Category Archives: industry

Usually heavy work, but in between always time for a chat and a newspaper …

People who perform heavy work know it … you have to know exactly what is your weakest link and ensure that it does not break. So it is important to eat and drink on time and take a pause. Only in this way will you be able to “survive” until your retirement. What we didContinue reading “Usually heavy work, but in between always time for a chat and a newspaper …”

A typically tough and hard-working laborer

Jaap Bosman was always called “Lange Jaap” (tall Jaap) by colleagues at the Hoechst-site in Vlissingen, because in our shift there were 3 operators with the same Christian name … and Jaap was indeed as tall and strong as a bear, always wore the largest size overalls and shoes and his helmet always seemed tooContinue reading “A typically tough and hard-working laborer”

Night shift Hoechst Vlissingen, 1983.

Back then it was strictly forbidden to take pictures … (it was the time when it was not even allowed to use a transistor radio in the control room) … so I took pictures illegally, to capture the atmosphere in the control room where colleagues also came for a cup of coffee and a shortContinue reading “Night shift Hoechst Vlissingen, 1983.”

https://drenthinspectieservices.nl/

Caspar asked me for some photos he can use for his new site : https://drenthinspectieservices.nl/ It had to have a few tubes, barrels and other inspectable stuff on it … So I dived into my archive. and found a few examples … . . old school tools much more can be found in my ThermphosContinue reading “https://drenthinspectieservices.nl/”

Cycling in Vlissingen-Oost

Today I cycled a bit through the industrial area of Vlissingen. A lot has changed. And before new installations can be built, the old one must first be safely demolished. EPZ’s coal-fired power plant has been out of operation for years and its chimney is now being demolished. Of all Thermphos buildings, only the skeletonContinue reading “Cycling in Vlissingen-Oost”

It is done!

My work at Petrogas is over … The project has been successfully completed. Fortunately, everything has been carried out without major accidents … Of course, much remains to be cleaned up and residual material to be removed, but our task to process all free phosphorus into phosphoric acid has been completed. Because of the COVID-19Continue reading “It is done!”

headshot

“Lex de Meester will take a portrait of you on a dyke close to the factory“, said Frank Balkenende.At first, I was not enthusiastic about the idea of seeing my old head on the front page of the newspaper, because I just got out of bed after the night shift.But when I heard that LexContinue reading “headshot”