Re: Crown Metal Works

Many years ago I had the opportunity to visit Crown Metal Products, and they told me about having the license to build Westinghouse cross compound air compressors. I asked where they went, and they said mostly to oil refineries.
Subsequently I did visit more than one refinery which had compressors merrily 'ker-chunking' away. They explained that they didn't like to have any more electrical sources in the middle of a refinery than absolutely necessary. But they had steam available. So it was very convenient to mount a compressor on a bracket and use it as a source of compressed air.
That may partially explain why getting new air pumps and repairing old ones doesn't seem to be that much of a problem. They are still available.