Omaha daily bee., 1903-04-05

slaiiaiioh OF hlBn pressure pumping ma
chinery to be found anywhere.
In another room. BY themselves, are a
pair OF the busiest low pressure pumps
known to the pumping world. Theirs It
is to lift the almost liquid mud from the
Missouri into the highest of the settling
basins, from which IL flows back over weirs
from, one broad and deep hasin to another
until the great load OF soil and silt has
been deposited by gravity, and the air and
sunshine have done perfect work in puri-
flying 1t. This pair Of beauties move with
the same rhythmic precision as do the more
ponderous machines in the front room, and
receive the same careful attention from the
engineer and his assistants. Below stairs
one gets a notion OF what the real work
is. Here In the twilight iron walks care
fully rallied, lead one through mazes Of huge
steam pipes, immense water mains and
around pits in and out OF which rise and
fall the great pump plungerss. The stiffness
or the upper floor is lost, and the clack of
valves and the swish OF water almost pre-
vents conversation. Under the low pres
sure pumps one can look down into the
swirling water at the end Of the intake.
1t looks like bubbIing mud churned by
titanic dashers, but IL in reality the water
that runs in from the river many yards
-"@S1 "Ho1h - HOCA DUtlUufs Inc NAANeb.
the pipes, the whole arrangement here,
impresses the visitor with something very
near to awe for the beautiful engines he
admired on the floor above.
towering high above the building Is a
smokestack, ~tapering TO a slenderness that
seems almost weakness as the eye follows
1t from base to crown, yet a symmetrical
piece Of the impressive whole. But never
a smoke cloud wrcaths it's top; never a
plume of black issues from its mouth.
Viewed from a distance, one is inclined at
first to think the pumping works have been
shut down for the day and the fires put out.
The absence of smoke seems TO indicate
this. Even when the building is approached
there is no sign OF the great work that Is
going on within. But that slender spire Is
carrying of the waste product Of the COM
bustiOn of many tons Of the blacklist and
dirtiest OF steam coal every day, the gases
that are not consumed in the fires that roar
under a line Of boilers that I'LL a room
nearly a block In length. Here the stOkers
sweat day and night, winter and summer, TO
keep the fires at a steady constant heat,
shoveling their tons OF slack coal into the
furnaces and dragging out and wheeling to
the hoists huge heaps Of ashes and clink-
ers. A little Investigation will show you
that the furnaces are built to burn smoke
as well as coal, and that almost theoretic-
ally perfect combustion is secured through
the admission Of air heated to an intense
degree into the combustion chamber that is
directly beneath the boiler and behind the
furnace itself. Plenty Of smoke gets into
this combustion chamber, but none Of it
gets out. All the heat is secured for max
ing steam to drive the pumps. This fur
mace, too. ia a device OF Captain Reynolds.
chief engineer of the plant. As no sign
of smoke is visible. so there Is no trace OF
escaping steam. All the engines are Of tho
condensing type. and the steam. after Il
has performed it's function in the cylinders,
is released, little more than a hot vapsr,
into the condenser, whence It is soon trans