When the cooling tower at Ardeer Nylon Works collapsed

Discuss all aspects of the three towns in the Threetowners' Lounge.
Mitchy
Heid Poster
Heid Poster
Posts: 777
Joined: Thu Mar 30, 2006 10:02 am
Location: Ardrossan

When the cooling tower at Ardeer Nylon Works collapsed

Post by Mitchy »

Thursday, 27 September 1973, after a wee bit of internet research.

I was 11 years old and can remember my Dad asking me what was different about the outlook from our living room that morning. As far as I recall it had been a very stormy night, and it is remarkable that no one was hurt when it collapsed. Searching the internet the event appears to be used as a case study by various Universities and civil engineering establishments.

A current colleague of mine was a young Engineer at the Nylon Works at the time, and it was discovered that the plant could still run without the tower being rebuilt, after a few modifications.

Any other posters have any particular memories of this event?
User avatar
John Donnelly
Mega Heid Poster
Mega Heid Poster
Posts: 2955
Joined: Mon Mar 05, 2007 7:31 pm
Location: The Netherlands

Re: When the cooling tower at Ardeer Nylon Works collapsed

Post by John Donnelly »

Mitchy,

I remember it well. It was a VERY big storm. I was in Joe Rankin's, it would have been about 9.15, and somebody came in and said that the cooling tower was down. He was laughed at, but he insisted. Somebody went out and walked further up the Townhead to where it could be seen. He returned to report that it could indeed no longer be seen. There was an exodus from the pub, as lots of folk went out to see whether they were having their legs pulled.

JD.
Jimbo
Frequent Poster
Frequent Poster
Posts: 123
Joined: Sat Mar 11, 2006 11:54 pm
Location: Christchurch New Zealand

Re: When the cooling tower at Ardeer Nylon Works collapsed

Post by Jimbo »

Hi y"all
I was on shift that night in the nylon plant working in the catalyst plant about 150 mts from the tower
and we didnt hear a thing , the only noise coming from the "bothy" where they were boistrously playing cairds.

ICI pretending to be good corporate citizens built a 350 foot chimney in the Nitric acid plant so they could vent all that yellow acrid acid fumes into the atmosphere during the hours of darkness. On a moonlit night it was quite sinister to see it. the works fire brigade had to wash down all the cars in the car park in the mornings or the "acid Rain" would eat through paint down to the metal on the cars. How many Stinson housewives found holes in anything nylon hang out on the washing line overnight.

cheers Jim
chriso
Mega Heid Poster
Mega Heid Poster
Posts: 1094
Joined: Mon Feb 19, 2007 10:36 pm
Location: Ulan Bator

Re: When the cooling tower at Ardeer Nylon Works collapsed

Post by chriso »

I remember it quite vividly.I was working building the flats at pennyburn at the time,when we heard that they were looking for joiners urgently.
So me and a few of the guys I was working with went over and were asked to start immediately. There was mass panic among the I.C.I. management, as they were losing a fortune while the plant was out of production.
The first day we were installing plywood sheeting to the temporary water ducts that took the water to the timber cooling towers which were being assenbled at the same time.
We had finished the particular job that we were doing and the supervisor for higgins and sifton, who were handling the temporary manpower on the site, asked us to work on doing a night shift helping to erect the cooling towers. We asked what we would be paid for doing the shift and he said what were we looking for. We said £100 a shift, (Which was quite a lot of money then) and he said he would have to speak to the I.C.I man in charge.
So he took us to see him and told him what we were looking for. The I.C.I man told him to pay them whatever they want just get the job done.
Every body and their granny was there saying they were joiners.
I think we got a couple of weeks work out of it, before the plant came back on to production, but I'm quite hazy on the exact time.
Idiot - seeks village.
User avatar
morag
Mega Heid Poster
Mega Heid Poster
Posts: 11337
Joined: Thu Jan 06, 2005 12:29 am
Location: Stevenston. now in S. Cal

Re: When the cooling tower at Ardeer Nylon Works collapsed

Post by morag »

How many Stinson housewives found holes in anything nylon hang out on the washing line overnight.

cheers Jim

Jim, I've mentioned this before but when I was attending St. Mick's, Irvine around '65 /'66, girls in the 'playground' noticed their nylons disintegrating before their very eyes...made me wonder what our insides were doing :shock:
"You don't have a Soul. You are a Soul. You have a body."
C.S.Lewis
User avatar
little plum
Mega Heid Poster
Mega Heid Poster
Posts: 3360
Joined: Tue Mar 18, 2008 12:51 am

