Evening star., 1934-01-14
Largest Plant of Kind in
World to Operate Au-
tomaticaIIy.
STRUCTURE OCCUPIES
ENTIRE BLOCK IN CITY
Six Smokestacks Concealed by Dec
orations Will Emit Colorless
Gases Only.

area.
Built at a. cost of about s4,000.000.
the plant is said to be the largest OF
its kind in the world. It will take
care of all the centrally located Gov
ernment buildings except the group on
Capitol Hill, which are supplied from
the Capitol heating plant.
In this modern plant operation Is
automatic throughout from delivery Of
coal to carrying out of the ashes. The
stoking machinery operates by elec-
tricity, provided by two turbo-gen-
orators. From the six huge smoke
ornamental architectural decorations.
will belch forth no great clouds Of black
smoke to begrime the neighborhood.
Modern forced-draft mechanisms, al
ready installed, and q newly developed
electric precipitator smoke control" to
be installed soon, will guarantee that
only colorless gases escape.
Fills City Block.
The heating plant fills a whole city
block bounded by Twelfth and Thir.
teenth, c and D streets southwest. and
architecturally Is designed to harmon
ize with the huge adjacent extensible
building of the Department OF Agr1cul-
ture. At the present time the huge
stacks protrude a short distance above
the roof line Of the building. Before
long. even these small visible parts OF
the stacks will be hidden by decorative
screens of stainless steel These screens
already have arrived and are on the
site ready for installation. The build
ing is of buff brick, trimmed with lime
stone. Ofices are on the west end:
The fire to be built tomorrow will be
In only one Of the six huge boilers OF
the plant. It will start series OF pre-
liminary tests which will be combined
with practical operation. The big
boiler will be heated slowly. then steam
will be raised and gradually forced out
into the pipe lines. One by one the
other boilers will be fired. as they are
ready, and the machinery tested un-
der heat and pressure.
The first building to be heated will
be the enormous adjacent extensible
building of the Department of Agricul-
ture, which contains more floor space
than the gigantic Department of Com
merce Building in the Mall triangle.
Other buildings Of the Department
of Agriculture will be switched onto
the line later, and the next structures
to receive heat from the new plant will
be the Bureau of Engraving and Print
ing, the Department of Commerce and
Treasury Department Eventually all
the older buildings in downtown WASH
ington will be cut In.
White House Connected.
The pipe lines are completed to vir-
tually ali the buildings intended to be
furnished heat at the present time, so
that all necessary will be the turning
of a valve. The lines even connect up
to the White House, through the heat
ing system in the adjacent State, War
and Navy Building.
The buildings to be heated are scat
tered over the area from the Federal
Warehouse in Southwest Washington. at
Ninth and D streets, to the old Pen
sion Ofice, at Fifth and G streets, on
the north. Eventually the lines will
be extended as far north as the Veter-
ans Administration. The eastern ter
minus of the heated area is at the new
proposed municipal center, at Third
street, and the western Is at the Po-
tomac River.
When the first carload Of coal comes
over the tracks of the Pennsylvania
Railroad tomorrow, 1t will be Shunted
into the track hopper house" shown
in one of the accompanying photo
graphs, south of D street. The coal
will be dumped from the car into q
bin below, from which it will be car
ried by a large conveyor belt. On the
way to the heating plant. 1t will be
weighed on the conveyor belt by special
scales built in connection With the
conveyor. This conveyor will carry
the coal through a tunnel under d
street and underground into the heat
ing plant. It will dump the fuel-"run
of the mine" coaEinto q breaker"
which will crush it the right size Tor
the plant
caIly from the breaker and carry 1t
up to q point about 100 feet above
ground, where it will be dumped into .
bunker. From the bunker the coal
drops down through large pipes into
the automatic "underfed stokers."
These stokers work steadily, pushing
fresh coal onto the fire.
Horsepower Expansion.
Cinders drop into Q pit below rom
which they are sucked out by . vac.
uum pipe SYSTEM As the f1re purns IL
Is pushed gradually to the opposite
side Of the fire boxes and finally the
ashes drop into q deep pit where they
are sprayed by water, and then slu1ceo
out Of the plant into the ash pump
house" near the "track hopper house."
Prom the ash pump house. the watery
ashes are pumped to the upper story
Of the track hopper house and dropped
either into q railroad car directly be-
low or into motor trucks alongside.
Each Of the six boilers has . rating
Of $500 horsepower, capable Of ex-
M neioy In 4 (l{10 horxeDoWer making
the total capacity Of the plant 10000
horsepower. There Is room for two
more boilers to be installed later. Each
boiler with slow IRE consumes . ton
Of coal an hour, with capacity Of
I'VE tons at pressure, making the total
coal consumption Of the plant so tons
The plant, which represents the
latest ip modern heating science, was
desiened under auspices OF the Gov
eminent by United Engineers and Con-
structors, Inc, Of Philadelphia, Paul
PHILIPPE Cret, associated consulting
architect. It was built under direc-
tion Of the Treasury Department, with
Neal A. Melick, United States con-
struction engineer, in charge of super
vision, assisted principally by Herman
J. Bounds and John w. Shorrock.
There were five contractors: Rust
Engineering Co. Of Pittsburgh, builders
Of the plant; Combustion Engineering
Co. OF New York which built and In
stalled the boilers; Northeastern Piping
and Construction Co. OF North Tono-
wanda, N. Y, and p. h A. ]. Ellis, Inc,
Of this city, which installed the tun-
nels md piping. and p. ]. McDermott
Of this city. excavation.