Hungry Horse news., 1955-07-22
First Montana Aluminium Production Near

event in Montana industrial history
was 9:15 a. m. Wednesday, July
20, 1855.
It marked the start of electrical
current to 12O pots of the new $685.
00O, 900 Anaconda Aluminium Co.
plant as the bake-out period start
ed in the first of two potlines.
MONTANA ALUMINIUM
Montana, leading copper produc-
er, is about to become an aluminium
producer as well. First metal will be
tapped early in August, and the
plant will employ $50 men and make
60, 900 tons of aluminium a year.
Wednesday as the current started
up toward $4,000 amperes, only
sound was the distant clang of con-
struction in other buildings of the 80
per cent completed plant The pot
line buildings themselves are great
halls of American industry; stretch
ing LAO feet long, 81 feet wide and
from floor to ceiling it is 54 feet.
The pots are two rows of 25-foot
long steel crucibles. They have the
shape of the bottom half Of a roast
er that the housewife uses to cook
turkey. In the bottoms of the pots
that will make aluminium, and out
of sight, are pre-baked blocks of
pitch and coke. Case of the pots are
the cathodes, In the top of each pot
are so vertical metal pins and a COW
ering of pitch and coke briquets, all
part of the anOde.
The bake-out process will last from
IL to IA days and see the briquets
melt into one masS-SOlid at the
bottom and liquid at the top.
SMOKE POSSIBLE
This bake-out period with the pitch
and coke becoming solid carbon is
expected to see more smoke than at
any other time in the operation of
the new plant. However the smoke
output was way less than expected
and not visible in Columbia Falls.
The actual making of aluminium is
a silent operation with the only noise
the purr and occasional clang OF
overhead cranes.
| Neatly stacked in 100 pound bags
Iup the aisles of the three block Ions
potline buildings are sacks of cry
Olite. 1t is a white, flour-like sub
stance, natural sodium fluoride from
: far-off Greenland.
) First days of August will see al
umina, chemically refined bauxite
the aluminium ore, placed in a flu,
of cryolite in the pots. The alumni;
comes from Arkansas and Texa
5 from deposits mined in Arkansas ant
5 far-off jamaica Bringing aluminium
! production to the Flathead is cheal
and abundant power resulting from
Hungry Horse Dam construction.
FIRST METAL
n After the alumina is in the pots 70
four or five days, first actual tap
q aluminium metal will take place ;
: bout August S or 6. The temperatur
= is $50 to $40 degrees centigrad'
S From then on pots will be tappe
o each "a hours, and each pot wi
produce from 1,40O to 1,500 pounC
4 of metal a day. The plant will hay
~ 240 pots in operation.
!" We heard the comment Wedne
. day morning: "This is the day we'N
~ been waiting for" It was actual o
% Grafton in the potlines building of
- plant that started in the fall of 19
1 with clearing of timber from Il
&c site.
= Land that had not provided liv
lihood for a single family now w
d an industrial site to provide steat
jobs for 450.
o. Onlookers and participants as Il
as bake-out started Wednesday inclu
al ed H. G. Satterthwaite, plant ma
ager; James F. Smith, plant pr
duction superintendent, and Ed We
ter, potlines superintendent. The
was John Irvine, who heads t
s Anaconda construction forces, al
Walter Sattler, project manager
Foley Constructors, the plants &c
:. eral contractors.
"a "a Up in the rectifier building, a du
" " proof more than block-long buildi
"a built of pre-cast slabs of cOncre
., was Carl Lundborg, the plant met
~ ~ anical superintendent; Hal Kanz
81 81 in charge of electrical maintenan
GU with Frank Connors, rectifier bui
;, ing foreman. Don Farrar, chief
lth orator in the rectifier building q
Or Ralph Larson, operator, actually
tivated the current Other men
ay the shift were Paul Jones, ma
ar tenance man and George Bethel
te- tendant.
mil Even as the baKe-out period st;
ed out between the potline buildin
ect iron workers were completing
out last of a series of tall still-like bu
e. ings. These are the scrubbing t
,llS ers where fumes from the cove
mt pots will be thoroughly washed. .
len best known methods of contaml
ev- tion control are being used in the 7
5es plant, and no industrial water fr
the plant is being returned to
r., Flathead river.
,'u ,,id Current reached the full 80
,,n ua amps through the pots at $3.50 a.
aiL Thursday.
am There were tones of wondern
:, by men who know aluminium at
tne smooth operation and lack of SIN
ing during the bake-out period. A 7
'erS cal comment was II just don't
lieve this is a pot room during
eet- bake-out. The bake-out comes
to once for a whole pOtline.
ert,