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FILE NAME: Kaiser Gypsum (KG) DATE: 1946 Aug DOC#: KG087 DOCUMENT DESCRIPTION: Trade Publication Article RE Henry Kaiser - Pit & Quarry A uguSt , Voi. 39 Published on the first of each month for producers and manu facturers of Cement, Crushed Stone, Gypsum, tim e, Sand, Gravel and other nonmetrllic minerals. Copyrighted 1946 by Com plete Service Publishing Co., 538 $, Clark Street, C hicago 5, I1L H. W. BAUMGARTNER President STANLEY A. PHILLIPS Vice-President and Directing Editor WALTER E. TRAUFFER Editor HARRY F. UTLEY Pacific Coast Editor WILLIAM M. AVERY Field Engineering Editor M. E. ANSEL Associate Editor FLOYD C. LEVERETTE Assistant Editor WOLF G . BAUER Contributing Editor W . T. KLUSSMAN Secretary RAY L. SMITH, JR. Circulation Manager C H ICA G O BUSINESS OFFICE 538 South Clark Street C hicago 5, Illinois Telephone HARnson 8558 JAMES E. MONTGOMERY Adx'ertising Manager EARL C. KAYE Representative RUSSEL L. MILES Field Manager, Pit and Quarry Handbook NEW YORK OFFICE Room 1235, 101 Parli Avenue New York 17, New York Telephone CAIedonia 5-4438 W . A. WILSON Eastern Advertising Manager CHARLES H. BUSSMANN Assistant CLEVELAND OFFICE 712 The Arcade Cleveland 14, Ohio Telephone CHerry 4432 0 . R. EGBERT Central Advertising Manager PACIFIC COAST OFFICES 318 North Lockheed Avenue W hittier, California HARRY F. UTLEY 1007 Terminal Salat Building Portland 5. Oregon J. A. CONVERSE C O N T EN T S Editorial: Price Control and the Future of Business . .............................................. 54 News of the I n d u s t r y ................................ 57 Illinois Producer Mines Limestone from Mis sissippi River B l u f f ........................ 63 New California Gravel Plant Built to Exact ing Specifications.................................... 64 Men of the Industry -- Henry J. Kaiser . 69 Cement Plant Lubrication -- ParT"IF~7~. . 73 Cumberland Quarries' New Plant to Pro duce Aggregate for D a m ....................... 76 New Outlets for the Lime Industry--Part III 77 2,225,000-Barrel Output Attained by Newly- Enlarged Calaveras P l a n t ....................... 79 Cost of Producing Agricultural Limestone in Illinois -- A S u r v e y ................................ 82 Louisiana Sandi and Gravel Plant Uses Diesel-Powered D re d g e ........................... 85 The Lime Plant O p e r a to r ........................... 87 The Concrete Manufacturer News of the In d u s tr y ................................127 Gibson's Streamlined Plant Increases Out put of Concrete Irrigation Pipe . . . . 129 Install Moisture Determination System at Florida Block P l a n t ................................131 Expansion Anticipates Production at New Florida Block P l a n t ....................................133 West Coast Products Firm Capitalizes on Improvements and P u b lic ity ...................... 135 Washington Producers Honor Work of Hans Mumm, Jr........................................................ 138 Personal M ention 91 O bituaries . . . 92 Legal Decisions 93 Traffic N ew s . . 96 New M achinery 98 Trade N otes . . . Trade Literature 113 Index to A dvertisers 166 PIT AND QUARRY IS INDEXED IN THE ENGINEERING INDEX MEN OF THE INDUSTRY-HENRY J. KAISER AS A NONMETALLIC MINERALS PRODUCER This article, dealing more with the achievements of Henry J, Kaiser and his associates in the nonmetallic minerals industries than with his personal history, presents, we believe for the first time, a complete picture of his truly re markable record. Having since 1932 written more than a dozen major articles, based on personal visits, on all the more important operations mentioned in this arti cle, we have long felt that this record should be brought to the attention of contemporary produc ers, most of whom have heard little about it.-- The Editor. management into widely diversified fields. Now operated in California are sand and gravel plants at Pleasan- describing these concrete plants have been published in Pit and Q uarry. Further, cement and commercial rock are produced at Permanente, with branch facilities at Redwood City, Calif., and at Honolulu and Seattle. Basic brick, as well as chem icals, are produced at Moss Landing, Calif.; dolomite products and lime at Natividad, Calif.; and gypsum and gypsum products near Los An geles. Production of aggregates w a s among the earliest of Henry J. Kai ser's commercial ventures. During the several years' period that t h e Kaiser Paving Co. was engaged in road construction in Washington NATIONAL interest c u r [ l l t l rently is focused on Henry J. Kaiser's production of ggjgjg automobiles, housing, a i r - craft, household appliances and other such consumer i t e m s glamorous to a hungry public. Main taining an uninterrupted growth in the'Jiaiser industrial structure, how ever, are the non-metallic minerals industries' which helped foster the e x p a n s i o n of Kaiser production Aerial view of the Radum plant at Pleas anton, C a lif., operated by the Permanente Cement Co. This plant's annual production exceeds 2,000,000 tons. Henry