Evening star., 1932-11-23
OBSOLETE POWER
IS MAJOR PROBLEM
Industry Must Scrap Many
Machines and Plants
to Prosper.
sreclal Dispatch to The Star.

Special Dispatch to The Star.
NEW YORK, November 23.-Power
and prosperity are no mere linking Of
words, according to bankers, engineers
and sellers of power equipment here,
because the narrow profits of business
now make the margin between eco
nomical and uneconomical power pro-
duction spell the difference between
profit and loss on an order.
Fifty per cent of all the machinery,
equipment and plant facilities in Amer
lean factories have become obsolete
within the last years. They have
been outmoded by new discoveries, i'm
provements and designs. according to
the Presidents National Committee on
the Modernization of Industrial Plant
Facilities.
This factor of obsolesence. along with
narrowing profit margins, is requiring
the replacement Of much idle ma
chinery. In 1928 and 1929 economy
in industrial power was secondary to
output and many industrial plants were
pushed to the limit regardless Of their
economy.
Many to Stay Idle.
No matter how quickly business turns
upward, many plants and machines
now idle never will operate again. They
will be unable to compete with modern
lied plants and machinery. Many fac
tories are handicapped by deprecated,
obsolete and outworn machinery, which,
because of business conditions, has not
been improved or repaired. And bank
ers are not lending money either on
such machinery or to such firms to
resume or speed up operations.
Faced with the necessity of bringing
their power plants up to date, execu-
tives and engineers of industrial es-
tablishments are planning to visit the
Power Exposition here, the first to be
held in two years. Simultaneous with
next month will be the annual meetings
of the American Society of Mechanical
Engineers and the American Society of
Retrigerating Engineers.
The Advisory Committee. under
Chairman I. E. Moultrop, believes the
show coming just after the turn of
the business tide, will have a far
reaching effect in stimulating business
recovery in the power field. They
point out that most industries have
been operating at a fraction of capac-
ity. While the chief items entering
manufacturing costs are materials and
labor, which vary almost directly with
the output, steam and power services
do not so vary because the efficiency
of production drops off materially with
fractionally loaded units Therefore,
improvements in the production of
power and steam mean much more to-
day to a factory's production cost
than in prosperous times.
Purchases Necessary.
Some new power equipment will have
to be purchased. no matter how rapid
or slow recovery takes place, because
industry, like persons, in the last few
years has been living off inventory
with the result that machines, like
clothes, have been patched to a point
where patches no longer can be sewed on.
The growth of interest in power ma
chinery parallels the growth of power
production q in this country. Back in
1922, when the idea of "superpower
and giant power machines were get
ting a good start, the first power show
was held. 1t had los exhibitors and
1889 persons attended. In 1880 there
were 406 exhibitors and attendance
was 130,569. Visitors came from 898
cities and towns and AZ States in this
country and from A foreign countries.
When the word power" is mentioned
all countries watch the United States,
because with less than 10 per cent of
the worlds population, We produce and
employ in factories, mills, and mines,
nearly one-half CT all the power now
utilized in the world.
(Copyrigf.t. 1922