The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1918-09-11
j. s. BASE COVERS
AREA OF A CITY
Represents an Investmentsof
S30,0O0,0O0 in Plant
Alone
OVER $50 MILES OF I
RAILWAY TRACKS


American Storage System in France is
Bewildering in the Magnitude of its
Five Months Growth-Four Miles
Long and Mile in Width
AMERICAN PORT, WESTERN
FRANCE Sept. 9.-The colony of ware
houses. docks and shops forming the
base storage depot of the American
here is bewildering in its magnitude. |
Approaching the base is like cons
ing into some great industrial city such. |
as Manchester. or Gllfeagesf:0ff to the
right rise fifteen giant chimneys puff
| fng black smoke from a group of fac
! tories. A mammoth refrigerating plant,
said 10 be one of the largest in the
world, looms against the sky. To the
left il the glare Of furnaces anfforges,
where cannon and locomotives are
being made. assembled and mounted
All about is the movement OF vast and
Intricate railway traffic and the hum
of colossal industry. This base OF
American army supplies is the growth
of the last five months erected ont of
almost nothing by the Tmpelling neees-
sity of war. The colonel at head
headquarters summed up some of the
essentials of what had been accom-
plished
This army storage base represents an
investment of $30,000,000, for buildings
and plant alone and not for the vast
stocks Of army supplies.
1t covers an area four miles long by
mile wide-the area of the city
with a great docking system and deep
water piers.
II is laid out for the storage ct a
million tons of army supplies, but the
capacity is elastic and may be increased
"a two million tons A million tons
Is the capacity of 1000 ocean liners, OF
a ton for very man of an army Of q
million men.
There arc go miles Of railway tricks
interlocking the vast network of ware
houses and yards.
There are 100000 square feet Of
covered storage. this is, buildings will
floor space and roof. and 10000 00l
ennare feet of omen storage, in all l6.
100000 square feet of army SUPPLE
stored and stacked from ten to fit
feet high like range of low mountains
The ocean pier under construction
- will accommodate six to twelve oeea1
"a cleaners drawing 80 feet of water
\ With the dock facilities of the nearb
h city there win he an unloading eanaC
n itv of $4,000 To 10000 tons of Amer
a can army supplies a day. That Is. tw
or three ships can be turned aronn
n every day
At one point n pier 600 feet Ion
q and bali mile wide is being built fo
n general merchandise and high expl
sives. and just back of it is rising
b huge storage depot of ammunition an
n high explosives.
In all there viii be 1874 warehouse
n of which 81 are entirely of steel NAM
b featured in the United States and SCI
here ready to be put together. 1t hi
taken on an average four days 10 p1
M one of these mammoth building
These buildings grow as If by magi
n in a day, and by miles and miles Mo
h Of these buildings, about $50 of the
are 400 feet long and so feet wfd
Z Practically 81 Of the work las be,
n done in the last five months.
= AT one point it was necessary
build q concrete Dam - feet high
work comparing with the great KeoAl
" DAMN order to bring water 70 one
the great base hospitals adjacent to t
Il plant, with 10000 beds.
h From these warehouses there Is !:
ways n stream of supplies going f,
X ward 10 an army of more than a N
lion men. There is always resar
Il Of fifteen days supplies inside the 8
vance zone where the army is ightr
thirty additional days of reserve 81
plies in the intermediate zone half w
mp to the fighting line, and forty-ti
more days of reserve supplies here
he base ports ready TO be moved
a as fast as emergency requires TT
q makes in all 90 days. three months,
armv supplies always in reserve.
that the army could get along for TIN
months il not another pound arfiv
whereas. in fact. the steady sire;
keeps on coming uninterruptedlv. 81
B lying the day by day needs. and
ways maintaining the safe margin
reserve.
n American railway cars drawn
American locomotives over AmeriC
q tracks lined the warehouses and crov
h Cd the yards. The American stand;
railway ear now used for this ar
SERVICE has a grnv wood body with
steel windows which open DOWNS
y when the car is used for soldiers
horses, or close tight when used a.
box ear. There were fully 1000