Omaha daily bee., 1902-08-17

R1ANCHESTER, Eng, August T.
N Especial Correspondence of The
- Bee.)-The modern Aladdin is an
IE$S&M American, and his name is George
westinghouse. His lamp is an
electric one and when he rubs 1t his in
dustrial palaces spring up in all parts of
the world. Everyone knows Of the great
works at Pittsburg. They have a capital Of
$50 ,000,0 900, they employ 1000 men and their
field is the United States. There are West
inghouse works in France, Germany, and
in Russia, but most wonderful of all, es-
pecially in their construction, are the Brit
ish Westinghouse works at Trafford Park.
Only a few months ago the grass grew
where their foundations now stand, hut they
are already turning out all sorts of cleo
trical appliances for every part Of the Brit
ish empire.
/ despair of giving you an adequate con-
ception OF these shops. They are the big
gest works of the world that have ever been
erected at one time. The buildings cover
twenty-six acres and the floors thirty-eight.
There are twenty-seven miles Of railroad
track in the grounds about them and 5000
men have been kept busy for fifteen months
laying the bricks and joining together the
iron and glass.
Visiting the Great shops.
There is a big wall around the grounds
and in entering the factories my letter of
Introduction was carried to the offices by
an English policeman, and 1t was In COM
pany with Mr.. Loud and Mr.. Mitchell, the
manager, and chief superintendent, that ]
took a walk around the great structures
The trip was a Sabbath days journey. It
seemed to me that we went miles in pass
ing up one building and down another,
going from floor to floor, now standing in
the mighty bays away up under the glass
roof and now walking on the ground amid
the Immense machines used for various
KINDS OF electrical manufacture. / got some
idea OF the size of the buildings by these
machines. Looking at them from the roof.
those at the end of the shops seemed no
bigger than wheelbarrows and an immense
boring machine, the biggest ever erected
In England, having a weight Of $50 tons,
looked quite small from the gallery.
We went through the blacksmith's shop
which is bigger than a half dozen ordinary
factories, and the great iron foundry. We
next entered the machine shop, which has
an area OF about nine acres, being larger
than any other machine shop of the united
kingdom. Electric cranes, which can lift
many tons at once, run along overhead
and the machinery below is Of every de-
scription.
The steel furnaces in another part of the
works are a new thing in England. They
are so made that the whole furnace can be
turned by the pulling of a lever, so that
ten pounds or ten tons or more Of steel can
be run out in a mighty golden stream to
make the enormous castings required.
The buildings, in short, look more like
great exposition structures than common
workshops, and their contents are more in
teresting than any exposition l have yet
visited. The roofs are of iron and glass, so
that the shops are flooded with light, and
this brightness is added to by the white
paint with which everything connected
with the interior is covered. Great atten-
tion has been paid to the comfort of the
employees, and the workmen will probably
be the envied Of their kind In the British
Isles. The buildings have cost, so / am
told, about $1,000. 900 and the machinery
within them about 5000. 900 more.
American Town in Heart of England.
When these works are in full operation
they will employ about 5000 hands, and a
town built on the American plan is growing
up there to house them. A building COM
pam entirely independent Of the electric
company has been formed and this COM
pany now owns 120 acres of land adjoining
the works. 1t has laid out a town Just as
we lay out our towns in the west. The
streets are in regular blocks, and they are
marked by numbers. The ordinary British