The Bluffton news. [volume] (Bluffton, Ohio) 1875-current, 1955-05-26
Mainly Personal


THE ELECkRICAL PRINCIPLES
of simple two-cell flashlight have
always baffled us, aid wiring a door
bell would be thE extent of our
electrical engineering ability, so we
were properly AVID last Thursday on
a tour of the giaRt Kyger Greek pow
er plant at Cheshire near Gallipolis,
Ohio. We were among some 400 rep
resentatives of newspapers and radio
television stations invited to preview
the plant operation, which with a
sister plant near Madison, Indiana,
will furnish the power for the Pike
county gaseous diffusion plant of the
Atomic Energy Commission.
You get fair idea of the size
of these twk giant coal eaters
when you undef fstand that togeth-
er they will NJ fOduce power equiv
alent to twO-(hirds of all the pow
er used in he entire state of
Ohio. And thib fact is more awe
some when yql consider that the
entire capacity of these two
plants is beink developed to serve
one customerSthe gaseous diffu-
sion plant of the Atomic Energy
Commission, just mentioned.
At Cheshire, fiH generating turbine
units will produG 1,O75,OOO kilowatts.
We saw one of The. units in operation.
We walked from tbp to bottom of the
History boilers While guide explain
ed how the two plants will burn about
seven and hak million tons of coal
a year-the equivalent of a railroad
train 1920 mileF long. 1t will be
shipped from ne frby coal fields down
river in barges. ~
We handled the goal, ground as fine
as black talcum pbwder. It's blown
into the furnaces with air, and burns
like gas. We walked beside giant
pulverizers that grind the coal by
means of steel balls the size of bowl
ing balls.
From one Shd of the trip to the
other, one saw not a single NOV
ing part, save perhaps the end
less rubber coal conveyOr belt.
Only a constant and almost ter
rifying roar made visitors con-
scious that the plant was in opera
ton. And although one saw
hundreds of construction workers,
only bulldozed operator and
crane man push ffng coal into the
maws of the giant seemed to be
operating the liant.
1t was not until the close of the
visit that we stepped into a spotless
ship-like control room, that we learn
ed three men, with a set af controls
that look like AZ video space ship
panel, virtually operate one unit, At
their fingertips Was button or switch
to handle eyeryIneeded chore, even a
small televisioAeS1een watched the
water level of the boiler in the bowels
of the giant.
In the evening Representatives of
many of the Is greht power compan-
les who Joined HANDS in organization
of the Ohio Valley Electric Corpora
ton and the India6a-K Kentucky Elec-
trio Corp. to set uR the two plants
heard their president, Philip Sporn,
announce that power vital to the pro-
duction of atomic. power will be sup
piled earlier and cheaper than even
anticipated by the Acc authorities.
Said Mr.. SpOrn: ''The sponsor
companies feel proud and happy
to have had the opportunity to
show that job as big and as inn
portant as this sycould be done and
done well by them-members of
the free enterprise system"
We couldn't help but feel, as
others must have felt, that it will
not be long before the vast bene-
fits of atomic power itself will be
made available tg serve construc-
lively our countI ~ and the world
and we hop through free
enterprise.
OLDTIMERS will probably better
understand the Rev. George C. Agin's
reference to "Potee Manor" in letter