J . Kaiser ton, Antioch, Upton and Oroville, and a plant at Seattle, Wash. In ad dition to these producing units, Kaiser operates three major batch ing and ready-mixed concrete dis tributing plants under his own name, and several others in conjunction with building material dealers in Northern California. Several articles and California, several small tem porary plants were constructed f o r the production of essential materials. In 1921, in connection with paving operations in northern California, a semiportable plant was erected on a 17-acre gravel deposit at Black Butte, Calif., which proved capable of supplying a certain commercial demand. This plant was operated for about seven years. The first gravel plant owned by Mr. Kaiser which was operated pri marily as a commercial project was at Livermore, Calif. Production be gan in 1923, at the time the Kaiser Paving Co. was awarded the con- tract for the Livermore-Pleasanton highway in California, and remained in operation until 1931, when new gravel deposits were purchased near Pleasanton, five miles distant. The Radum plant, constructed in 1930 on the site of the Pleasanton gravel deposits, is the largest and most complete of the company's sand and gravel plants. It produces con crete aggregates, crushed rock and asphaltic mixes for the commercial market. From January, 1931, to No vember of last year, it produced ap proximately 17,243,000 tons of grav el. In recent years annual production has exceeded 2,000,000 tons. A de tailed description of this plant was published in the March 9, 1942, issue of P it a nd Q uarry. In the October, 1945, issue improvements in the pit were described. Several articles describing the Seattle gravel plant, formerly operated by the Glacier Gravel Co., have also been published. Opened in 1932 to supply plaster and concrete sand, the Antioch plant had produced by November, 1945, A erial view of the Permanente Cement Co. plant near San Francisco. about 1,044,000 tons. At the Felton plant, from 1937 to November, 1945, 987,000 tons of sand were processed for use in asphaltic mixes. This plant was completely described in the August, 1938, issue. From the Upton plant, near Oakland, 883,700 tons of crushed rock have been taken from the quarry since 1938. Since 1929, the Oroville plant has pro duced 4,211,413 tons of ballast and commercial rock. Sponsored and managed by the Kaiser interests, the Columbia Con struction Co. erected a plant at Red ding, Calif., early in 1940, to supply aggregates for the Shasta Dam. U n til requirements had been filled in June, 1945, approximately 12,775,000 tons of sand and gravel were delivered for the dam project. A complete description of this plant was published in the March, 1941, issue of P it and Q uarry, following a progress story in the November, 1939, issue. As in all Mr. Kaiser's operations, his production of aggregates has been notable for advancements in method which have become, with him, habitual. Many features in the Kaiser approach to gravel produc tion were innovations in the industry more than 15 years ago. At that time, for example, Kaiser's largest plant at Pleasanton is believed to have been the first to introduce such features as (1) final screening a n d washing of material before shipment, (2) blending of no material except in the car for shipment, (3) stock ing and reclaiming material in a period of manufacture rather than as a finished product, thus allowing stockpiled material to be screened again, washed and blended before shipment, (4) s c r e e n i n g ac complished by flat, vibrating screens, (5) control of all power units being centralized, thus eliminating signals and time losses, promoting immedi ate decisions with proper corrections, (6) clean-up facilities where a l l waste flows by gravity to a central point where it is collected and re turned to the system, (7) all gravel washed and de-watered three times in its manufacture, (8) all sand re washed and segregated in its various sizes, then mixed for shipment, thus allowing a closer grading and blend ing than then customary and (9) unit plant construction whereby its capacity might be increased 50 to 70 Pif and Quarry 100 per cent., with the minimum ex pense and no loss of production. Utilization of a 9 6-miIe-long con veyor belt set a record in economical transportation of aggregates in the Shasta Dam operation from 1940 to 1945. From the banks of the Sacra mento River at Redding, Calif., where the Kaiser-directed washing and screening plant was built, timber trestles supported a yard-wide duck and rubber belt-line which delivered the finished product at a calculated speed of 1,100 tons per hour. Two walking draglines at Redding dug the raw material and delivered it to 42-inch pendulum belt conveyors supplying a 16- by 42-inch jaw crusher, from which the product went to the raw storage pile. Suc cessive lifting by gravity-flow belts through the several processing m a chines finally delivered the finished product to stockpiles. From these, belts in reclaiming tunnels led to the 9.6-mile conveyor system which transported the