Manhole cover admirers, unite.

June 9, 2003 12:04 AM

Drainspotting. Also, the beautiful norwegian manhole covers. via memepool
posted by spazzm (11 comments total)

i'm slightly flabbergasted
posted by mhjb at 3:27 AM on June 9, 2003

The fellow who runs Drainspotting (I believe he's a one-time Mefier) is a pretty cool guy. background on Drainspotting, which was once a USA Today hot site. Send in your manholes!
posted by j.edwards at 4:53 AM on June 9, 2003

Wow. I am glad to see this because I've also been fascinated by drain covers. There's something about having given a set of artifacts of fairly standard shapes and sizes, that also have to perform a common function, and see the different ways they can be designed and embellished. Some of the patterns of studs are there to make them none-slip, especially in the wet. I guess there's an anachronistic craft factor ... I just think it's nice that such apparently mundane objects can look so beautiful.

Google has a bunch of stuff under "manhole cover design." Shirley MacGregor has a book, "Quilting with manhole covers" (Amazon link).
posted by carter at 6:34 AM on June 9, 2003

[this is good...]
London manholes. Via
wood s lot.
posted by plep at 8:36 AM on June 9, 2003

This would be a good project for the "rust belt" here in the US. In many cities in the mid-west that I've lived in and been to, the manhole covers were at least this ornate. Some in parts of Flint and Detroit are even more ornate than these. They took their ironworks very seriously in those days (1880-1940).
posted by Dean_Paxton at 8:39 AM on June 9, 2003

But why are they round?
posted by drezdn at 9:29 AM on June 9, 2003

So they fit in the 'oles.

Ja eg elske dette comlokk.
posted by ed\26h at 10:53 AM on June 9, 2003

The motherlode ... cheers, hades!
posted by carter at 12:08 PM on June 9, 2003

As the straight dope says, manhole covers don't always happen to be round. They can also be in the shape of a Rouleaux triangle (or other -gon), which has rounded corners and a constant diameter.
posted by beth at 7:04 PM on June 9, 2003

This one takes the cake, IMHO. Original link here, click the products link. Couldn't get it to load this AM, so I had to use the self link above. Apologies.

Thanks for the post, spazzm.
posted by yoga at 7:36 AM on June 10, 2003

This is my favorite on the site, and this is the one I would see regularly and love.

and, damnit, I was going to post about this. I'm glad I checked.
posted by Katemonkey at 5:14 AM on June 12, 2003