The Kalispell bee. [volume] (Kalispell, Mont.) 1901-1901, 1901-08-22
THE BIG SHELTER.
New WasFoe at Anaconda a Mammoth
Affair.

Affair.
Anaconda, Aug. 2O.-Forty-eight
McDougall furnaces, ID feet in diam
eter and Is feet high, each having a
treating capacity of 60 tons of con-
centrates in "a hours, fill the rooster
building at the new Washoe shelters
and make an extremely interesting
place to wander through during the
course of construction.
In this building there are four
floors. The concentrates to be treat
ed are brought in on what is called
the charge, or top floor. They are
brought in in cars drawn by COM
pressed air locomotives, over a
standard gauge railroad track, enter
ing the building over high trestle.
from the cars the ore is dumped into
the feed hoppers, these holding 20
tons each. They are furnished with
an automatic feeder which renders
it possible to regulate the feed Into
the furnaces to any desired tonnage.
Down through the center of the fur
mace runs large shaft and from this
project at regular intervals huge
comb-like arms that revolve around
over the hearths of the furnaces, OF
which there are three. Through this
shaft and these arms or rabies there
is a water passage and water Is al
ways kept circulating through them.
In the past the great difficulty expert
enced with roasting furnaces was that
they burnt out. The circulation OF
the water through the McDougalls
does away with this. The water from
all the furnaces empties, when at
temperature of about 100 degrees, in
to one large outlet pipe. This carries
to the boiler rooms, where it Is used
to feed the boilers, and, being al
ready heated, a large number of heat
units are thus gained.
Twelve flues, seven feet in diameter,
carry off the sulphur fumes. The
dust from these fues drop direct into
the calcine hopper below and the
flues themselves empty into q large
dust chamber on the outside of the
building.
When the concentrate reaches the
last hearth of the furnace it is calcine.
In unloading the fumes the care are
put directly under the calcine hopper
and filled. The work of unloading
the concentrates on the charge floor
and unloading the calcine into the
cars is all performed by the crews on
the train. The furnaces are so con-
structed that each and every furnace
works Independently Of the others and
they can be started and stopped from
any floor. One furnace tender takes
care of eight furnaces.
The power for running the furnaces
is furnished by three electric motors
placed on the second floor, each of
which furnishes power sufficient for
running 16 furnaces.
The feed hoppers of the furnaces
are made of such a capacity as to
hold enough concentrates to run an
entire night, thus doing away with the
dangerous work of night charging.
Every part of the building and ma
chinery is constructed to do away with
any unnecessary work and is so far as
possible an Improvement on any plant
of the kind now in existence.
No expense has been spared to put
it in this shape and the magnitude of
the undertaking can be better under.
stood by the fact that six men will be
sufficient to handle the four-storied
structure, in which 1880 tons of con
centrates are to be treated daily.
The cost of the furnaces alone is
something over $4,000 each. approx
mately $2OO,OOO. The building in
which they are contained represents
an expenditure of at least 100000
so all told the building and it's equip
ment means an outlay of considerably