Webster City freeman. [volume] (Webster City, Hamilton County, Iowa) 1884-1946, 1917-02-27
WEBSTER CITY'S MANAGEMENT
OF ELECTRIC POWER PLANT

next Tue engine cyllnQer gives the
pressure directly out of the steam or
records for calculation the horsepow-
er of the engine The engine and
steam recording gauge used to have
upon it's face an eight day clock, but
this is now replaced by one for the
entire twenty-four hours, for record
ing the boiler pressure.
Formerly an ordinary column indi-
Gated the height of water in the boil
err but this has been supplanted by
safety columns which warn by 4
piercing whistle if the water is too
high or too low, minimizing the dan
ger around these dangerous pieces of
machinery. At the time the present
management took over the plant
there was but one pipe line into the
boiler. If something got wrong with
one line of water pipes. there was no
other way in which the boiler might
be filled. Supt. Long installed two
and if something wrong occurs with
one line of pipe, the other line is US
ed. The exact time water is pumped.
the amount of water used, the
amount of power required to pump
it, and the number of hours pumped
each day,--these all are recorded by
each shift punctually.
Another safety first" appliance
installed is an electric signal con-
Meeting with the pump house. The
signal is given to stop pumping and
the man at the pumping station
knows that he is not to start the
pump again until the signal is given
to start. Without these signals a
workman might have his hand in
the machinery when the pump sud-
denly started up again. Nothing of
this sort can now occur if orders are
obeyed
But the biggest economy now in
practice at the electric light and
power plant is the scale in the boil
er room, costing 500. This little i'm
provement saved the city in the
month of November alone 1920. For
merly when coal was shipped from
the mines to Webster City the city
was compelled to accept the coal Of
the figures stated upon the invoice
which were often capacity weight.
Often no numbers of the cars were
kept filed and there was nothing left
for the city to do but to pay the bill
as claimed by the coal company. The
order of things has changed. When
carload of coal arrives it is dump
ed into a certain bin, the number of
the car taken, and the invoice ac-
companying the cars filed for future
reference. AS the shifts of firemen
come on, they empty certain bin
first, weighing every pound of coal
shovelled out on the platform from
whence it goes into the furnace.
When that bin is empty the exact
weight of the coal that car contain
ed is obtained by the addition of the
of pounds the bin contained
as given upon their report cards. In
carload after carload as proven by
the books kept by the office, the ca
pacity weight was given upon the
bill of ladiIg-100,OO0 pounds of
coal-whils in reality the car con-
tanned something like 1888 pounds.
One of the last carloads of coal re-
ceived by the city bears this out, the
invoice showing forth 100000
pounds while the actual amount was
$4,000. There is no opportunity for
coal companies to get careless or to
attempt to defraud, for proof is
against them. The efficiency plan a.
the light and power plant forces cor
rect weights for which payment only
IS made. That little SIS scale has
saved its cost more than 80 times ov-
er during the past year and saved
$4,000 on coal alone, during 1916.
For the three years prior to Jan.
LIST, 1916. it cost $24,451 "A for coal
% produce electricity for Webster
Iity, 2,147,990 killowatt hours. The
otal cost was Ia mills per XIV hour;
n the year 1916 alone. 9S5, 200
iillowatt hours were produced at an
cost of $4,000 which is
lbout g of cent per XIV hour. This
s reduction of 81 mills and figures
saving of S2,O6S.5O during the
'ear as figured against an average o.
he preceding three years.
Everything stated above may be
'eriled by going to the power plant
md also to the electric light and
water office where most efficient ,
Ian of bookkeeping is now in opera 6
ion. The ebb and flow of the city's