Document XO8717kE8wy6Lgr0O3N9GdjvJ

SPEAKING OF POWER crack that an engineer is e man *jjj reasons from insufficient evidence, methods that arc often faulty, and hii, the right answer more often than com Add to thing* that sound screwy but aren't: recent proposals to refrigerate the perma-frosl under runways of Alaskan and Canadian air fields. In case "permo-frost" is a- new one. It designates that portion of the frozen subsoil that does not thaw in summer months. Refrigeration will, by proventing possible thawing under run* way ends, make possible a considerable economy in those portions of the slab subject to landing impact. Even when it's explained it baa a tort of "coals to Newcastle" sound, but it's true! ir it - We've heard talk in atom circles about automatic "can openers" to re* move safely the aluminum containers in which uranium rods for atomic re* actors are sealed. Now comes a Brit* ish report of an achievement "not ex* peeled for years, even in America"--a safe means of getting uranium piles hot enough to deliver superheated steam for power generation. According to the THE COAL CREW Coal it heavy end Coal it black And U cant be pumped like oil. It can't be led, for it hangs tight back. And handling coal it toil. Coal it dotty and gritty and foul And hard at the hubt of Hade*, And handling coal will corrode the sou/, ll't tore no fob lor ladiet. But here it the Crew that does that job; Day after day they do it. If it can't Ac done they call it fun And wallow right on through it. The coal goet up, and U rruuf go up If the going be smooth or tough. And it't not a trick for shovel end pick But mechanitcd modern stuff. The ihaka-eut roan and the motor* toUne And ton by stubborn ton The coal (we hope) slides up the ttope Of the long conveyor's ran. Down through the crusher's ravenous throat And out on the belt once more To a slower ride in the dark inside Of the drag on the Bunker Floor. The cavernous bunkers yawn for coal Day after hungry day. Unless this crew knows whet to do The devil wilt be to pay. For always another boat tits up Or another train's on track, And if none comet in they diq like sin* At the storags pile out beck. --R S Clark report, British scientists working at the DJdcot atom station have found a means of overcoming the limitations of alu minum cans, which disintegrate long before the reactorgets hot enough. Detailsare "secret," of course. it it it The late James H Callaway--Jim to his legion of friends in the diesel in dustry*--liked to tell this story of his early experiences as a salesman. It seems that shortly after Jim began selling for DeLaVergne many years ago, he got a wire from the home office to hop to a small Southwestern com munity that was considering installing a municipal diesel plant. Jim had been selling the pipelines and a municipal deal was a new one to him. He approached the problem, as he thought, most intelligently and first looked over the composition of the town board. He found that the chief engineer of the municipal water plant was on the board and Jim decided that his strategy was to sell the engineer and let him sell the board. So he headed first for the water plant He found the chief engineer and much to his surprise got an extremely cold reception when he introduced him self as the DeLaVergne representative. Pressed for his reasons, the chief said, "Why you DeLaVergno people are practically frauds. You build an en gine with o conical top on the piston (the famous old DeLaVergne design) and any engineer knows you can't hold the pressure on it--it just slides off." Always quick-witted, Jim admired the engineer's perspicacity, confided that DeLaVergne engineers had discovered .the same trouble and bad, just re cently, revised the desigo to include ad ditional piston rings to bold the pres sure. Then came the clincher: "You'll have to admit that if we can hold the pressure, the conical head is on ad vantage--there's more area for the pressure to work on!" ' The light of comprehension slowly dawned In the engineer's eyes as be jumped from one misconception to an other. "You know," he said, "1 never thought of that." Firmly convinced, the chief engineer sold DeLaVergne engine to the town board--which once again demonstrates the occasional truth of the old wise A tank car of more than 6000 gj of crude shale oil--the first bulk shlj ment Irom the Bureau of Mines ne^ shale-oil demonstra'tion plant Rifle, Colo.--recently went to UoJveritf Oil Products Co at Riverside, IU. wfaut it will be fractionated. Later, Haig Oil Co will conduct crocking and othu refining studies in its California liif Work continues at' Rifle on expert mental mining and extraction. ThU ts part of national synthetic fuels program For a few minutes recently, Pown and OpenATiNc Engineer editors b2 lieved they had evidence that at lew one reader thought their meteriaJ *u worth es much as the editors have Ing privately believed. An air-mail letter from China requesting reprints of tM article on restoring flooded electrics!] equipment (OE for March---reprints request) carried $340,000 worth (o poitago. A hasty check on tbo lata exchange rates for the skyrocket!* Chinese dollar brought the editors beij to earth; but left one office stamp ei thusiast with a choice item. 1 There's a new word creeping into tl jargon of Washington's bureaucrat according to Business IFeek. They't picking it up from atom scientists wti discovered during the war that therej such a thing as a million dollars. Tlu word is megabucA--you know, Ift megiwotU. THIS MONTH'S COVER Because they often simplify piptof1 layouts and save valuable space.' axial and raised-flour vertical circu lating pumps turn up.with incrw ing frequency in new installations Cover show* two Allio-Chalmers mixed-flow units In a Wisconsin. Public Servke Company plant. Foreground unit is a 38x34-10-) pump rated 11,800 gpm against ts 21ft head.* Pomp on far side is 52i36 in. and rated tt 22,000 gp, against 21. ft. Smaller pump b*i 100-hp 580-rpm motor; the largct-| has * 200-hp 400-rpm drive. 94 (48)) POWER Avguit GUYMON STATION, housing one unit ot present, uses 10,000-gpm cooNng tower, at right, to serve its 6300-tq-ft surface condenser 5000-KW TURBINE, using 400-prlg 700-F steom, drives 6250-kvo generotor ot 3600 rpm os well os shoft exciter Guymon Station Takes on Load By L l NUNLEY, Chief tnglrmr Guymon, Southwestern Public Service Co \ . BOILER CONTROL PANEL regulates operation of two 33,500-lb-perhr units, foce* two-stopo air electors serving moln condenser TWO BOILER PEED PUMPS, one motor driven, one turbine driven, or# loeatod before two feedwoter heoters in plont heot-bolonce cycle Cvrston, in the heart cl the Oklahoma Panhandle Plains, has outgrown Us boundaries and spread rapidly In all directions. This town and others received power from stations some 70 miles away In Texas via a 33-kv loop. A plant at Cuymon consisting of two gas engines, 565 and 365 hp each, regulated the 33-kv lines and in emergency carried the town load. Operation was quite successful until 1943 when the Guymon gas field began to develop. Compressor stations moved In, carbon-blsek plsnti, new stores and new homes were built. The sudden growth was too much for the existing means of power supply. The Southwestern Publio Service Co designed the present station la July and August 1945, under M E' Strom, design engineer, and construction started In the latter month. Materials were hard to find, strikes delayed deliveries and work progressed slowly because of wartime conditions. The 6250-kva turbine-generator was given Us final check on Jan 18, 1947, end at 8 am on Jan 19, 1947 the unit was synchronized to a 13.8/33-kv transformer and has operated practically continuously since. The unit has been taken ofT the line twice, once for (our (Ginlinurrf on fwige 96)