The extrusion press above was in use in Waterbury, until 2012. It turned heated blocks of metal, like the one in this picture, into high quality, metal tubes used in nuclear facilities and elsewhere. It was the last major brass manufacturing in the Naugatuck Valley, once known as "Brass Valley." The metal was poured in the casting shop in Ansonia beside an even larger press that had not run since the 1970s. The story of Brass Valley and the last brass production is told in words and photographs in my book, Brass Valley: The Fall of an American Industry, published by Schiffer Books. Available also at book stores and at some local historical societies and museums.
