486

THE COLLIERY GUARDIAN.

March 7, 1913.

and kitchen with accommodation for over 1,000 men.
The dining-room (see fig. 7) is divided into compart-
ments for the different grades of workpeople. A hot
dinner is provided every day at a moderate price, and
those men who bring their own food can have it warmed
or obtain hot water without any charge. Adjoining
the ground floor of this building is the workmen’s
lavatory, of which an illustration is given in fig. 6.
It is fitted up with long cast iron troughs which are
filled with warm water at mealtimes, and each man is
provided with soap and towel. In this building, lockers
constructed of metal and well ventilated are provided
so that each man has a place in which to hang his coat
it being forbidden to take these into the shops.
Another new building is a three-storey structure at the
rear of the power-house (see fig. 2), it is of fireproof
construction throughout, with steel framework, the
floors and roof of reinforced concrete, and the whole
enclosed by brick walls. It is occupied on the top floor
as a pattern shop, the first floor as pattern stores and
paint shop, and the ground floor as a tinsmith’s shop,
and for cotton bowl making.

The latest addition is a building with seven bays
which is used as a brass and iron foundry and smithy.
It measures 275 ft. by 218 ft. 6 in., and is lofty, well
lighted, and supplied with materials by means of a line
of rails of standard gauge which runs from the firm’s
own siding on the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway.
From this siding lines of standard-gauge rails also run
into bays in each department of the works, as is shown
on the plan fig. 2, and the raw material and finished
products can be unloaded and loaded direct from and
into trucks, thereby saving unnecessary handling.
Further than this, a complete system of narrow-gauge
tramway lines, 21J in. gauge, is laid in each bay, and
trucks capable of carrying 2 tons are employed to
convey goods from one department to another. The
trucks run on roller bearings to reduce friction, and can
easily be pushed about the shops by one man. All the
bays of the main building are of the same length. The
average height under the cranes is 24 ft., and each shop
is served by a powerful overhead electric travelling crane
running the whole length of the building. There are
in addition pneumatic hoists and jib cranes operated by
hand and placed over the benches. The shops are
illuminated at night by means of metal filament lamps,
each of 1,000-candle power, distributed equidistantly
from one another, and so arranged to avoid the throwing
of shadows. The ventilation and heating have been well
considered.

The energy to drive the whole of the works is taken
from the Manchester Corporation electric supply
mains. Alternating current is brought into the works
at a pressure of 6,500 volts and is transformed in the
power house down to direct current at 440 volts. It

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Fig. 4.—Pump Department.









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Fig. 5.—Electrical Department.



Fig. 6.—Workmen’s Lavatories.



Fig. 7.—Workmen’s Dining Hall

is distributed on the three-wire system, so that two
pressures are provided. The large machine tools are
driven independently by their own electric motors and the
lighter tools are operated from sections of overhead
line shafting, each section being driven by its own
motor. Ample provision is made for testing all pro-
ducts. Water for manufacturing, fire, and other
purposes is obtained from a large reservoir into which
all the rain water from the roofs, &c., is drained.
From this reservoir the water is forced by means of a
turbine pump through one of the firm’s mechanical
pressure filters, which has a capacity of 6,000 gallons

per hour. From the filter the water flows into a large
elevated tank placed in the tower shown in the illustra-
tion, whence a constant pressure is maintained in the
circulating mains.

The whole of the offices and shops are equipped with
a model fire extinguishing plant. This includes some
4,000 Grinnell sprinklers divided into eight distinct in-
stallations, each controlled by a separate set of 6 in.
alternate wet and dry pipe valves. Water is supplied
by an 8 in. pipe from the Corporation main, augmented
by a gravity tank of 10,000 gallons capacity and an
electrically driven turbine pump capable of delivering

1,000 gallons per minute. In connection with this pump
there is provided automatic starting gear. Briefly, this
consists of a vertical hydraulic cylindei- in which is a
weighted ram ; the latter is held in position at the top
of the cylinder by means of a catch controlled by the
pressure of water in the sprinkler installation. When
this pressure is reduced to a predetermined extent by
the opening of one or more sprinklers in case of fire,
the catch releases the ram, which falls by gravity and
starts the electrically driven turbine pump, which con-
tinues to work until stopped by hand. As soon as the
pump has been started the ram is automatically raised