MEMORIAL TO THE
ALUMINUM INDUSTRY WORKERS OF MILAM COUNTY:
Alcoa Crucible #2
This exhibit is dedicated to the men and women of Rockdale and Milam County who worked in the Aluminum Industry from 1950 to 2008. This includes Coal Mining and Power Generation employees who provided the Aluminum plant with electrical energy over this same period.
Alcoa-Rockdale Operations donated the equipment used in this memorial. Perry & Perry Builders / Erectors contributed labor and expertise to assemble this memorial exhibit.
During almost 60 years of operation the Alcoa Aluminum Smelter that was located in Sandow just 6 miles southwest of the city of Rockdale, Texas produced approximately 26 billion pounds of aluminum. This operation, along with the open-pit lignite coal mine and electrical power generating stations, employed thousands of workers from 7 Central Texas counties.
The centerpiece of the exhibit is the actual molten-metal crucible that was used in the production of the Goddess of Liberty #2 that now sits on top of the Texas State Capitol Building in Austin, Texas. It replaced the original Zinc Die-Cast Goddess of Liberty in 1986. The original statue was installed on top of the Texas State Capitol Building in 1888. Because Alcoa-Rockdale Operations provided a “metallurgically unique alloy” for the new statue, Rockdale could consider itself to have provided the “DNA” for the Goddess of Liberty #2.
The crucible could hold about 14,000 pounds of molten aluminum, but for the new Goddess of Liberty, only about 5000 pounds were needed. Every pound of aluminum produced at the Rockdale smelter over 56 years was transported in a crucible like this to various manufacturing and casting processes that existed at Alcoa Rockdale Operations.
Below the crucible are three 1500-pound pig molds. These iron molds were used to cast primary aluminum into a shape that is an aluminum industry standard. This crucible is displayed in its normal pouring position to simulate the transfer of molten aluminum into the pig molds. The nominal pouring temperature was 1380 degrees Fahrenheit. Once solidified the 1500-pound aluminum castings (“pigs”) were shipped to customers all over the world. They, in turn, would re-melt the 1500-pound pigs for their use.
The arrangement of equipment here is intended to depict the actual pouring of the Goddess of Liberty #2 molten aluminum alloy at Rockdale Operations as shown in pictures taken in the Alcoa Ingot Plant in February 1986.
