The Canon City record with which is consolidated the Canon City cannon., 1916-08-17
WILL BE 242 FEET HIGH WHEN
COMPLETED; MADE OF STEEL
AND CONCRETE AND WEIGHS
2a5 ToNs-1soo RIvETs NEcEs-
SARY.
THE STEEL MEN ARE
NOT DAREDEVILS
tRY PETER sTERLINGl.

have been hearing the past few weeks,
as if a giant wood-pecker was hewing
it's way into a mammoth hickory tree,
carries an interesting story behind it.
Those consecutive sharp reports as
steel meets steel is the music of
industry and is the refrain from the
construction of the big steel smoke
stack at the power plant of the Ar
kansas Valley Railway, Light & Pow
er company.
This stack is to be the highest in
Fremont county when completed, 1t
will be 242 feet from the ground to the
top and 100 feet from the roof of the
building to the highest edge.
The concrete foundation is sunk
in the ground fifteen feet. Upon this
rests four steel columns ffty-four feet
high. Then comes the conica lsection
which is thirty feet in height Most of
this in within the building. What we
all see from any part of town that We
may Happen to glance toward the pow
er plant are the round sections, of
WHICH lutIt are ty -tNOS dii hNC ASSt
high. Each section is made up of four
separate pieces of steel, all of which
must be hoisted from the ground as
the work progresses.
All these various sections of steel
are clamped together with white-hot
rivets, which are headed" by the use
of a ''gun" driven by compressed air.
The gun" is the usual trip hammer
of the latest design, used in all struc-
tural steel construction nowadays.
Men are stationed on a portable plat
form inside the stack and they heat
the rivets to an almost unbelievable
temperature. Other men are perched
on a fiimsy looking platform on the
outside. The inside men yank rivet
from the fire, insert it in the hole.
which was cut in the factory where the
steel section was manufactured, and
one of the outside men gets busy with
the gun" 1t doesn't take long to fas-
ten one rivet, but it is tedious all
day job when one has to keep it up.
About fifteen thousand steel rivets
will be used on the stack alone. That
means that the tapping of the wood
pecker, which we think so wonderful.
dwindles into insignifcance in COM
parison with what that gun" does.
After all the steel work is in posi-
ton the stack is about half complet-
ed. AS soon as the steel workers come
down and take off their overalls for
the last time the concrete workers
will get busy and build up concrete
lining clear to the top.
The steel of the stack above the roof
will weigh about eighty-seven tons.
When the concrete is added and all
is considered the total weight will be
about 225 tons. The stack is eighteen
feet six inches in diameter at the bot
tom and will be ten feet in diameter
at the top.
The old stack which will soon dwin-
die in the shadow of this monster, is
165 feet high and is nine feet in diane.
ter at the top. 1t seems remarkable
that the smaller stack must be sup
ported by numerous guy wires to
keep it from toppling over by the
persuasive force of mighty wind
while the new stack will be absolutely
seif-supporting. 1t will stand out clear
and distinct against the sky with moth
ing to keep it from falling over but its
ownee perfect construction. The two
stacks are splendid examples of the
contrast between the old and the new
ideas of construction.
Nels Mettome of Minneapolis, MINI.
is the boss of the structural steel gang.
The men under him are A. L.
Painter, J. A. Schwartz, b. DAILY, Tom
Johnson, P. Englehart and Frank
Dwyer. Mettome is bright, intelli-
gent young fellow who has nothing
daredevilish in his make up. In fact
none of these men have. Structural
steel construction is business to
them just like cutting meat or sell.
ing ice cream is a business to other
men. The fact that their work some
times takes them to lofty heights and
often places them in perilous posi-.
ton is taken as a matter OF course.
Their Jobs are their bread and but.
ter. They don't do 1t because 1t seems
daredevilish. as somo people think.
They are skilled workmen in that
particular line OF endeavor. that 10 all.
Do they feel dizzy when they get up