| Show GREATEST smokestack IN WORLD constructed by boston montana company at great falls montana written for the anaconda standard by p W goodale the greatest smokestack in world height feet diameter at base 78 feet 6 inches diameter at top 53 feet concrete foundation 25 feet deep feet in diameter weight pounds inside volume cubic feet ww saturday june 12 the boston montana works at great falls turned its smelter fumes and gases into the new flue system and chimney and that day marked the completion of the great engineering work after numerous experiments made at great falls on smelter fumes it was decided to build a large dust chamber filled with wires and make the smelter gases pass through this chamber of a low velocity the tests having shown that under such conditions the dust would be almost completely arrested by the wires and there would also be a condensation of other elements of the gases the introduction of a large number of wires in this chamber made it necessary to build a high chimney so as to overcome come the frictional resistance of the wires and a calculation showed that a height of about feet would give the required draft when the boston montana smelter was built in 1890 it had a chimney about feet high and twenty feet in diameter and it was believed that this chimney was made large enough for all probable extensions to the works but for several years the company has been working under the disadvantage e of an inadequate flue system in ID designing the new chimney it was the desire to have one large enough for furnaces of at least double the number now in use and with a diameter of fifty feet all possible requirements for future extensions are fulfilled the contract for the construction of the chimney was undertaken by the alphons Cus todis chimney construction company of new york and it was signed on february 13 1907 the next day the excavation for the foundation was commenced and orders order were placed for the necessary machinery to equip a brick plant to be located on tile the of rall raa company ground and the extension road tracks to the site of the brick plant and of the chimney was begun the excavation which was completed in may of that aba year involved the removal of over oi te e depth depa yards of earth and rock and the Y avren low the surface of the ground was three feet where a stra stratum was which after thorough testing was found sufficiently solid for the great weight to be placed upon it the concrete foundation was started the following 1 I august and completed about the first of october it contains cubic yards and the 1 mater als used were cement tailings sand and broken slat slag from the works in the meantime the brick plant had been completed and the contractor began to make the required chimney brick but as the foundation was completed too late in the season to enable the contractor to proceed very far with the chimney construction before cold weather the building of the chimney did not begin until april 7 1908 when the officials of the amalgamated company were present and laid the first blocks for a height of sixteen feet the chimney is octagonal in shape and above that point it is circular in cross section and its top is feet above the foundation the completed structure contains about tons of brick work the walls at the top are eighteen inches thick and where the main barrel or of the chimney begins that is on top of the octagonal t base the thickness is fifty afify y four inches A sectional lining of chimney block four inches thick laid in acid proof mortar is one of the features of this chimney the outside shell was completed in the fall of 1908 and some of the lining placed but with the beginning of cold weather work was stopped until spring while the work of constructing the ahe chimney was going on preparations were made to build the dust chamber and connecting hue flue the former to have a length of feet and the latter 1239 feet it was necessary to excavate over cubic yards of earth and rock to make room for the dust chamber and nearly yards for the connecting flue structural steel tons in weight was required for the dust chamber and flue and in addition about tons of stel wires attached to the roof of the dust chamber is stretched steel netting and the wires are hooked into this netting hanging loose in the chamber two and one quarter inches apart the height of the chamber is twenty one feet inside and the wires reach from the top nearly to the bottom the weight of each wire is about one pound so that there are nearly wires in the chamber in the floor are more than 1000 steel hoppers and under the chamber is a track system which will enable the company to remove the dust very easily from any one of these hoppers at any time the width of the chamber is feet and it is divided into two compartments so that repairs can be made in one while the gases aie are going through the other compartment dampers being provided for deflecting the gases into either one the temperature of the gases when entering the chamber will be about degrees and arrangements range ments have been made for the admission of cold air after the gases have passed about half way through the chamber with a lower temperature there wilt wilf be a tendency of the dust and condensed materials to adhere to the wires and shaking arrangements are provided in this part with a view to cleaning the wires of all adhering particles the gases from the furnaces in the several departments of the smelter are assembled in a large uptake up take and from this taken over the smelter building in a cro cross ss take to the dust chamber in the construction of the flue system about 11 11 1 tons of chimney brick were used it will be seen by the cut that these blocks are not like common brick and that several different shapes and forms entered into the construction the clay for making the blocks was quarried by a steam shovel from the companas comp anys el ground a short distance from the chimney in the construction of the chimney and flue system the company has expended over 1 in germany there is a chimney feet high but of small diameter and as no chimney in this country had ever been built with a larger diameter than thirty feet it will be seen that the great palls falls structure is the largest and highest chimney in the I 1 world |
