Nothing But Love :: golf blogger

Manholes

man·hole (mān'hōl')
n. A hole, usually with a cover, through which a person may enter a sewer, boiler, drain, or similar structure.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

In Sacramento, California, manholes were renamed "maintenance holes," so as to be gender neutral -- but how many of the citizens there call them "maintenance holes?"

I guess, "None." Even the Sacramento Bee, a forward-looking newspaper, to be sure, started a story: Metal thieves have set their sights on another desirable target -- manhole covers.

Why has this subject come up here?

Sometimes, when I walk the dogs, my mind wanders. So, I was walking the dogs and stepped on a manhole cover that was hot. It covered a manhole that accessed underground steam pipes, which heated up the cover. When you are out and about, please avoid standing on a manhole cover labeled "STEAM."

The manhole cover was labeled "C.E.I. Co." and, below that, "STEAM," which was definitely a clue that the iron cover might be hotter than the average manhole cover. Around the cover, the name of the manufacturer was printed: AMERICAN DISTRICT STEAM CO. SYSTEM NORTH TONAWANDA, N.Y. The U.S. Open Synchronized Swimming Championship was in Cleveland this past week; and one of the teams was from North Tonawanda, N.Y.

There are a number of different brands of manhole covers -- and when I say "manhole covers," I mean the round covers, not the rectangular covers or the little round covers for water shut-offs. I saw a few labeled "WATER METER" made by "THE WALWORTH RUN F'D'Y CO.," which was located in Cleveland.

East Jordan Iron Works, East Jordan, Michigan, founded in 1883, cast a variety of the manhole covers I saw. There were some plain covers, that is, not labeled, except for the name "EAST JORDAN IRON WORKS," some with the place of origin, "East Jordan, Mich.," and some with the imprint, "MADE IN USA." Some of the covers were marked simply with a stylized "EJIW," which is a bit presumptuous, since those seeing the well-crafted cover and who might want to purchase one might not realize who they should call to place their order. Some manhole covers by "EJIW" were imprinted "SANITARY," "WATER METER," "SEWER," and "Ameritech," which was once called Ohio Bell, a part of AT&T, before AT&T was split up after jillions of dollars was spent in anti-trust litigation, and which is now again, without much fanfare, a part of AT&T.

And while East Jordan Iron Works made cast iron covers for the local phone company, Neenah Foundry Company, of Neenah, Wisconsin, cast manhole covers for "CPP," the municipality-owned Cleveland Public Power, and for "CEICo.," the non-municipality-owned Cleveland Electric Illuminating Company, along with generic covers stamped "SEWER" and "WATER METER."

During the year from 1880 to 1881, Edward Gill was one of 45 men employed as a laborer for the "ECLIPSE IRON WORKS" in "CLEVELAND, O." The manhole cover he may have removed from the sand or loaded onto a truck was not labeled for any particular purpose; it was just a manhole cover.

Whereas (Gee, sounds like legal talk) the other manhole covers, except for recessed designs, are relatively flat, a number of other covers have raised ribs in a spoke-like pattern emanating from a center ring and are marked "WATER" in raised letters, manufactured by "SEMI STEEL CO. CLEV, O," about which I could find no information when I googled the name. The company might have gone out of business because pedestrians tripped and fell on the raised-ribbed covers.

In 1968, "THE MADISON FOUNDRY CO.," maker of manhole covers labeled "WATER METER" in "CLEVELAND, O" closed its doors, but was bought by East Jordan Iron Works, which took over Madison Foundry's business supplying manhole covers to various municipalities and the Ohio DOT.

EJIW is building a cast iron manhole monopoly. The on-line catalog is 335 pages of manhole mania with anything a manhole cover buyer would ever want, including custom lettering. Everyone should have his or her own custom maintenance hole cover.

Posted by Bill at July 24, 2008 08:45 AM