Volume VIII, Part
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free from it, the superficial clay has the least, and much To show the standing of Wyandotte cement in the less sulphur, showing that the calcium carbonate and market it is but necessary to mention a few of the pyrite have been leached out. buildings in which it has been exclusively used. In the mosaic floors and artificial stone walks of the new Tests of this cement have been satisfactory, and are Wayne county court house 3,500 barrels of the elsewhere given. Wyandotte Portland cement were used; 1,200 barrels in "At various times while the dredges have been at work in Brown Bros. tobacco factory; 4,000 barrels in the engine the marl beds near the cement works, bones of foundations of the Detroit City Water Works building; prehistoric animals— or what are supposed to be the 2,000 barrels in the Detroit Sugar Co.'s plant at bones of extinct animals—have been exhumed. Rochester, Michigan; hundreds of barrels in Wonderland Chemist Brown, of the cement works, could not Temple theater. Ten thousand barrels of Wyandotte determine to what age they belonged and has sent a box Portland cement will be required in the construction of of them to Chicago for classification. The bones of elk the great bridge across the Maumee at Maumee, Ohio, and deer are frequently found, and one workman on the now being built by the Toledo Terminal railway company. dredge has a 'beautiful pair of antlers that are as perfect The engineers, after careful tests of imported and and sound as though just taken from the animal."— American brands of cement, selected Wyandotte Coldwater Courier. cement. Michigan Alkali Co., Wyandotte (J. B. Ford). "The plant was erected on the low lands bordering the Detroit river. High grade materials were used throughout This establishment originally came into Michigan in order and the process made practically automatic. The to make soda for glass and other use, out of the vast buildings, constructed of steel with brick sides, have beds of rocksalt which extend between Trenton, clear spans, the trusses being carried on brick pilasters. Michigan, all the way along the Detroit River and the As water and quicksand were discovered at two feet, the Saint Clair River to Goderich in Canada, and Alpena, walls were built on brick arches which transferred the Mich. entire weight to concrete piers extending to solid ground. The limestone is obtained from the company, extensive The mill building and stock house are parallel twin quarries at Bellevue but having yielded its carbonic oxide buildings, each with a 42-foot clear span; at the north was of no farther use. To utilize this waste was a end the roof is raised and 84-foot trusses span the width problem placed in the hands of their chemists. The plant of both buildings, giving room for a second story. was designed by the engineering firm of Lathbury and Adjoining the mill room but separated by brick partitions Spackman.* are the coal grinding, the engine and the boiler rooms. After several trials a hard burned, dark green clinker was The clay building, with a 30-foot span, is of steel and produced from the mixture of 100 parts of clay to 260 corrugated iron, and runs toward the river at right angles parts of waste, by weight, and tests showed the quality to the mill building. to be equal to the best of American or imported cement. The waste material is transported to the mill by a The clay is dredged a few hundred feet from the travelling crane, which, securing a charge in the soda company's plant, and is conveyed to a stock shed; the plant, transports it into the second story of the cement clay is first run through a dryer, freeing it from water, plant. The clay, after excavation, is stored in a clay then it is pulverized very fine and put into bins, then building, from which it is conveyed to an elevator, analyzed and properly proportioned by weight with the discharging into a rotary dryer, where it is subjected to lime which has also undergone a purifying process. The the direct heat of a coal fire and afterwards passed raw materials are weighed exactly and the mixture is through a disintegrator from which it is elevated to the therefore absolutely correct. Afterward it passes through second floor, and discharged into steel bins, ready to be both pug mill and agitator and then ground. Proper added to the lime waste. proportioning of the raw materials is the most important The raw mix passes through a pug mill on. the second factor in manufacturing a perfect cement and the product floor, which discharges into a storage tank directly of the Wyandotte mill passes all chemical cement tests. underneath. This tank is provided with agitators which After leaving the rotaries, the clinkers pass through the prevent any separation by settling. From this tank the finest of grinding machinery and all cement is passed slurry flows to wet-grinding tube mills for a final through a mechanically agitated screen, before passing reduction. These discharge into concrete pits, so into the bins, thus insuring a uniformly ground product. arranged that a high lime or clay slurry can be Here the cement is thoroughly seasoned and none of it discharged into any of them to correct the chemical leaves the bins for the consumer until it is at least two composition. After being analyzed and corrected if months old. necessary, the material is pumped to steel storage tanks located in the second story. Agitators keep the slurry in During 1900 and 1901, the city of Detroit used motion in all pits until pumped into the rotary kilns. The Wyandotte Portland cement exclusively for all public material is fed to the kilns through water-jacketed chutes work, which is in itself a fitting testimonial as to the with pulverized coal; all three kilns discharge into a efficacy of this superior product. Volume VIII, Part III -- Chapters 7-10 – Page 41 of 95 concrete pit, from which it is elevated to the cooling The officers and directors of the company are: Julius towers. Stroh, president; Cameron Currie, first vice president; Waldo Avery, second vice president; Edward H. Parker, Air is forced in at the bottom of these steel cooling treasurer; U. R. Loranger, secretary; Lem W. Bowen, towers, 12 feet in diameter and 22 feet high, arranged Theodore D. Buhl, James N. Wright, M. M. Green. with a succession of metal floors, having radial openings, through which the clinker is swept by a Briefly the plans of the company can be outlined as scraper fitted to a central shaft. The clinker is moved follows: The manufacture of Portland cement from dry 350 degrees on each floor, before falling to the next. marl and clay shale; the mining of coal, of which the Arriving at. the bottom it is elevated into steel bins over lump will be marketed and the slack used in the the ball mills, from where it is raised and conveyed to manufacture of cement and the creation of power to run bins over tube mills which finish the cement. the great mills; the evaporation of salt in large quantities with the exhaust steam and hot gases escaping from the From here the cement is elevated and conveyed by an rotaries; the by-products of salt and limestone to be used overhead conveyor, through the mill room wall, into the in the running of a large chemical plant; the erection of stock house, and discharged into two lines of conveyors coke ovens, also used as an auxiliary to the plants; the resting on the top of the storage bins, thus delivering into operation of a standard gauge railroad to be utilized for any bin desired. These bins have hoppered bottoms hauling the coal to the dock of the company for lake and are arranged in two rows with a passageway shipment as well as the raw materials to the cement between containing two lines of screw conveyors; these plant. carry the cement drawn from the bins to an elevator at the packing room, which discharges it into the bins The novel features of their plans are,—the transportation supplying the packing machinery. of the marl to the clay and shipping point, instead of building the factory at the marl bed; the use of waste The power plant consists of one 600 H. P. tandem coal and slack, and especially of Michigan coal, as well compound condensing engine, and three water tube as clay and marl; the utilization of by-products and waste boilers. The river water passes from jet condensers to heat, and the employment of a dry process. Ordinarily hot well from which feed water for the boilers is taken. the marl being the most bulky raw material, does not pay The engine is belted directly to the main line shaft which to ship. In this case, however, we have to passes through the engine room walls in stuffing boxes, counterbalance it a saving on shipping coal, clay and thus cutting out the dust from the mill; the engine room cement, while the marl comes down grade. projecting beyond the walls of the mill so as to give In the planning of the plant, marl analyses have been clearance for main shaft. The shafting is so arranged made by R. E. Doolittle, State Analyst, Lathbury and that the power can be cut out from any department by Spackman, and others. To the courtesy of U. R. the use of clutch couplings. Loranger we owe details of the company's analyses A notable feature of the plant is the relatively small area which cover a range of materials and have a scientific covered by the buildings when compared with the total value in showing how analyses of such material run in capacity, making it one of the most complete plants in the State.