Show additions to utah con smelter it would not always be wise even in genial utah to commence building operations in the late fall but the highland boys good luck has evidently been passed on to its successor the utah consolidated for the extension to its already large plant at murray which was only finally decided on in the middle of october has made considerable headway in unusually favorable weather the foundations for the converter dust chamber and stack the new mcdougal furnaces and the roaster building as well as for the extension of the smelter building and the new furnace stacks are finished and those of the new ies are are well forward the extensions under way are as follows 1 an addition of 87 feet to the smelter building thereby making it feet long this addition will contain two new smelting smelling sm elting furnaces aa 43 feet 6 inches by 17 feet 2 a dust chamber feet and a stack 5 feet 6 inches by feet for the converters alone 3 an addition to the roaster building feet to contain 12 more mcdougal calci ning furnaces and 4 to take care of the extra horsepower required as well as to have a standby stand by engine to secure immunity from stoppages for engine overhauls and repairs there will be a new nordberg westinghouse engine generator in addition to these main items there will be sundry small ones such as extra slag cars and hopper cars for ore coal and calcines and in addition to the machine shop sloop and boiler shop the new ies do not differ in any radical respect from the last ones built the greatest difference being 2 feet extra in their width and the increased width and area of the firebox viz feet they will however still be provided with forced draft and the normal height of stack viz 80 feet but with the area of the latter increased the binding which is very solid is of I 1 beams instead of rails perhaps the most decided innovation is the substituting of a steel box beam in in place of the usual massive cast iron horn and conker plates no provision has been made in these furnaces as in the last ones built to preheat the air supply as the experience with the former ones in that respect was not satisfactory besides it is the intention at a later ater date to apply the heat of the flue I 1 gases to steam generating as is successfully ay being done at the anaconda smelter this I 1 considered a more practical method of utilizing some of the waste heat than predating the air as hitherto attempted there is no special feature of the converter dust chamber it has hai brick walls and steel floor and roof with numerous cleaning doors in the floor and is set upon cast iron pillars 6 feet above the ground level for the passage of cars underneath when cleaning out the high independent steel stack will both improve working conditions and abate the smoke damages to adjoining crops besides many minor improvements which the companas comp anys experience has evolved in working its first installment of eight mcdougal ro asters the chief feature of interest in the new ifer plant is the self cleaning main flue this is of beehive section with steel hopper bottom having chutes connecting to the calcine hoppers it is placed above the top of the furnaces and runs centrally between the rows of them for the entire length odthe of the building and is connected at one end to the main beehive flue recently attached to the present mcdougals which leads into the large central dust chamber and thence to the stack this will give a long passage for the settlement of the dust and enable the latter to be drawn off and smelted smelter practically continuously as deposited with a minimum of labor and cost in the engineering department the present nordberg westinghouse unit which has been in continuous service for nearly four years stopping but for a few minutes once a week will be relieved by the installation at its side of a younger and slightly larger sister for though the generator will have the same nominal capacity of output of kilowatts the engine will be feet to give that output at revolutions per minute with the maximum economy of steam with these improvements and additions completed which it is expected will be in may the capacity of the plant will be increased from about tons daily to about tons this ore is entirely derived from the companas comp anys mine at bingham a fact which contributes perhaps not a little to the steadiness and efficiency with which this plant is operated the number of new mcdougals is not proportional to the increase of output do de sired but is in excess of that so as to admit of cutting out some old four decker straight line roasters asters ro which are the principal instruments of involving the company in litigation over smoke damage the smoke from the mcdougal type of furnace is readily controlled and confined to the flues and stack and as the latter is having 50 feet added to its height already feet trouble from that source should be minimized as it will when completed be the highest stack in the valley this ad dit ional height to the stack ls is bain being g put on without interfering with the stai steady ady 0 operation of the works the latter half of the coming year should therefore enable the company to materially add to the substantial dividends it has been earning for the shareholders in this successful mine as a result of its progressive yet cautious policy S S M E of murray utah in mines and minerals |