The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-03-13
FACTORY SOLVES
 AHARD PROBLEM Huge New Power Plant Built By Dodge Brothers Fine
 One, Indeed

The man who goes shvering to his cellar morning after morning to Hay on few shovels of coal and shake the grate' will look with envious eyes on the immense new power plant now being completed by Dodge Brothers, Detroit motor manufacturers. Tons and tons of coal will be consumed there beneath eight huge boilers, but not one shovel will be in sight. It is to be q "shovelless' plant from beginning to end. No coal will be shoveled in and no ashes will be shoveled out. Everything is to be automatic. car dumps it's fuel cargo into hopper and passes on. Soor another car comes and receives a load of ashes-and no human hand will have touched the coal in the entire process of transformation.
 There are other equally remarkable features of this up-to-date plant which make a strong appeal to anyone inter ested in seeing how manufacturers today are solving problems which would have been put aside as impossible less than d generation ago.
 The power plant is designed for an
 installed capacity of 10000 K. w. and it requires approximately 25,0O0 gallons of water a minute for each 10000 gallons XIV. units. There is no natural water supply within. miles of the factory. To take water from the city mains and then waste it after passing once through the condenser, would be out of the question. Not only would the cost be prohibitive-
 it would be about 70 cents a thousand cubic Feet or s56O an hour-but the drain on the city's supply would be far too heavy. In other instances where similar problems presented themselves, the so- lution has been found in cooling pond, . large reservoir where the water was stored ard used over and over again. lH this case. however, so large tract was not available. Not only are property prices extremely high, but there was danger that the spray rising from such a pond would damage newly manufac- tured cars and parts So this plan also was abandoned.
 From this problem or, conglomeration of problems grew the plans for what has now become the largest cooling tower in the world--a structure 146 feet long, g feet wide and 104 feet high. It is capable of cooling 1S000 gallons Of water minute from temperature oI 105 to S5 degrees when the outside tenn perature is 72 degrees and the relative humidity is 69 per cent. With other at HlOSpneTlc cOnQlllOtlS, thC "e~eSA ''iA - cooled to within 9 degrees of the exist ing dew point with minimum tempera- ture of 45 degrees This tower effec- lively disposes of the problem which cor fronted Dodge Brothers construction en- gineers. It makes possible the repeated use of the same supply of water, with loss of only per cent due to evapo- ration The tower is of the most sub stantial type, capable of withstanding a wind pressure of 90 miles an hour.
 Four immense smokestacks each 2V feet high and 13 feet in diameter, are being erected. They will be among the largest in the country. Although the bower house was not started until May 1S 1920, it is now practically ready for operation. The first fire was started February l. Many of the factory execu- tives were present to observe the cere monies. Built at cost rof $3,5000OO, the power plant is without question one of the engineering triumphs of modern in dustry It is significant, in this connec; tion, to observe that the entire plant was built by Dodge Brothers construc- tion department. With this plant Tn operation. the factory is safeguarded against any future emergencies such as the breakdown of the central power plant, on which many of Detroits iar- gest industries are dependent
 The new power house is only one oi