Webster City freeman. [volume] (Webster City, Hamilton County, Iowa) 1884-1946, 1913-07-15
All IS LIKE cLocK-WoRK

the Mississippi River
Visitors Welcome.
i Saturday representative of this
paper had the pleasure Of visiting
the National Sewer Pipe plant
which recently started up, and was
surprised to see the clock like run
ming Of the machinery. We were
first told that the clay pit at Lehigh
consists Of thirty acres Of solid clay
We were then taken into the large
clay store room, the size of which is
240 feet long and so feet wide, hold
ing between four and five hundred
carloads of clay. Through this
building is an elevated track at a
height OF twenty feet upon which
the cars loaded with clay are run
into the room and dumped. Running
the length of the room east and
west is a large canvas belt upon
which the laborers in the store room
load the clay, the belt carrying it to
a similar belt running in the oppo-
site direction, the second belt carry
ing the clay into large pnlverizer.
The pulverizer consists OF large
steel cylinder which grinds the cray
into fine soft dirt or dust. This
cylinder reyolves at a speed of six
hundred times minute. From the
spulverizer the clay is run into an
elevator which carries the ground
clay 70 the cupola Of the room on
the north. csiied the, machine room
which ls los feet long and 81 feet
wide. After the ground clay reaches
the cnpola 1t is turned downward
through two shafts, each shaft being
covered with a fine piano wire In
order to keep the clay from cIogging,
this being done by the vibrations OF
the wire. The clay descends into a
big bin, which is directly over the
working pans. These pans are very
large and into them the clay is run
and there mixed with water, max
ing heavy mud. The water and
clay are mixed by large circular
wheels. there being two wheels to
each pan. We were told that men
In their barefeet tramped the mud
and water in the early days before
machinery was made to do this
work. After the mud Is properly
mixed, 1t is taken out with q large
wooden ladle and emptied into an
other elevator and Is again taken to
the top OF the building, this time
descending into what Is called the
press feeder. This feeder is like a
large trough with an opening at one
end where the mud Is let out, about
500 pounds at time, into q cylin-
der Just under the steam chest, this
being on the third floor. A pressure
of ninety tons Is applied to the mud
in the cylinder. pressing 1t through
a die at the bottom, on the second
door, the tile coming out as perfect
as one could wish. When truck
load has been made II is registered
and hauled through a large doorway
into the drying room.
The drying rooms are 240 feet
long and 80 feet wide and are heat
ed by steam pipes which run under
the first ard second floors. all floors
being Slated so the heat may as
,eend to the third and fourth floors.
The heating system is one OF the
finest that could be devised On
each floor between the machine
room and the dry rooms, there are
two large entrances with doors that
close automatically when the tenn
perature has reached certain de-
gree, this being done in case Of fire.
The dry room is equipped with a
large freight elevator in the center
of the building with a capacity OF
two tons. On the north side Of this
building there are two drop eleya-
tors and one on the west side.
From here we visited the engine
and boiler room. Between this and
the dry room we were shown an inn
mense cistern 80 feet long, IA feet
wide and 10 feet deep. this water
being used exclusively for the boil
eps. The boiler and engine room Is