The Cloud Factory is an affectionate euphemism for a boiler plant which billows steam from its twin stacks in The Mysteries of Pittsburgh, the 1988 debut novel by the Pulitzer Prize-winning American writer Michael Chabon. A euphemism is a substitution of an agreeable or less offensive expression in place of one that may offend or suggest something unpleasant to the listener or in the case of doublespeak A boiler is a closed vessel in which Water or other Fluid is heated The Mysteries of Pittsburgh is a 1988 Novel by American Author Michael Chabon. A novel (from Italian novella, Spanish novela, French nouvelle for "new" "news" or "short story The Pulitzer Prize, ˈpʊlɨtsɚ PULL-it-sər is an American award regarded as the highest national honor in Newspaper journalism, The United States of America —commonly referred to as the Michael Chabon (pron SHAY-bon (born May 24 1963 is an American author and "one of the most celebrated writers of his generation" according to the The Virginia Bellefield Boiler Plant, the actual name of the facility, is located in Junction Hollow behind the Carnegie Institute in the Oakland district of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Junction Hollow is a small wooded valley bordering the west flanks of Schenley Park and the campus of Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania This article is about an organization that operates museums For the foundation which supports scientific research refer to the Carnegie Institution of Washington. Oakland is the academic cultural and healthcare center of Pittsburgh and is Pennsylvania's third largest " Downtown " The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania ( often colloquially referred to as PA (its abbreviation by natives and Northeasterners is a state located in the Northeastern
Built in 1907 to provide steam heat for the Carnegie, it was designed in the Romanesque Revival style by the architectural firm Alden and Harlow. Romanesque Revival (or Neo-Romanesque) is a style of building employed in the late 19th century inspired by the 11th and 12th century Romanesque style One of the smoke stacks measures 150 feet and the other more than 200 feet. The plant burns both coal and natural gas. Natural gas is a Gaseous Fossil fuel consisting primarily of Methane but including significant quantities of Ethane, Propane, Its steam system expanded in the 1930s to service the University of Pittsburgh's Cathedral of Learning. The University of Pittsburgh, commonly referred to as Pitt, is a non-sectarian coeducational independent state-related, "public" research University The Cathedral of Learning, a local and national landmark is the centerpiece of the University of Pittsburgh 's main campus in the Oakland neighborhood of Today it pumps heat to most of the major buildings in Oakland. It is owned by a consortium made up of the University of Pittsburgh, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Carnegie Mellon University, the Carnegie, the City of Pittsburgh, and the Pittsburgh Public Schools. The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC is a leading American healthcare provider and institution for medical research Carnegie Mellon University (also known as CMU) is a private Research University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United Pittsburgh Public Schools is the public School district in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA and adjacent Mount Oliver
According to reporting by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, however, the 2007 film of the novel does not use the actual Bellefield Boiler Plant, but a similar facility a few miles south in Rankin, Pennsylvania. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, also known simply as the "PG" is the largest daily Newspaper serving metropolitan Pittsburgh, Rankin is a borough in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, 8 miles (13 km south of Pittsburgh on the Monongahela river
Source of the phrase
Chabon may have coined the phrase "cloud factory" himself, or heard it first from locals before employing it to great effect in his novel. Or he may have borrowed the phrase from Henry David Thoreau. It appears in Thoreau's essay "Ktaadn and the Maine Woods", which was first published in five serialized installments in Sartain's Union Magazine in 1848. John Sartain ( 24 October, 1808 in London, England - 25 October 1897 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania The piece describes a transcendental, "mountain-top" experience Thoreau had in the summer of 1846 while hiking Mount Katahdin in Maine:
"Sometimes it seemed as if the summit would be cleared in a few moments, and smile in sunshine; but what was gained on one side was lost on another. Transcendentalism was a group of new ideas in Literature, Religion, Culture, and Philosophy that emerged in New England in the Mount Katahdin (USGS name is the highest mountain in Maine. Called Katahdin by people local to the peak and by the Penobscot Indians: the term means "The The State of Maine ( is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America, bordering the Atlantic Ocean It was like sitting in a chimney and waiting for the smoke to blow away. It was, in fact, a cloud factory [bold emphasis added],—these were the cloud-works, and the wind turned them off done from the cool, bare rocks. "
External links
References
- Thoreau, Henry David (1864, 1988). The Maine Woods. New York: Penguin. ISBN 0-14-017013-8.
- Toker, Franklin (1986, 1994). Pittsburgh: An Urban Portrait. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press. The University of Pittsburgh Press is a scholarly publishing house and a major American University press that is part of the University of Pittsburgh in Pittsburgh ISBN 0-8229-5434-6.
- Barbara Vancheri (2006). Shooting of the film "The Mysteries of Pittsburgh": story from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Retrieved May 13, 2007.