Category: History

Trading Pit Hand Signals and History

For those who have seen Trading Places – and like me wondered how the final scene actually works or loved the New York Board of Trade flip dot board) – and wondered what all those hand signals meant, well there’s a website for you. It is called Trading Pit History and is curated by Ryan Carlson, who has worked at the Kansas City Board of Trade, Chicago Board of Trade, Chicago Mercantile Exchange and New York Mercantile Exchange.

This project solicits any and all examples of hand signals from any futures trading floor which aren’t already on the website. Any critique of information contained is also encouraged as some hand signals are from secondhand sources and the aim is accurate historical record. The catalogue of knowledge will continually be updated as additions are made.

I wonder if pit trading signs will end up like semaphore, maritime signal flags, and morse code where only a few keep the language alive.

Happy 4th of July – How American Got Built: Hulett Automatic Ore Unloader

The Hulett Automatic Ore Unloaders once saw wide usage along the Great Lakes unloading bulk ore ships. The Huletts were electrically powered on two parallel tracks along the docks, ordinarily with four railroad tracks in between. A vertical column with a large scoop bucket on the end houses the machine’s operator stationed above the bucket for maximum cargo visibility. The Operator could spin the beam at any angle scooping up to 10 tons of ore per run dumping the load into a moving receiving hopper which ran between the main girders dumping the load into a waiting railroad car.

I vaguely remember seeing the Huletts on Whiskey Island in Cleveland, Ohio when I was a young boy – they were demolished in 2000 after standing idle since 1992 after self-unloading ore ships became the standard on the Great Lakes. So seeing a video of them in operation is amazing: I didn’t realize how big the ore ships were, so the when they strap a front loader to the Hulett bucket and drop it into the ore hold I was dumbfounded.

Below is a video from 1999 from the engine of Amtrak train #44 going under the Huletts on Whiskey Island:

Below is a series of photos from the Library of Congres Pennsylvania Railway Ore Dock, Lake Erie at Whiskey Island collection at the American Memory collection.