September 02, 2005
Silent signs of no significance.
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- Jimmy Little was once a harmless pseudonym living near the Estuary.
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10 Comments:
What does it mean? Tell me! I grew up and went to Jr. High 500 feet from it. I need to know!
I'm not sure I want to destroy the mystique of what used to be the East Bay's most gnomic sign, but here goes... When you're casting metal (bronze, iron, etc.) or other materials, it's really desirable to make sure that porosity (i.e. porousness, on the surface or internal to the cast object) is controlled or eliminated during the casting process and / or during cooling, otherwise the surface looks dreadful, or the strength of the cast object is compromised. The little factory beneath the long-gone sign used to make chemicals and associated gear that helped stop casting porosity...
Not much of a mystery anymore, is it? Once that "casting" becomes an adjective rather than a verb, it all becomes obvious :-).
When one enters "stop casting porosity" on the internet and pokes "images", the picture of the sign and its famous injunction appears. what no one mentions in the blogs I have seen is that there was - another - sign directly on top of the main sign that was almost as peculiar! it was a little whirling deelee-bob over the main sign that displayed the comforting message "millions saved". I saw these signs for years as I drove to work.
I found out that my father-in law, who owned a machine shop in Oakland, did business with the company. he often received castings from them to machine to proper specifications. I asked him what "stop casting porosity" meant and he said exactly what Jimmy Little said in his blog of 9/17/05 -it is a casting method that minimizes leakages associated with microscopic holes in metal castings, especially pump valves etc. I later met the owner of the company who was a guest at a family dinner at my father in law's house. his name was Ralph Jones. he was a delightful, soft spoken, impish fellow who was good company. over the years at family gatherings a funny story unfolded about Ralph and his stop casting business. It seems Ralph wanted to retire so he sold his company to some Harvard business grads who were going to run it. the next time I saw Ralph, I found he owned the company again! he said the Harvard buisness grads had gone bankrupt so he bought it back from them. This went on several times as he sold the company he had run for many years only to buy it back as the new owners fuzzled the products and lost the customer base. I asked him why he didn’t stay on with these new owners as an adviser and he told me he tried but he found out it was harder to try to help the new owners than it was to run the company himself. all he wanted to do was retire and hope the new owners could run the company and keep his original workers steadily employed. he said he had made so much money selling and buying the company back at bankruptcy rates that he had put together a trust fund to help compensate his former employees for the erratic performance of the succession of buyers. the last I heard, he had given up for good on the company and really did retire. the company shut its doors and Oakland lost a landmark.
I hope this will be fun for readers and not take too much mystery out of the image of those signs. --just try to remember what it was like for many of us Oaklanders who drove down the Nimitz freeway and were stirred by the "stop casting porosity" injunction and at the same time were comforted by the spinning "millions saved" banner. the experience broke up the boring commute and provided for many of us a "thought for the day".
Wow — thanks Anonymous (and how did I miss your comment for so long?). That all brings back memories — I'd forgotten about the weirdo little whirly thing next to (or above) the main sign with the "millions saved" on it. Wish I'd taken a photo or two when it was an everyday part of my life…
Great summary of the history of Western Sealant, the "little factory beneath the long-gone sign..." One matter for the record, the sign was located in San Leandro, not Oakland.
San Leandro? Most certainly not! Oakland! My daughter, 23, just called me (in Portand, OR) to say she was driving past Stop Casting Porosity on her way home (to Alameda, from The City). SHE's never actually seen the sign, of course, which disappeared years ago, but I still see it, every time I drive by, and have told her often enough that apparently she can see it too. San Leandro! Ridiculous.
Barbara Brower of Portland, OR is wrong! Anonymous is correct. I and my brother both went to John Muir Jr. High School across the Nimitz freeway and used to walk home past Western Sealant (where the STOP CASTING POROSITY sign was) on Timothy Drive. As Timothy Drive is between Williams Street and Davis Street in San Leandro, that makes Stop Casting Porosity a SAN LEANDRO landmark!
Could there have been TWO signs? MY brother, who's lived i the Bay Area since 1944, agrees with me that the sign was visible from 880 in Oakland
Bob Van Horn said: I still "see" the sign atop the building alongside the west side of the "Nimitz" although it has been gone for so many years. Does anyone remember that there was a rotating sign above it that proclaimed "millions saved"? Also, I remember that the sign actually caught the notice of one of the Chronicle's venerated reporters, and a phoney campaign was started to have another competing "start casting porosity" sign put up somewhere nearby.
Yes, San Leandro was the home of Western Sealant, and I believe that you'd be able to see it from 880 in Oakland, as the border to Oakland is not more than 2 miles from their former location. I lived in SL and still own rental property there, and worked on Williams street not 2 blocks from the origin of the mysterious message. It was a running joke amongst the denizens of the area. I miss the blaring admonition, and now that it's gone, I find myself absent-mindedly casting porosity here and there on occasion before I'm reminded of the commandment so prominently fixed in my memory.
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