Show utah society of engineers visit V bit 0 0 tooele thoele smelter BY WILL C HIGGINS on saturday october the utah society of engineers took one of its regular outings and with invited guests made a visit of inspection to the new tooele thoele smelter of the international smelting smelling Sm elting refining company at international a short dist tance from the town of tooele thoele in tooele thoele county utah through the courtesy of the salt lake at the pretty and quaint old town of tooele thoele a stop was made for lunch and the members of the party were conducted to the oquirrh hotel where instead of a cold handout hand out as anticipated a regular spread had been prepared with all of the bials and delle delicacies acles of the season and this was served with such a display of welcome and goodwill good will that the occasion will be long mammoth plant and grounds being assisted by H N thompson superintendent L T mechanical superintendent and ed cuddihy master mechanic starting at the office warehouse and shops the party was conducted through the converter plant the roaster plant the power house crushing plant ore bins conveyor sheds tre minal station of the aerial r 1 pom ta MIT WW 4 aa 44 at T alk 7 birdseye view of the tooele thoele smelter route a private chair car was furnished for the party and the start was made at 1020 a m the weather being perfect and the visiting engineers in good spirits at tooele thoele junction the coach was switched to the tooele thoele valley railroad and the balance of the journey to the smelter was made over this new line which is embraced in international holdings remembered by the society and its individual members with but little delay another start was then made and in due time the train arrived at the smelter site where a kindly greeting was extended by construction engineer C H representing the international company mr in conducting the visitors through the companas comp anys photo by will C higgins tramway of the utah consolidated mining dg company roaster building slag dumps etc after the round had been made many of the visitors in groups of three or four ten of a dozen followed the flow of the ore from the sampling mill to the copper bullion floor each department furnished much of interest according to the specialty followed by different members of the socie ty A number were especially interested in the ro asters others were attracted by the ies and others still watched the manipulation of the converters from which the copper bullion was poured into moulds after which the cakes or bars were stacked upon the bullion floor ready for transportation to the refinery the splendid power house of the plant received its full share sha re of attention and the electrical engineers of the party devoted much time to its inspection and study the tapping of the slag was also an interesting feature connected with smelter operation and the haulage by electric locomotives was commented upon by the visitors the greater portion of whom expressed their satisfaction in being able to inspect a new modern and perfect plant among other objects of interest was the emergency hospital recently erected this F E arnold with J J burke co C P moore chief engineer U S S R M co L D anderson assistant engineer U S S R M co M R davis with westinghouse electric co J A luffer with westinghouse electric co G B walker with utah light ry co walter green with salt lake hardware co prof R R lyman university of utah dr W C ebaugh university of utah prof E H beckstrand ekstrand Be university of utah prof R H bradford university of utah sidney M bamberger bamberger railroad M cheever with telluride power co and to maintain a high professional standing among its members the society at present has resident members and twelve nonresident non resident who are actively engaged in varied industries in this part of the country this society is made up of men who are engaged in various engineering branches this scheme being better than to endeavor to maintain an organization for each different branch separately such as the AM american institute of electrical engineers american institute of civil engineers mining engineers gi etc meetings are held the third friday in each month except during july and august any person who is actively engaged in or has past experience in the application of science to industrial interests and who at the time of application for membership is af A V A 1 A 4 WPM in KJ 4 visiting members of the utah society of engineers hospital of which dr J A phipps is the physician in charge is fully equipped for first aid to the injured and its establishment is greatly appreciated by the employed emp loyes of the company the tooele thoele smelter is now in complete running order with fifteen of its roasting furnaces in commission during the day shift two or three of the converters are in use and it is hoped in the near future to keep the plant in operation up to a point somewhat near its capacity company officials state that operations are of a most successful nature and they are pleased with results so far obtained personnel of the party the names of the engineers visiting the ap tooele thoele smelter are as follows 0 A honnold with utah light ry co C H construction engineer on staff of international S R co john C jones with