Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1907-02-21
MAKING POWER.
How Great Powcrhouse saves Labor,
Heat, Time and Money.


tretc. There are houses and farms on
bach side of the bay, and looking south
|lown the bay We can see Long Island
Bound and the distant hills of Long
island. Close beside the great building
|s four-track railroad bridge over the
pay. We wonder why the building is
placed there close beside salt water and
DO close to the Sound There is n long
pier extending out from the shore whore
he building stands and at the end a
landing place for vessels.
There is tugboat now. just coming
kp the bay from the Sound, aud towing
Two big, black bargcs. She seems to
De steering straight for the long pier
That extends out to the channel in the
Sniddle of tho bay. Even while we look
| t the tow. we see the captain of the
Iugboat sklfully lay one Of the bargcs
| long the head Of the pier. and place
he other just aft OF It. Then snsu-
|nr things happens. Several men appear
Ind tie UP the barges and moment or
|wo later, strange hosting machines are
Iusy hosting Goa, out Of one of tho
Sarges and dumping the coal into n build
fg on the pier. 1t takes us only n
w moments TO walk down to tine pier.
b rapidly hoistcd out Of the barge is
Pnt through the small building on the
Ter whore L is ground and crushed in
eavy crushing machines to uniform
20. From this crushcr house the coal,
bw fine like coarse gravel pours In "A
ream into a trough and Is swept away
b long incline to the top of tho build
G on the bluff This trough is called
l. ar,fn
rvs the coal. Within the building the
bnvcyor delivers the coal to another
nveyor in the garnet, and this convey or
,livers the coal wherever It is needed.
= glance up at the roof of the building
1d see the smokcstack rising above
|e center OF the roof. Now We begin
understand. This is a steam making
ant or powerhousc
We 60 To- the door and the engineer in
arge invites us in to see his giant
Fam boilers. We enter a large and
fly room and find twelve great steam
|ilers, facing each other, six on each
lie. each one capable of producing
cam equal to the power OF 800 horses.
he long and narrow space. between the
|ilers is called the freroom. Every
ing is warm. clean and light. No fiery
!. a fireman in sight not CLEAN of
hit from the great fires burning behind
Q fire doors. The engineer explains
at all the coal slides down through
pes from the conveyor overhead and is
livcred to each roaring furnace by
hchinc called n mechanical stoHer.
Dwn below. in a tunnel running under
boilers man with a whcclbarrow
LIT. g,II -.
ate bars and wheels It away to a con-
yor that carries 1t up to a spout where
shoots down again into n fiat car on
railroad track where, once a day. 1t
carried away.
'hese great boilers rest firmly on the
Dund and are sheltered from rain and
pw. The fire doors arc seldom opened
waste the heat Of tho fire, and the
chanical stoker delivers just enough
hi to each fire to keep it burning stead
and brightly and without wasteful
ok smoke. Clearly, this is a better
thod of making steam than on loco
tive racing through a snowstorm In
bitter Icy wind. And how much
paper IT is. First. the coal arrives by
ter, and It Is cheaper 10 transport coal
sea than by land. Secondly, all the
wing of time, labor and money. Lastly,
boilers are protected from the wealth
at great saving of heat. Nor is this
Tho engineer takes US round back
the boilers and shows us great brick
iron chambers and explains that in
fse chambers are many hundreds OF
all iron pipes through which constant
flow streams of fresh cold water All
1Ira I'D l,,t frny sI,o tu-., Il ,-n
nacos is led through these chambers
wing round and over the water pipes
then upward toward the great
okestack on the roof, Tho smoke and
heat the pipes and the water inside
pipes absorbs and carries away
&c part Of all the waste heat from
fires. These curious heat-stealing
mbers are called economizers be-
ise they save or econOnize the heat
the fires. The hot water from the
MONITORS is again made useful by be-
returned 70 the boilers to be again
de into steam.
'e come back TO the firing room and
engineer explains that the conveyors
ng the coal from the barges to the
chanical stokers that deliver it to the
s and that the conveyors also deliver
|upply Of coal when the barges are on
voyage or are delayed by storms He
b tells us why the great stack is so
y short. A tall stack produces what
called natural draft. Here powerful
hm engines up under the roof drive
at fans or blowers, that make an
ifcial draft called an induced draft,
with such blowing fans a short stack
wers just as we'll as tall stack.
he engineer leads us through a small
pr at the end OF the firing room and
enter the light and handsome great
zine room. Here we see three new and
lnge engines wholly unlike the en-
es OF a locomotive We can hardly
eve they are engines and the engineer
us they are steam turbines, and that
h one has a steam power equal TO the
yer of four thousand horses. They
2 no cylinders, no piston rods beating
and fro. In fact, they are more like
revolving water wheels called tur-
es than engines and. as they use
steam fresh from the boilers. and
have exhaust steam, though we see
puffs of steam, and hear no roaring
putting exhaust as on locomotive
ask where the exhaust escapes and
pit becomes OF 1t all.
he engineer tells us that the exhaust
I'm is led through pipes to the base.
ht below. He explains that under tbs
pier where the great conveyor brings
coal into the building are two humc,
connect the cold sea water directly