The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1922-03-20


enough to insure plentiful supply Of
raw materials which could be deliv-
cred right to the mill by barge thus
making the first cost the minimum
possible The site also was ideal
offering several acres susceptible to
dyking for a liberation basin through
which the discharged water would
be freed Of color and chemicals be
fore again entering the lake The
lake itself is nine miles long andd six
miles wide al its widest part. so con
tamination as a whole would be i'm
possible.
Forty-Acre Site.
After purchasing the site. consist.
ing Of nearly forty acres, the corpor-
alton set about constructing about
half mile of railroad to connect
with the Atlantic Coast Line. AL
though this was at a time when il
was next to impossible to secure new
trackage, thanks to the interest OF
+. b. KesSler the secretary of the
Jacksonville Chamber OF Commerce,
and Acting General Superintendent
Page, of the Coast Line, this work
was expedited and in March the ac-
tual construction OF the buildings was
begun The last of these buildings
are now nearing completion. There
are eight in all. ranging from the all
steel digester room. through which
the slow-burning construction frames
covered with steel and with steel
window frames inset, to the buff
brick power plant and boiler roomss
and the all frame office bungalow OF
four rooms. Over 10000 square
feet of space is included in the ce-
ment floored buildings which include
all but the office bungalow. Along
with the buildings and the railroad it
was necessary to dredge a canal about
COO feet long. fifty feet wide and sew
on feet deep. ending in turning BIZ
sin about 100 feet long. In addition
a dyke was thrown up around the
outer edge OF the property, making
the liberation gasin for the discharge
of water. Another bayou was dred-
ged out for the water supply so it
would go into the filter clear and
clean.
Near the edge of the basin is the
warehouse for the raw materials, de
signed to hold five to six hundred
tons OF chopped sawgrass. From
this building conveyor carries the
materials to the digester building.
running in near the top, about thirty
five feet from the ground. Here is
the huge revolving digester. weigh
100000 pounds and the largest of its
type in the world, is to be filled four
times in each twentyfour hours
taking twenty-five tons into its iron
jaw at each loading. Another SIM
lar digester will be installed soon,
this and one other small machine
being all that is necessary to give
this plant a capacity of handling a
hundred tons of sawgrass daily.
Half MilIion-Gallon Tank Capacity.
From the digester, the material
cooked and partly fluid will start
through a series of agitator tanks
There are twelve of these tanks, 4
of about 10000 gallons each and
eight of $4,000 gallons each. Here
the processes are carried out accord
ing to the grade of pulp to be manu-
featured, ranging from the heavy,
rough brownish grey roofing and
paper " TIC liiltSl VI Will
book paper or writing paper pulp.
These agitator tanks are connected
together with centrifugal pumps so
that the pulp can be transferred
from one tanks to another at will to
receive the particular chemical bath
desired
Tanks are a mainstay of this big
plant. There are twenty-five of
them altogether with a combined ca
pacity of nearly half a million gal.
Ions. Six of them are metal and
sixteen of them cedar. Their pur-
pose varies from the two main water
supply tanks elevated above the
build mystic the two solid chemicals |
inside the chemical laboratory 10
are agitators and ten plain. The |
agitators are like huge ice cream
freezers the mechanism inside being |
almost the sam as that of the house
hold utensil Imagine a big cedar
Ice cream freezer that will hold 25,-
900 gallons and you will have a
clear idea Of what one Of these agita- !