Re: When the cooling tower at Ardeer Nylon Works collapsed

Post by little plum »

Mitchy, I remember the storm that brought down the cooling tower, huts and wooden garages were in neighbours gardens. The next morning when I went to work in Ardeer, I hadn't noticed any difference in the skyline until it was brought to my attention by a work mate. I was on auto-pilot at that time in the morning. :roll: , as Chris posted , they did construct numerous wooden cooling towers to get the plant up and running.
Jimbo talks about the "acid rain" , this was a regular occurrence, and living in Ardeer we never thought anything about it. Ardeer factory was also guilty of this, depending on the weather conditions we would get acid in the air that stung your face. I remember one morning getting up to discover all the leaves on the Sycamores in my fathers garden were bare and it wasn't Autumn ( Fall) :evil:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The trouble with retirement is that you never get a day off - Abe Lemons
Alexmac442
Regular Poster
Regular Poster
Posts: 258
Joined: Wed Jul 22, 2009 2:35 am
Location: Previously Ardrossan, now Thailand

Re: When the cooling tower at Ardeer Nylon Works collapsed

Post by Alexmac442 »

I was early shift the next morning, I remember the security guy at the gate saying "the cooling tower's gone" my reply was "who took it" but it was a serious event. Luckily it more or less fell into itself, had it fallen outwards there could have been a very serious incident. We worked day and all night clearing the area and building wooden towers which ended up being very efficient. My best recollection is the pack of money we made for overtime.

Alex
User avatar
down south
Mega Heid Poster
Mega Heid Poster
Posts: 3534
Joined: Mon Feb 16, 2009 4:18 pm
Location: Cheshire,formerly Saltcoats

Re: When the cooling tower at Ardeer Nylon Works collapsed

Post by down south »

Here are a couple of pictures of the remains of the cooling tower, from the A&S Herald and the Glasgow Herald.
php0btetXAM.jpg
php0btetXAM.jpg (10.11 KiB) Viewed 12648 times
phpWQd5l7AM.jpg


The tower was 375 feet tall, weighed 10,000 tons and was the biggest cooling tower in Scotland, cooling 120 million gallons of water a day.

According to the reports, nobody seems to have seen the tower collapse. Nearest were three men employed by a contractor. They said they heard a rushing noise, and on turning round, saw a miniature tidal wave as water rushed from the collapsed tower.

Susan
Last edited by down south on Mon Mar 15, 2010 1:47 pm, edited 1 time in total.
User avatar
John Donnelly
Mega Heid Poster
Mega Heid Poster
Posts: 2955
Joined: Mon Mar 05, 2007 7:31 pm
Location: The Netherlands

Re: When the cooling tower at Ardeer Nylon Works collapsed

Post by John Donnelly »

I remember when they were building the thing, they had to stop because the curvature was not symetrical on both sides. They made some kind of correction and the tower was completed.

There was no mention of this when it collapsed.

JD.
Mitchy
Heid Poster
Heid Poster
Posts: 777
Joined: Thu Mar 30, 2006 10:02 am
Location: Ardrossan

Re: When the cooling tower at Ardeer Nylon Works collapsed

Post by Mitchy »

Loads of good replies folks - thanks. Interesting to see the one saying it was the biggest cooling tower in Scotland.
wellparkno9
Heid Poster
Heid Poster
Posts: 756
Joined: Tue Jan 18, 2005 8:02 pm
Location: saltcoats

Re: When the cooling tower at Ardeer Nylon Works collapsed

Post by wellparkno9 »

Hi Michy, out of interest ,when did the plant start produceing nylon or nylon salt.What year did the first fumes come out of them chimneys?,Sam.
Mitchy
Heid Poster
Heid Poster
Posts: 777
Joined: Thu Mar 30, 2006 10:02 am
Location: Ardrossan

Re: When the cooling tower at Ardeer Nylon Works collapsed

Post by Mitchy »

wellparkno9 wrote:Hi Michy, out of interest ,when did the plant start produceing nylon or nylon salt.What year did the first fumes come out of them chimneys?,Sam.
Sam,

Not totally sure, but I'll hazard a guess that the Nylon Plant started production around 1968. My Brother-in-law was made redundant from there in 1980 when it closed, and at that time it was quoted as having only been in production for 12 years, and also quoted as being the most modern plant of its type. I think Monsanto in Irvine took some of the products the Nylon Plant manufactured, and they also closed around the same time.

Mitchy
Post Reply