The L'Anse sentinel., 1923-02-02
The Coking Chamber

wide and 36 feet long. Between the
chambers are spaces in which gas
flames rage constantly. The pulver-
lied coal is dropped in from the top
by travelling electrical bins; and be-
fore the tops can be clamped down
great pillows of black smoke roll up
and swiftly change to lurid yellow as
the heat begins to perform its magic.
Long narrow doors, hermetically
sealed with clay during the coking,
are opened when the coal has been
roasted its allotted time.
A moving electric pusl0r drives
home huge ram rod which shoves
an incandescent brick of coked coal,
IL feet high, into the air on the oppo-
site side; and as the plowing block
crumbles into a waiting steel car, the
air causes it to fly great pennons of
flame. The car, with its blazing car
go, is rushed under tower, where it
is drenched with cooling flood of
water which instantly becomes a
cloud of steam mingling spectacular
ly with the black and yellow smoke of
the coal even then being dumped into
the emptied chamber.
An Electrical Clock
1t is noteworthy that equal tenn
perature is maintained around all Of
the 120 colSing chambers by an cleo
trio, self-winding clock, which auto
matically changes the direction of
the draft under the ovens at inter-
walls of Is minutes.
AS soon as the coke is drenched
it is dumped into bins from which
it is transported to the furnaces and
foundry by mechanical conveyors.
Engineers go to River Rouge to study
Ford's revolutionary, metallurgical
practice, and remain to marvel at the
system cf conveyors which daily
transports 1000 tons of coal, 1900
tons Of coke, and like great quanti-
ties of limestone, ore. molten metal,
sand, molds and products in course of
manufacture throughout their jour
neys as water flows through the
mains of city.
It is one of the astonishing things
of the River Rouge plant that al
though $4,000 men are employed
there, very few ever are seen outside
the buildings. The inter-building
ccnveyors are covered and as invisi-
BILE as the swarm Of toilers; strik-
ing example Of their invisible pot
ency is the fact that each hour four
men move 20 tons of coke, ore and
limestone from the primary storage
into the blast furnaces and deposit
it in the stacks, without once exert
ing themselves physically.
A Mechanical Marvel
The scores of interlocking and in
terdependent. conveying systems, a
daptation on a tremendous scale of
the quantity production system at
Highland Park, are the despair of
visiting engineers, who cannot under
stand how they can be set in motion
all at once, kept eternally in motion
and vet be so synchronized that the
individual deliveries arrive invariably
at given points in exact accordance
with the needs of the manufacturing
processes.
The elect are told of miniature
models of the entire plant-built
equipped, set in motion and proved
before steel beam was reared a,
River Rouge. Ford's creative thought
and preliminary experiments at Riv.
er Rouge were mechanically so cor.
rect that human management in any
Of Interpretations there now is seldom
visible.
The River Rouge plant as it nov
exists, is mile and half long anc
three-quarters of a mile wide. ant
covers portion of Ford-owned lane
which stretches from Dix avenue
along the Miller road to Dearborn
and extends beyond the river. TIL,
backbone Of the plant is called tn,
High Line, which is viaduct 40 fee
high, wide enough for five railroad
tracks, and is three-quarters of {
mile long. Subordinate shops arr
housed under the High Line, which i
so sturdily built that the rumble O
trains passing overhead does not dis
turb the workers beneath.
West of the High Line are opel
concrete bins. half mile long, will
a capacity of 100000 tons of coal
ore and limestone. Beyond the bin
is slip and turning basin, with docl.
age for twelve or more ore carrier
and entry into the River Rouge
!, There unloaders reach into the hold
Of ships and dig out cargoes in 10-tol
bites.
/ Henry and Benson
] East of the High Line are the bias
furnaces--two Of them, named Henr
and Benson, after the sons Of Edse
- . II