotstein, Gary. "Smokestacks' Fallout Includes Some Ill-Will." Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 15 March 1993, C2.

Toker, Franklin. Pittsburgh: An Urban Portrait. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, c1986, 102.

Van Trump, James D. An American Palace of Culture: The Carnegie Institute and Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh: Carnegie Institute; Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation, 1970, 21.