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Show - p , , ' of twenty-candle power. J. Charles Boss, general manager of the company, is a man of broad experience, experi-ence, having for many years been in charge of public service corporations in Eastern cities. .W, E. Mockett is in charge of the eontnietion work , at the plant. 'L. L-' Cadwallader, superintends superin-tends the work of main-laying, and the new business department is in charge of J. E. Clark.. . , . .. steel p'iripr, -where, 'by means of iron oxide it is derrived cf such impurities im-purities as it may yet bold. These machines ma-chines have air-tiht doors, and contain con-tain machinery' of a complicated and costly order. This also is an innovation in gas-making. .-. ! yrom tho purifiers, the gas goes to the station-meter, an enormuus comput-iag comput-iag machine, which counts and registers every cubic foot of gas made. This is ore of the most complicated pieces of machinery and has a capacity of 1,000,--000.000 cubic feet per day. From the meter the gas , passes through pipe lines to the storage tank. After driving almost 1000 piles thirty-five feet deep, a huge concrete foundation foun-dation was constructed. On this is an enormous steel tank. This storage tank is perhaps the most wonderful . and interesting in-teresting thing about tiid plant. Kis-in; Kis-in; graetfully and impressively to a height of 140. feet, its steel-work outlined out-lined against the sky, this enormous receptacle re-ceptacle is 150 feet in diameter, and almost 475 feet in circumference. Telescopic Tele-scopic walls rise on a system of guide wheels, and weigh hundreds of tons. No idea ean be obtained as to the immense im-mense pressure exerted by the gas in lifting these walls of steel The tank has a capacity of 1,500,000 cubic feet. From this storage reservoir the gas passes through large governors, which regulate the pressure into the distribution distribu-tion system, and from these into the residences and business houses to bring light and heat and comfort to the people. peo-ple. , Cities grow according to need. By a dty'i needs does a city advance. People Peo-ple make ' demands. , Men and women foregather and want those things wjilch make life happier and easier. Desire for the comforts-of life makes empires, States and cities. The bigger a city the more it wants. . All this by way of saying that Salt Lake as a city is a city of desires and of satisfied desires. It wanted an artificial arti-ficial gas plant. It got one one of the finest,; best equipped and most modern plants in the United States--the plant' of the Utah Gas & Coke 'company. . Away out First South between Ifinth and Tenth . West streets there is a six-acre six-acre lot. On this lot $2,000,000 was spent in buildings, machinery, tanks and mod- grade of fire brick. Above each bench is a long, thick steel . contraption, known as the hydraulic main. Around and on top of these retorts circulates tremendous heat from the furnaces below, a heat of 1800 degrees Fahrenheit. Inside the retorts is the gas coal, carried to the hydraulic main and" into what is known as the primary condenser. But first- learn about the way the coal is taken from he cars into, the vast building. On the north side oi tho structure, at the west end, is a steel and cement- hopper or coal breaker. Over this breaker are switched the Voal cars. Here the coal is damped into the building, and into the hopper, where it is crushed and : broken into lumps of even size and weight.- " ' Then by an endless-chain system of buckets it is carried up about fifty feet to an over head hopper with a ca- .v'",r""rv' v " f T X 1j - - i y.-j r-rrr f - n f jjjijiwi n u p in ill miijii i i l i i n j J j n.j. m. 11 . - , ' r x ' ' I- v ' , ,1 1 ' v.(- It 1 , -. - k , ' - 1 f '-f r VI x y ' , , , A i i - - s ,7. ( ' , : . ,; tlyKI7;T;l': ' .- V. . r ' , iHS 2fldi!'-1 - '? - - ' ' j '., - ' ' ."r t: ' . . UTAH QAB & COKE CO.'S PLANT, WHERE OAS WILL BE MADE TO FURNISH COMFOB1 CONVENIENCE TO THE HOMES OF SALT LAKE. pacity of several hundred tons, from which it is distributed to the charging machines. These are operated entirely by electricity on an unusually wide track of standard-weight rails, and moved by electric trolley. These tracks are about 200 feet in length and run the full length of the building at the back of the benches. All this is done by electricity generated gen-erated by large steam turbines. The charging machine is brought to a stop by the motorman in front of the retorts re-torts and automatically the fuel is forced into the carbonizing, or. gas-making gas-making chambers. At the same time the. coke is discharged from the opposite oppo-site end. There isn't enough wood in the building to make a bonfire. The floors are of cement, the girders and other structural work of steel, the walls of a