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Molded Tooth Staggered Gear and Worker, 1913
by Jennifer McNulty
Gift of Mesta Engineering Company, Courtesy of Carnegie Museum of Art
The Mesta Machine Company churned and smoked on more than 20 acres of
land along the Monongahela River.
Though its central product was steelmaking equipment—supplying
some 500 mills around the globe—Americans had Mesta's 3,000 employees to thank for their working cars
and refrigerators, ship hulls and power plant turbines. During the Depression, then-president Lorenz Iversen
would announce each new contract by having a podium built on the shop floor, clambering up and shouting,
"We got this job because you're the best mechanics in the world!" Most of the plant's employees hailed from
nearby West Homestead, and it was the rare person who wasn't in some way related to his colleagues.
Tags: Looking Back
Jennifer McNulty
Pittsburgh Quarterly's creative director from 2008 through 2017, Jennifer came to Pittsburgh from another steel town — Bethlehem, Pa. She attended Carnegie Mellon University for graphic design, fell in love with the city, graduated and stayed. She also performs across the country, singing and traveling with the Pittsburgh-​based Boilermaker Jazz Band. Jennifer lives in Deutschtown on the North Side with her husband and daughter.
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