St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1889-07-07
I'LL lIIshlhVV VhDkk
And the Machinery That Car
PieS 1t on It's Never-End-
ing Journey.
Great Exponents Of Force
Seen in the Seventh Street
PoWephouse.
Models of Con Struetive Gen.
JUS in a Model Power ES-
tabliShment.
The Ingenious Arrangement
by Which the Cable Tension
Is Regulated.

witness the working of the great plant,
and many are the questions George
Larkin, the engineer, has to answer as
to the weight of that fiy-wheel, the
length of stroke by the pistOn-rod, the
number of revolutions per minute, etc.
All are answered, however, and the
sight-seers leave the place carrying
with them a lasting impression of
the great power represented therein.
There are but few larger machinery
plants in the West, and certainly none
more perfectly appointed in every de-
tail. Behind the scenes, however, the
public is not admitted, and 1t is only by
a trip through the various departments
that the extent of thesinStitutiOn. its
convenience in arrangement and the
wonderful simplicity of the cOntrivances
by which the tireless cable is kept Gid
ing along on its endless journey. can be
correctly gagged. The first thing which
attracts the attention of the visitor after
entering the spacious engine room, is
the tremendous size of the driving
wheels, of which there are two; al
though one of them only is used, the
other being reserved for any emergency
such as breakdown. Inquiry develops
that the wheels are tWenty-fOur feet in
diameter,a and weigh 10000 pounds each.
The number of revolutions made each
minute is fifty-fOur, and they have never
stopped
EVEN FOR A SINGLE INSTANT,
since the machinery was first set in mo-
ton, and never will stop except by ac-
cident or for the making of repairs
which render a Stoppage necessary.
The engines which furnish the motive
power for the whole plant are by the
z. p. AlliS company, of Milwaukee.
There are two engines, acting independ-
entity. each of them with $50 registered
horse power. The driving gear occupies
the space between the big wheels is by
Poole Il Hunt, of Baltimore. Attached
to the gearing is modern friction
clutch. patented by the same company,
the purpose of which is to enable the
engineer to at once stop the entire plant
by throwing it out of gear. The grip
is $50 horse power, and is controlled by
the operative with one stroke OF lever
and the OutputOf scarcely more strength
on his part than would be necessary in
reaching up to scratch his head. The
size of the engine room is sixty by
eighty feet, the largest in the state.
Next comes the coach house with di-
mansions both ways of $50 feet. Here
are sixty tracks, capable of holding ears
enough to supply Chicago with three
minute service. Running tranSverSely
is transfer track, upon which are two
transfer trucks for shifting cars from
one track to another in the house.
There are sixty cars and grips in the
service OH this line, each of which was
designed by engineer Cliff Wise, es-
pecially for the line on which they are
used, and built by the LIE Clede Car
company, of st. Louis. Mr.. Wise did
the entire engineering. and superin-
tended the construction of the new road.
and the Smoothness with which every
thing has run since steam was first adj
mitted to the cylinders is
A CERTIFICATE OF MERIT
in itself. Farther back, still on the
same floor, is the repair shop, 50 feet
wide by 120 long. Here are six FORCES,
a thirty-fve horse power Westinghouse
engine, blowers, punches, shaping ma
chimes, a steam hammer, and all the
paraphernalia of blacksmith and re-
pair shop on gigantic scale. Then
down stairs to where the ever restless
cable winds and twists about the myriad
guide wheels and drums, and where six
tremendous furnaces keep up a per-
petual roaring from weeks end to
weeks end. The boilers, of which there
are three, with horse power of 225 each,
were made by the BabcOck-W Wilcox
company, of New York. They are Of
peculiar make known as water-tube
boilers. Their peculiarly consists in
the tubes, of which there are 100, six
inches in diameter, in each boiler. This
arrangement secures almost absolute
immunity from danger of bursting boil
ers, as if through any defect in its con-
structiOn. one of the tubes should burst,
the effect would not be very serious,
and the 119 other pipes, each of which
is virtually a separate boiler, would re-
main intact. There is also in the boiler
room a Reynolds heater for bringing
water to the same temperature as
that in the pipes prior to its admission
thereto. This Invention is also arranged
in such manner as to absolutely pur-
ify all water before it reaches the
pipes, thereby Obviating the encrusta-
ton, so common source of trouble and
annoyance to boiler men. The purify
ing process is simply that the water is
brought to temperature of $50 deg.
which is temperature sufficiently high
to cause all impurities in the water to
SINK AS A SEDIMENT
and leaves none to cake upon the inter-
Tor of the pipes. The success of the
plan has been well demonstrated pre-
ViOuSly, though never more fully than
in this instance. when after the water
in the pipes has been at temperature
of $40 degrees, which secures eighty
pounds steam pressure, since the fires
were lighted, there is no sign of caking
on the interior of the pipes. The de-
vice for steam heating the building is
that of George Larkin, the engineer,
and at test made recently 1t was
found to be a most practical one. The
exhaust steam from the engines is used
fol this purpose. Sixty tons of coal are
consumed by the furnaces every twenty
four hours.
Through long dark passage the way
is led, and the visitor suddenly energies
in the department known as the Shive
room. The cables leave this room after
passage round immense wheels and
ShiveS direct to the street, leaving
through an opening in the upper end
over a small wheel known as the guide
shiYe, and returning after the accom-
plishment of its journey to Wabasha
street and back. through a similar open
ing in the lower end, whence it is car
ried round diVeFging Shive, thence to
wraps are taken. thence over the ten
sion shive, back again over a similar
diverging ShiVe to the first, and thence
again to the street, with gathered force
for new trip.
THE TENSION ARRANGEMENT,
practically the pulse of the entire plant
is simple though ingenious arrange
ment. Over pit running the full
length of the apartment is long, low
truck running on rails. Upon this are
other rails and another truck, to the
end of which is attached a cast-iron
cage hanging by heavy chain into the
pit below. In this cage is kept weight
of about ten tons. When any slack oc-
ours in the cable it is at once taken up
by the weight, and the upper truck
runs back Oh the lower one until the
cable is brought to its original tension.
The cables stretch greatly as they are
used, and when the slack becomes too
great to be handled easily by the tension
trucks, another wrap is taken round
the drums, on which provision is made
for eight wraps. Before reaching the
street the. cable is run through a vat con-