Alpena weekly argus. [volume] (Alpena, Mich.) 1871-1893, 1886-01-27

street OF lOZ leet anu ooV ieet vi
Thunder Bay.
The gas building is 81 feet long,
81 feet wide, and Is feet high. 1t is
constructed of brick and covered with
corrugated iron. There is very little
woodwork about the building and
but very little danger from fire. At
tached TO the main building is coal
shed 81 feet long and 80 feet wide
and at present is full of coal. The
main building is divided by brick
par titions which extend to the roof
One part is used as Il repair shop
Adjoining it is the retort house where
the gas is made. There are five re.
torts. These retorts are built in q
brick furnace. Each. retort is of fire
clay. ID shaped, with fiat side down
They are each 8 feet long, II inches
in height and 20 inches in width
The end which projects out of the
furnace has a movable cover. Coal
is shoveled into these retorts, the open
end closed and the heat in the fur
mace then commences to drive the
gas out of the coal. A pipe leads
from each retort to an iron tube on top
and outside the furnace. This is call
ed the hydraulic main. 1t is IS feet
long, 2 feet deep and Is inches in
width, and is partly filled with water.
The pipes from the retorts enter at
the top of the hydraulic main and
extend down into the water. The
gas, therefore, has to force its way
through the water. This cleanses it
considerably of tar and other sub
stances that are mixed with it. The
gas then goes through pipe to the
purifying room and first enters the
condenser. The condenser is cir
cular iron tube, set OH end. II feet
high and two feet in diameter. 1t
contains 81 tubes, each 8 feet long.
These arc surrounded by water. AS
the gus travels these 81 tubes, it be-
comes cool and more tar and other
substances separate from it. 1t then
travels to the scrubber, another circu-
lar iron tube, II feet high and three
feet in diameter. In the scrubber are
five wooden trays containing coke.
The gas has to pass through this coke,
which cleanses it still further. A
water pipe enters the scrubber at the
top, and throws watery spray on the
coke, thus helping to keep it free from
matter left by the gas. The gas then
goes to the iron purifying boxes, each
five feet square. The covers set inside
have no bottoms. In the boxes are
purifying trays which contain lime.
This further purifes the gas. which
passes consecutively through three of
the boxes. There are four, but one
is idle, so that the trays can be clean
ed without interfering with the manu-
facture of gas. The gas then goes to
the station meter, in the office, where
the number of cubic feet manufacture
ed is recorded, and then it travels to
the gas holder outside the building,
where it is stored until wanted by
customers. This gas holder consists
of plate iron tank AZ feet in dame
ter and 16 feet high. 1t is full of
water. In this tank is set another
tank without any bottom. AS the
gas enters the holder, it raises the in
side tank. The more gas forced in,
the higher it raises. The water in
the lower tank prevents the gas from
escaping and acts as a bottom to the
inverted tank inside. The weight of
the inside tank makes the necessary
pressure. If it is not heavy enough,
it can be loaded by placing weights
on top, and if it is too heavy it can be
modified by cOunter-balance weights.
The inside tank is kept in a perpen-
dicular position, when raised above
the lower tank, by columns which are
outside.
In the retort room is steam boiler
for generating steam for heating the
building and for running pump.
1t has capacity of 100 gallons per
minute. The gas works arc also con.
nected with the Alpena City water
works. Water can thus be obtained
either from the Bay or from the city
water works.
The capacity of the works is 10000
cubic feet of gas per day.
The tar and other substances col
lected from the gas are conveyed by
pipes to vat outside the building
What is left in the retorts after al
the gas is driven out of the coal, j.
designated as coke.
The condensers, hydraulic main
purifiers and gas holder were made
by Bartlett, Haywood & Co., of Balti
more; the station meter by ID. Nc
Donald, of Albany, New York tanl
for holder by Eagle Iron Works, De
troit; cast iron pipes by Cincinnati
and New Port Iron and Pipe Com
|