westinghouse electrio electric co H A brinkerhoff with westinghouse church kerr co J H tempest temp est with utah light ry co benj F tibby S taylor L H kribs 0 C hart W T cannon otto JA haley S J gormley E C wagner julian bamberger E C brown ernest watson wm bradford R E caldwell M brinton E M van order R H daw roy monroe M D grosh P 0 wels ben libby H B arthur bennion W W stratton H A mantill C T baggs will C higgins editor of the mining review guest of the society the utah society of engineers by 0 A honnold the object of this society is to advance the interests of the engineering profession photo by will C higgins insi at least twenty five years of age and has been in the active practice of his profess profession lon at least five years is eligible as a member of this society graduation from a technical school shall be equivalent to two years actual practice e the performance of the duties of a professor of any of the applied sciences or the editing of a technical publication li shall be equivalent to an equal number of years of actual practice initiation fee annual dues which dues also include the monthly publication of the united engineering society who have similar organizations and hold meetings in many parts of the country special eff effort ort is being made to get all the engineers and professional men who are engaged in the universities and the many interesting pursuits in this part of the country to become members and splendid papers are presented at the meetings which are usually followed up by discussions incalculable good can come from such meetings discussions and the practical papers which are presented 2 and which we endeavor to have supplemented by trips of inspection spec tion such as the trip to the works of the international smelter company at tooele thoele mr and mr mcgregor gave at the september meeting an excellent and interesting 0 paper describing the engineering work and the construction of this smelting smelling sm elting plant annual banquet is held in the spring of each year but it has been suggested that we have a get acquainted social dinner some evening before christmas at which special endeavor will be made to have as many of the engineers in the state present as possible to get acquainted and give brief talks on their varied experiences and the work being done gine ginders ers kindly submitted the following describing the features of the tooele thoele smelter which were of especial interest to them splendid system of transporting by dr W C ebaugh perhaps the physical feature of the plant of the international smelting smelling Sm elting and refining ning company at T boele tooele that appealed the most strongly to me was the splendid system of transporting the ore from the receiving bins to the sampler and from there to the various distributing bins and ro asters an operation that is usually accompanied with clouds of disagreeable dust the hurrying to and fro of cars and engines or motors and with more or less spilling of the ore and loss through disturbance by wind is here carried out almost noiselessly always under cover and with very little attention I 1 xi i 4 IN rn 4 slag pot and truck tooele thoele smelter certainly no city or state has centralized as is the case in salt lake so many good engineers and in so many different engineering professions and who are handling more money for investors it would certainly prove beneficial to all of these men to get together as often as possible and operate cooperate co in the various ways possible to advance the interests of the state and city along the many lines of interesting te work that is going on here in mining hydraulic and steam power work trans mission of power coal mining railroad construction st building etc etc 0 A HONNOLD president utah engineering society I 1 4 features of especial interest at the request of the mining review va rious members of the utah society of en photo by will C higgins on the part of the workmen the belt conveyor devices including loaders automatic wei ghers and dischargers chargers dis did their work with almost human skill and with more than human regularity another feature of the works that stands out prominently in ones memory is the provision made for the comfort and safety of the men change rooms equipped with the best modern steel lockers and with hot and cold water contribute to the health and self respect of the workmen and a well appoint ed hospital is ready to take in the unfortunate who has suffered injury the last point to be mentioned is one that has nothing to do with the material side of the plant at all it is the spirit shown by the men who stand at its head mathewson and their associates uniformly courteous willing to show what they have done and to explain why they have done things in a certain way they stand as representatives of the newer movement in technical management believing that they have profited by the experience peri ence and inventions of others they willingly admitted to their works not only members of the utah society of engineers who had merely a general interest in smelter construction but also specialists who were in the employ of competing smelting smelling sm elting companies it afforded a splendid illustration of the passing of the old idea of trade secrecy and professional jealousy