A while back I got an interesting email from a reader who has in his possession a piece of original equipment from the Rice power plant, an old trolley for a bridge crane:

I purchased it from university facilities and engineering in 1992, when I was working for Brown & Root.They had us remove it from the Central Plant. It was the original trolley for the plant’s bridge crane and dated back to when the building was first constructed. I remember that I contacted you to see if Rice had any records on who the manufacturer was, but there were none at the time. I have at last found that information and thought you might be interested. The trolley (and its bridge) were manufactured by the Whiting Crane Corporation and  sold to Rice in 1911. It is a unique one of a kind piece of equipment and was made exactly to specifications provided by whomever the architect/engineer was at Rice at that time.The crane was installed before Rice even started its first class. I thought it strange that this equipment was simply sold off in 1992 given the University’s interest in preserving history. I remember that we had to remove brickwork from the top of one of the Central Plants arched entrances to insert a chiller. A special company was called in to carefully document,remove and then put back the bricks exactly as they had been……with perfectly matching mortar.