The smelting plant

The tag says: 'takk for oss' a norwegian expression for 'good bye from all of us'!

Its about ten years now, since the last workers left the smelting plant in Odda, Norway. The abandoned buildings still stands and reminds us about a tough industrial reality made of concrete and iron. For about hundred years this plant was the cornerstone of a society deep inside the Hardangerfjord, surrounded by high mountains blocking the sunlight.

Destiny, I think, gives me a special relationship with Odda. I've never lived there, but stayed there several times and I think the place is fascinating. The abandoned smelting plant in the middle of town looks like an ancient dark throne of evil forces.

Inside, a carpet of grey sand and dust (probably a mixture of chalk and coal) makes the buildings look like you have entered a colourless post apocalyptic site with dead materials and no life.

   
Once, these buildings where filled with men, dirty and strong men, sweating over melted carbide pouring out of glowing owens. Now, it's cold and hard.

It seems odd to build an industrial smelting plant in Odda, the middle of nowhere, far away from practically everything. In addition there were no lime stone in the area, or coal, the main ingredients in calsium carbide. They shipped the the raw materials to Odda in tankers on the fjord.

In the beginning of the 20th century the reason was an unlimited source of cheap power produced by waterfalls. Calsium Carbide is produced by heating a lime and carbon mixture up to about 2100 degrees celcius. In 1906 the plant in Odda was the biggest Calsium Carbide plant in the world.



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