Virjune Manufacturing Co: Inside Waterbury's Vacant Factory

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J and I were already having a rough day. We'd just driven across town to check out an old industrial site he hadn't visited in a while, only to find it erased. Nothing left but a slab of concrete and chain-link fence. So we took a detour. Sometimes you salvage a disappointing afternoon with a backup plan, even if you're just ticking a box. The former Virjune plant hides in plain sight off Thomaston Avenue. If you drive past in summer, you'll miss it completely. Trees and shrubs swallow the building whole, nature reclaiming what industry left behind. Come winter, though, when the branches go bare and the world turns gray, the red brick skeleton reveals itself. Even then, you have to know where to look. I pulled up old Sanborn maps to trace the building's history. The earliest tenant was an auto body shop in 1922. By February 1950, something bigger had moved in. The map labels it simply "Stamping Wks." No company name. No flourish. Just function. That namele...
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BEWARE of Vintage Lens Fungus



A fallen Yashica ML 50mm 1:2

























One thing to be aware of when purchasing from Flea Bay (eBay) and other places is looking for any instances of fungus matter inside the lens elements. It can be either in the front or the back. You can't clean fungus easily with these lenses since the cost to have them cleaned is not proportionate to how much they cost. The expense is more than the purchase price. Nothing makes you feel worse than a huge spot of fungus or the beginning of fungus growth. So make sure you double-check and look over more than twice over pictures by sellers online and in person.









There are remedies out there that say you can destroy it by placing the lens on a windowsill and letting the sun take care of it. This can be met with some success but in actuality may cause the lubrication on the aperture blades to run or even leak causing the aperture mechanism to stick and lock up rendering it useless.
















So take these words of wisdom and inspect lens merch with care.

Gratitude.


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