special make of fire-proof brick. Between Be-tween each battery of retorts a peculiar pecu-liar system of air-holes and chambers Seventy miles of street mains have already been completed. These pipes vary in, diameter from twenty to four inches. Many more miles will be laid before the end of the year. Many residence resi-dence have been iuptalled and the, work of setting, meters will soon be started. Jn construction work the company com-pany r.as expended more than $2,000,-000, $2,000,-000, the greater part of which has been in Salt Lake City and Utah. Utah coal will be used exclusively in the manufacture manu-facture of gas.' Fires were started in the furnaces today to-day iu order to dry them out, as they ar.. what is called "green." The company com-pany has a finely appointed office and salesroom and occupies tjie entire building build-ing at 61-65 Main street. Gas will be sold by the company at from 70c to $1.30 a thousand cubic feet. This is said to be an unusually low rate for a city of this size, and considering the high cost of manufacture. It will be era construction. About a year ago the company broke ground, some time in May 1906. About a year later, in June, 1907, the company -will, see its gas burned in thousands of homes in this city. All this in a year. Go out to the plant some day and see if you can realize that a project so enormous and so costly cost-ly could have been completed inside of a year, had it not had behind it men of push and power and perseverance. More than 200 feet of special fire-elay fire-elay brick so built as to make au absolutely ab-solutely fire-proof structure is the first thing you see. This is the retort house the nouse where gas is made. There is as much difference between the old way of makrbg artificial gas and the new as between night and day. Hardly anything is done with the hands at this plant. Everything that can be done by machinery is done done quickly, surely, carefully and skillfully. There are no hand-shevelers and coal-carriers. Everything is done by a combination of electricity and steel. Go back to the retort-house. High up in the dim recesses of the -roof, what is called "twelve benches of sixes." lose themselves. These are what might be termed batteries of furnaces. Above each furnace are six retorts or ovens. These are constructed of the finest is provided in order to regulate and control the amount of heat in the ovens and around retorts. After passing through the primary condenser, where some of the heavy tar and ammonia is deposited, the gas passes, by means of twenty pipes, to another building, about 200 feet long and which contains ammonia tanks and concentrating apparatus, two huge boilers for generating steam, dynamos, steam turbines, large 'pumps, exhausters, exhaust-ers, feed water-heaters, tar extractors, scrubbers and condensers. Most all of the machinery is duplicated, so that nothing will prevent, the manufacture of gas so far as the mechanical department de-partment is concerned. After leaving the primary condenser conden-ser the gas passes through pipes to the exhauster, a sort of extremely powerful power-ful blower, which produces a vacuum in the hydraulic main and - puts enough pressure upon the gas to force it through various purifying and washing processes before becoming a commercial commer-cial product, and also to overcome the enormous pressure in the immense storage' stor-age' tank. From the . exhausters the gas is forced through the tar extractors, the secondary condensers and washers, and then to the' scrubber, where it is actually ac-tually scrubbed and finally cleaned. This is done by . means of .brushes attached at-tached to steel discs 'and as the gas is forced into this machine the brushes maul, scrub "and clean it. In passing through condensers, washers wash-ers and scrubbers, all tar and ammonia is precipitated and carried by systems of nines to storage tanks outside of the building. The tar tanks hold more than 2U00 barrels. This, with ammonia and coke, is a by-product of gas-making. Analine dyes and medicines are made by chemists from tar. The ammoniacal liquor is conducted to other tanks with a capacity of many thousand gallons. From these tanks it passes through the concentrating apparatus ap-paratus and is finally shipped in tank-cars tank-cars to chemical works, where all sorts of ammonia by-products are manufactured. manufac-tured. Coke is elevated to a height of eighty feet by an elevator built espe- ! cially for this purpose and then dumped into the cars or distributed for storage. Another one of the high things ' about the plant is the chimney. 160 feet, built of cement concrete. There are four lines of railroads entering the grounds. y After 'passing through - the .scrubber the gas is conducted again by means of large pipes into a battery of three v'..'"-- ' -;" - -: |
