First Haydite Plant Construction and Operation, Wyoming, the Manufacture of Stephen Hayde's Patented Technology During Oil Production Peak, Photo Album of 91 Photographs, 1922-1924

Stephen Hayde Salt Creek Construction

Photograph

Salt Creek Haydite Plant album documenting shale extraction, rotary-kiln aggregate production, and water-control construction in Natrona County, Wyoming, 1922-1924, recording the first commercially manufactured lightweight structural concrete aggregate in the United States, patented by Kansas City brickmaker Stephen J. Hayde in 1918 after he discovered that certain shales and clays could be expanded by rapid kiln-firing into a strong, lightweight ceramic. Haydite transformed twentieth-century construction by reducing the dead load of concrete by roughly forty percent, enabling taller buildings, longer spans, and the lightweight concrete masonry block industry that followed. The plant's location adjacent to the Salt Creek Oil Field, then the largest producing oil field in the United States and the source of the Teapot Dome scandal that erupted in 1922 to 1923, ties the album directly to two converging industrial histories: the patented invention of expanded-shale aggregate and the height of Wyoming oil extraction.
Photo archive of 91 silver gelatin photographs, ranging from 2.5" x 4.5" to 5.5" x 3.5", mounted on album leaves with ink manuscript captions throughout, bound in black leather with gilt-stamped cover reading "Salt Creek Construction," Natrona County, Wyoming, circa 1922-1924. The album's leather cover is inscribed, "John B. Cleary, Salt Creek Construction." It opens with exterior views of the Salt Creek Haydite Plant captioned "Const 1922, Com. Oper. Sept. 1," showing the main buildings, the upper crusher and shale storage shed with stovepipe and yard-light, and a loaded shale car at the trap of the shale pit. Successive pages document the production sequence by component: the upper crusher "jaw" with raw shale tumbling into the grates, the ore feeder with belt-driven shafts, the rotary kiln (an Allis-Chalmers unit by the partially visible nameplate) with a worker ascending its steel staircase, the fire box of the kiln in close view, the finish conveyor running to the haydite storage bin, and piles of raw "hadite" being measured by two men in work clothes and wide-brimmed hats. A page is devoted to the Haydite Plant truck, an FWD chain-drive with "Haydite Plant" lettered on its dump body and "M.B.Co. 81" stenciled above, photographed both in service and at the loading dock. Named portraits include "W.B. Shilling Const. Engr." in a pith helmet and white shirt, and a group portrait dated 1923 captioned "Mr. S.J. Hayde (inventor of 'Haydite') Mrs. Hayde Mrs. C, J.B.C., S.P. Boozell (Plant Supt.), John C." Later pages shift to a separate but related project: the "Cooling Pond No. 1 Sta. Salt Creek Field" under construction in the spring of 1923, with photographs of pile drivers, drain tile staging at stations 9+60 to 0+00, workers troweling the concrete pond bottom, and views captioned "Cooling Pond Finishing." A dam project follows, including "Progress on Core Wall," views captioned "After Flood of Sept. '23 (32000 S.F.) Loss of 40' of Emb. & Core Wall" showing the breach, riprap construction captioned "The Completed Project Before Storage Was Started," and a final image inscribed "Completed July 1, 1924." A late page shows the failed spillway with the caption "Erosion of Spillway After Cut-Off Wall Failed" alongside a "Survey after Flood." Named figures include W.F. Edwards, J.B.C., and "J.B.C., H.M. Pursel Contr."
Stephen Hayde received U.S. Patent 1,255,878 for his rotary-kiln process of bloating shale into lightweight aggregate in 1918, and licensed the technology under the Haydite trade name beginning in 1920; the Salt Creek plant was among the earliest licensee operations and supplied aggregate for oilfield infrastructure at a time when the Salt Creek field's production peaked at over 32 million barrels in 1923. The cooling pond and dam pages document infrastructure built to handle produced water from the Salt Creek oilfield's No. 1 station, capturing both the September 1923 flood failure with the specific 32,000 square foot loss recorded on the leaf and the July 1924 rebuild. Overall in very good condition, with expected toning, foxing, and edge wear to album leaves and mild silvering to several prints. The album constitutes a named, dated, and captioned firsthand record of early Haydite manufacturing and Salt Creek oilfield support construction, anchored by an identified portrait of the inventor himself.

Item #23447

Price: $685.00