Maritime History of the Great Lakes

Marine Review (Cleveland, OH), 13 Jun 1901, p. 17

The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

1901.) , MARINE REVIEW. 7 which are separate from the main building and from each other, as a precaution against the spread of fire. These buildings include ware- houses, pattern shop, joiner shop, power house, paint shop and riggers loft, each sufficiently removed from all other buildings that a fire occur- ring in any one may be confined to its place of origin. Besides this safe- guard there is a complete system of fire protection, which has been 'in- stalled under the advice and inspection of the most competent officers of the fire insurance companies. Power is furnished by three 1,500 gallon underwriters' pumps through mains ranging from 16 in. in diameter to the smaller sizes required, and the outside and inside of each building is thoroughly equipped with hydrants and hose. Out on the river front, far removed from the main building, is the woodworking department. The general arrangement is like that of the main building. It has every facility for receiving supplies by water or by rail, but the timber is generally delivered by water. It moves through the dry kiln, the joiner shop and carpenter shop, from which it is transferred by rail and crane directly under the ship for which it has been designed or under the building covering the outfitting slip. It is thus, like the iron work, accessible to the traveling cranes. The woodworking department is at least 200 ft. from the main building and an equal distance from the lumber yard. The joiner shop is a two-story building, 300 by 75 ft. and the carpenter shop a one-story building, 150 by 50 ft., and each is com- pletely fitted out with modern machinery. The paint shop, 50 by 100 ft., is isolated from all other buildings, being situated between the joiner shop and the outfitting slip. and is equipped with machinery for grinding and mixing paint. In addition to these isolated buildings are the general storage warehouse and pattern storage warehouses isolated from other structures. : : The source of activity in all these great buildings is to be found in the power house, another separate structure, located between the main building and Broadway, on the line of the railway reservation, whence it receives its supplies of fuel. It is 175 by 110 ft., large enough to permit a duplication of all its parts. It has boilers of 2,500 H.P., installed by the Aultman-Taylor Co. of Mansfield, O., with a Greene economizer and the usual feed pumps and heaters. The gases are carried off by a brick stack, which is 200 ft. high and 8% ft. inside diameter. It is built of hollow radial brick, and is the work of the Alphons Custodis Chimney Co. The stack is large enough for boilers of twice the capacity of those now in- stalled. THREE FORMS OF POWER PRODUCING APPLIANCES, The machinery side of the power house is made especially interesting by the variety of its power producing appliances. Electricity, compressed air and hydraulic power are used in the shops, and the power house con- tains the electric generators, the air compressors, hydraulic pumps and accumulators. The main engines driving the electric generators are of 750 H.P. each, and were furnished by the Providence Engineering Co. They are directly connected to two 500 kilowatt Westinghouse dynamos gene- rating direct and alternating currents of 250 volts each, which currents are used both for lighting the works and for power purposes. The gen- eral illumination is by 500 enclosed arc lights, furnished by the General Electric Co., while the individual tools and offices are lighted by incan- descent lamps. Alternating current motors (Tesla system) are used to drive the larger machine tools, but the numerous traveling cranes are operated by direct current motors. The installation is of special design and has proved entirely successful. A dynamo, which is employed as an exciter for the fields of the chief generators, is used at night for the gen- eral illumination of the plant when the other machines are idle. The main power house also contains an Ingersoll-Sergeant air com- pressor, capable of delivering 5,000 cu. ft. of air per minute. The piping from this compressor reaches the remotest part of the plant, and is of sufficient size to accommodate double the amount of compressed air now produced. In fact, enough room has been reserved to allow the installa- tion of an equally large plant. The air pressure carried is 110 lbs. per square inch, and it is distributed by mains reaching every part of the plant. Some 300 portable riveters, caulkers, drills, etc., are now in use, and the number is being rapidly increased. A high pressure hydraulic system is furnished by two Barr pumps, with a capacity of 400 gallons per minute. The accumulators, one in the power house, the other in the center of the plant, are connected. with the necessary pipes for the general dis- tribution of this power, which is used chiefly for riveting. The pressure carried is 1,500 lbs. per square inch. : It will be seen by this description that without the use of shafting three forms of power are made available in all parts of the plant--elec- trical, pneumatic and hydraulic. They are applied to machines of all kinds, each according to its adaptability. HEATING, VENTILATING, WATER SUPPLY, ETC. The exhaust steam of the power house is employed in heating the plant by both the direct and indirect system, the mains ranging from 36 in. in diameter downwards to the smaller sizes. Although the main build- ing is as far as possible enclosed, there is necessarily an open end leading to the ways. Here an ingenious screen has been interposed between the outer air and the shops. It consists of a coil of steam pipes, about 10 ft. in height, which produces a column of heated air that serves as a partition between the shops and the outer world. It does not heat the shops directly, but it protects them from outside cold. The mold loft, paint shop and exposed sides of the larger buildings are heated by radiators; the main buildings, joiner shop and carpenter shop are heated by the Sturtevant indirect system. i One of the interesting features of the plant is the water supply sys- tem. There are two 18-in. mains laid from the power house to the Dela- ware river, which can be operated independently or together. In addition to this there are fifteen 5-in. artesian wells sunk between the tracks of the railroad reservation, which supply drinking water to the whole plant and may be used to feed the boilers. The drinking water and the general service water is taken from the artesian wells only, the temperature of which is about 56° the year round. It is pumped to the offices and through the plant for drinking purposes, no ice being used to cool it. A complete sewage system also has been installed of sufficient capacity to carry off storm water as well as service water from the plant. -OFFICE BUILDING, LIBRARY, DINING DEPARTMENT. The office building, as heretofore mentioned, is on the east side of Broadway, entirely separated from the workshops. In its way it is just as remarkable for the use made