THE COLLIERY GUARDIAN AND JOURNAL OF THE COAL AND IRON TRADES. Vol. CIX. FRIDAY, MAY 7, 1915. No. 2836. The Ovens and Recovery Plant of the Team By=product Coke Company Limited. IMPORTANT NEW ENTERPRISE ON TYNESIDE. By FREDERICK C. COLEMAN. The first “ independent ” coke-oven installation in Great Britain. Situated on the banks of the River Tyne, it comprises washing and screening plant, coal bunkers of a total capacity of 3,000 tons, crushers, 120 Otto ovens designed to coke 6,000 tons of washed coal per week, and sulphate of benzol plant. Probably the most interesting of the many patent by-product coke oven installations which during the past 10 years have been introduced into service in this country is the important plant which has quite recently- been inaugurated by the Team By-Product Coke Com- pany Limited, Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Quite apart from the comprehensive lines upon which it is designed, this plant is somewhat unique by reason of the fact that it is the first “ independent ” coke oven installation in Great Britain. The word “ independent ” is used to indicate that the plant is not established, as are all the other installations in this country, to work in connection with any particular colliery or group of collieries or iron and steel works. The coal is purchased in the open market, and the coke and by-products are disposed of in a similar manner, and in this respect the scheme differs from others. The project was promoted, as we have said before, by the Team By-Product Coke Company Limited, formed for the purpose some three years ago, and having an authorised share capital of .1'200,000. The chairman of the company is Mr. Herbert George Fenwick, whilst the other directors are Lieut.-Col. Joseph Frederick Laycock, D.S.O., the Hon. Cyril Arthur Liddell, and Messrs. Brodie Cochrane, James E. Tully, Henry James King, and Charles Pakemen. The site of the works is at Teams, near Gateshead, and almost opposite the Elswick Works of the Armstrong-Whitworth Company. It will thus be apparent that the plant is situated in an almost ideal position, for not only is it within easy and convenient reach of practically all of the collieries in the north-west and mid-Durham coalfield, but it is within practically a stone’s throw of the Dunston and West Dunston staiths, and 'but a short distance from the other shipping points on the Tyne and the Wear, and at the Hartlepools. It is some two and a-half years since a commencement was made with the preparation of the site, and it was in hl ______in. ... Hill Hi .. ... & ?? I Bird’s-eye View, looking South, showing Benzol Scrubbers (in Foreground), Ovens, and Crushed Coal Storage Bunkers. March 1913 that a start was made with the actual con- struction of the plant, the contract for which had been planed with the Otto Coke Oven Company Limited, of Leeds. The preliminary surveys proved that the ground was intersected with numerous old coal workings, and it was therefore decided to erect the ovens, the crushed coal bunker, and the by-product buildings upon a ferro- concrete raft. The adoption of ferro-concrete for the by-product buildings permitted of large water tanks being placed upon the roofs of the various houses, and these act as a centre of distribution for the whole water scheme. The site has not only a direct connection from - — I , ..-..J General View, looking west, of Ovens, and Ferro-concrete Crushed Coal Storage Bunkers.