and of the practical supplication aup of the new idea ot of a fair field and no favor one need scarcely add that the society feels under great obligations to the tooele thoele smelter management for all that was done to make the trip of inspection so pleasant and so instructive W C EBAUGH secretary utah society of engineers personality of the work by benj F tibby E M the fundamental principle u underlying anderly ing 1 the successful execution of any engineering project is that a maximum of results be accomplished complis hed with a minimum of effort and in no way will a work reflect the perfect application ot this principal as much as through simplicity in the method the effort is applied the most striking feature to be observed at the tooele thoele smelter of the international tern ter smelting smelling Sm elting refining ning company is the utilization of so many methods of accomplishing comp lishing in an easy manner what is ordinarily made difficult it must be understood der stood that the pl planning blannin annin and installation of these features are not the result of happy chance but are indeed the measure of engineering gi skill there seems to be a sort of personality surrounding the work of construction or the operation of a huge enterprise of any sort which either excites a fe feeling elint that the thing is being properly conducted or not and this perhaps without the segregation of the details that go to make it successful or otherwise metallurgical processes are at best crude applications of theoretically perfect principles and to successfully blown blow n a smelter is an operation usually attended with misfortune and grief even when done under the direct supervision of competent men the inexplicable behavior of and converter the difficulties of starting and maintaining smoothly running machinery and in short the thousand and one trials have come to be looked upon as a part of the work to be expected I 1 have been told that the tooele thoele smelter was started without hitch or delay and from present appearances there is plenty of reason for tl arding why such is the case the of the place impresses the visitor with the idea idea that maximum re suits have been obtained the trip was both interesting and instructive BENJ F TIBBY the perfect flow of ore by walter green this is one of the cleanest and best arranged plants for this class of work that ever came under by observation evidence is everywhere indicated that the highest type of selective engineering talent has been active in the building of this smelter and by selective talent I 1 mean that in this plant there is embodied the accumulative effort of many metallurgists and engineers who for years have been working out the detailed perfection of each and every part of the smelting smelling sm elting process one of the chief features of the plant and one which particularly attracted my attention and which has not elsewhere been the sets back the process of reduction very materially and for this reason and also because of its physical properties such a charge is i s better handled in the blast furnace among the first considerations that a plant of this character receives before laying out the final plans is the flow sheet upon which is determined the location of the various equipment and in it it is aimed to secure such an arrangement that the least amount of handling is obtained without jeopardizing the future extensions of the plant at the tooele thoele smelter due provision for this has been made the tooele thoele smelter is one of the best if not the best we have today embodying this particular class of reduction WALTER GREEN manager machinery dept salt lake hardware co ar i 4 T A J U O 47 oi 4 SAL I 1 LAKE IV one of the converters in operation worked out to such a high state of perfection is the perfect flow of ore on the belt conveyor convey dr system and particularly the ingenious feeding device which travels under the bins and puts a uniform layer of ore on the belts it is true as a rule that nearly every smelting smelling sm elting proposition has an individuality of its own and that methods for treating ores of different nature may vary with perfect justification but it is generally becom ing recognized that a plant combining both the blast furnace and the stands for the best arrangement as such plant offers better facilities for cleaning up the odds and ends carrying values which accumulate around a smelter this material r vial is generally cold and it is often necessary to treat it in large quantities at a time the effect of feeding these cold charges into photo by will C hi higgins 99 ins design of converter building by fred E arnold the design of the converter building cannot help but arrest ones attention the building is unusually high and is provided with open ventilators rs in the roof for the escape of smoke and gasses in the working zone no smoke is encountered each converter stand is provided with a hood into which the gasses are blown each hood is connected to a ventilating pipe which in turn is connected to an exhaust fan so that there can be no question about the gasses being carried away from the converters I 1 in connection with each of the four verber atory furnaces which are located just above the converting plant there is a h p stirling waste |