of modern labor-saving appliances as the workshops. It is a very plain structure, of the Colonial style of archi- tecture, located on a lot 460 by 210 ft. The building itself is 130 by 116 ft. and is set back 50 ft. from the street line. It is impossible to tell, within the limits of an article of this kind, all about the details of a building that has been carefully designed from the floor coverings to the color of the walls and the kind of glass used in the transoms. A feature of the build- ing is a great fireproof vault, in which archives are stored. The vault is subdivided in its several stories so that it contains every drawing and paper of importance that may enter into the work of the yard. The office building is intended for the use of the executive officers, the draughting and the accounting or business departments. It contains also the dining rooms, kitchens, etc., required in an establishment of this kind, located on a site far removed from hotels that are fitted to cater to the staft employed. The basement is given over almost entirely to the dining service. Two hundred persons may be entertained at a sitting. There is a private din- ing room for guests, one for the executive officers and one general dining room, besides kitchens, serving rooms, pantries, etc. A great deal of business can be transacted at the table, and the service is of a character entirely in keeping with the other characteristics of the plant. Besides the dining compartments the basement contains a bicycle room for the use of employes and a museum of articles used in the equipment of a ship, as well as toilet rooms. The first floor is used exclusively for the executive departments. The officers of the company, the engineers, draughtsmen, estimators and librarian have rooms on this floor. There are two draughting rooms, one for hull and one for machinery, in skylighted additions to the main build- ing, all on the first floor, and the arrangement is such that each officer is conveniently located with relation to the departments with which he has to deal. The librarian is an important official in this modern office build- ing. He takes charge of all tracings and catalogues, books, magazines, estimates, letters, etc. He makes memoranda of all letters received before distribution, copies all answers and files the copy, takes charge of all tracings and delivers blue print copies thereof, catalogues and classifies all data relating to purchases and the cost of work, and has charge of the library, including periodicals as well as books. Periodicals are re- ceived in triplicate. One copy is bound; the other copies are cut up and classified. The librarian has many assistants, and this is one of the busi- est parts of the great plant. The card catalogue system is extensively used, and the executive officers can obtain in a few minutes any desired data or information regarding the business of the office or current litera- ture on the subject of ship building. Connected with the library depart- ment are the vaults heretofore mentioned, wherein are stored tracings, blue prints, etc., besides the stores of stationery, all being duly recorded in card catalogues before they are put away. The drawings are filed in iron trays, in racks erected in the fireproof vaults. The executive officers waste no time in filing drawings, or papers, or in copying letters. Every- thing of this nature is turned over to the librarian, who attends to the copying and mailing of letters, the cataloguing of archives and similar matters. DRAWING ROOMS AND ACCOUNTING DEPARTMENTS. The drawing rooms are especially interesting. There is one for the hull and one for the machinery, each in a sky-lighted wing of the main building, and each having above it, on the south side, a blue print room. The offices of the heads of these departments and their assistants adjoin the drawing rooms so that the chiefs communicate readily with either room. The rooms are splendidly lighted and are furnished with drawing tables at which some 200 draughtsmen are now at work. Smaller drawing rooms are attached to the offices of the civil and mechanical engineer on the second floor. The second floor of the main office building is devoted almost entirely to the accounting department, and to the officers concerned in the main- tenance of the plant. Here also are the photographing and blue printing rooms, in charge of the librarian. The office building is well provided with sanitary appliances. Lighting, heating and ventilation have all been cared for, and all the floors are supplied with artesian well water, flowing constantly at a temperature of 56° all the year round. One of the features of the office building is a telephone exchange of 130 telephones, by means of which every department of the works may be put into communication with every other. In a plant covering many acres this effects an immense saving, and economy of time and labor is the chief characteristic of the modern ship building plant. ~ An ingenious system of marking the parts that enter into a ship has been adopted by which, with the use of a few decimal numbers, the ulti- mate destination of a piece of machinery or plate is indicated. A whole number is employed, which is the number of the ship to which the piece belongs. That alone would keep it from going very far astray. The first number to the right of the decimal point designates the part as belonging to hull or machinery or other general classification. The number in the hundredths place designates a branch of that department and so on. A casting was observed marked 1.5421. The figure 1 designated it as be- longing to ship No. 1; the figure 5 in that particular place (but in no other) that it belonged to the machinery of the vessel, the figure 4 that it was a part of the main engine, the figure 2 that it was a part of the bed plate, and the figure 1 that it was a particular part of that bed plate. This number appears on the drawing of the part, on the pattern, on the casting and in the cost account. It will be the number of the similar part in every -vessel that may be built, the whole number alone being changed. The plant will not be in operation a year before every man and boy in the ship yard will be sufficiently familiar with the code to direct every piece of metal that enters into a ship to its proper place on the ways. The decimal system used in this way can take care of a multiplicity of parts, which can be traced back, if necessary, through every department to the draughting room. PERSONNEL OF THE MANAGEMENT. Henry G. Morse, president and organizer of the company, is a native of Ohio. His technical education was obtained at the Rensselaer Poly- technic Institute, Troy, N. Y., from which he graduated in 1871. Imme- diately thereafter he entered the service of the Pennsylvania railroad under John A. Wilson, and was employed in the construction of the low grade division, having direct charge of the Long Point tunnel. In 1872-73 he was engineer and superintendent in charge of construction of the masonry and erection of two bridges over the Allegheny at Foxburg and Parker's

Powered by / Alimenté par VITA Toolkit
Privacy Policy