aggregates to the hopper at Coram, the specified point of delivery'. Construction o f t h e belt-line, through a period of heavy rainfall and floods, took more than five months. A parallel road, patrolled by inspection t r u c k s equipped with r a d i o communication, facilitated maintenance of the gigantic con veyor in operation. Mr. Kaiser's part in the produc tion of aggregates and concrete for, and the construction of the Boulder. Bonneville, and Coulee dams was also recorded in detail in these pages. A part of the distribution fleet at the Kaiser ready-mixed-concrete plant in O ak land, C a lif. This plant services the San Fran cisco Bay area. The Natividad plant of the Permanente M etals C o rp ., showing the main conveyor belt from the dolomite q uarry. The main calcining plant (center) delivers the fin ished product by conveyor to the storage bins (le ft of ce n te r). W hat is said to be the largest single cement-producing plant in the world (capacity, 5,000,000 barrels annually) is operated at Perma nente, Calif., near San Francisco, by the Kaiser-operated Permanente Ce ment Co. Construction of this plant was begun in June, 1939. Seven months later the plant went into initial production, first producing the cement requirements (approxi mately 6,800,000 barrels) for the Shasta Dam. Its second m ajor ac complishment was during wartime in producing the cement require ments for the Pacific w ar theatre and a $250,000 contract for t h e Panama Canal Zone. Todav the Permanente cement plant is an ex ample of modern advancement in the industry. A progress story on this plant appeared in the November, 1939, issue of P it and Q uarry and a detailed description of the com pleted plant in December, 1940. Later articles described improve ments and expansions of this plant. The Permanente plant is not only reportedly the world's largest; it also e m p l o y s revolutionary production methods made possible by varied equipment of special d e s i g n . A closed-circuit method of raw grind ing in the mill building assures ac curate control of fineness and in creased production. This raw' grind ing circuit produces raw slurry with a fineness value of 95 per cent, passing through a 200-mesh sieve, and it is impossible for oversize par ticles to pass through this circuit. Efficient and thorough burning of cement clinker is absolutely essential in the manufacture of good cement, and Permanente's four kilns consti tute another unusual feature of the plant. The kilns are 12 feet in di ameter by 463 feet long. The finish mills are also closed circuited, with air separators which reduce t h e clinker to uniform fineness and pro duce a cement with very high sur face area. Naturally available to the Perma nente plant are vast, diversified de posits of limestone, shale and clays. The chemical composition of these raw' materials enables Permanente to produce a cement having a high per centage of combined silicates, a low alumina content, and a slight alkali content, which make it resistant to sea water and to high-alkali soils and permissible for use with all types of aggregates. 1 i i Above, le ft: Scene at the Radum plant: a dragline with a lO-cu.-ft. bucket charging a floating hopper. Right: A portion of the Radum plant, viewed from the control tower at the top of the main plant. Note the typ ical Kaiser use of conveyors. Novel in operation of the Permanente plant is the 48-inch con veyor belt which moves the rock from the quarry to the processing plant more than a mile away. The plant has more than five miles of conveyor running throughout; and after the induction motors start the conveyors, generators d r i v e n by gravity flow supply enough electric ity to o p e r a t e the 5-cubic-yard s h o v e l in the quarry! Another sample of Kaiser efficiency is the use of reject gas from the nearby Permanente Metals Corp. magnesium plant as fuel for the cement kilns. Branch facilities of the Permanente Cement Co. include bulk load are the principal users of the sugar rock.) In manufacturing basic refrac tories, Permanente is moving its op erations to a new plant, nearly com pleted, at Moss Landing, Calif., which is also its source of raw ma terials. Here Permanente obtains a magnesia natural oxide produced from high-grade dolomite and sea water. This material, with silica added and extremely hard-burned, becomes periclase, the principal in gredient of Permanente basic refrac tories. With the most m o d e r n equipment, the periclase is mixed with Permanente's specially-devel oped bonding material, the grains of which are microscopically small Thickener tanks at the Moss Landing plant of the Permanente Metals Corp. Here cal cined dolomite and sea water are mixed and burned to form magnesia oxide, peri clase, chemicals and other products. and penetrate all voids between the grains of periclase. Brick aggregates of e i t h e r straight periclase or chrome-periclase are fed to a mod ern high-pressure automatic press for forming into brick of high den sity and uniform weight. Bricks are then treated in an autoclave to de velop full green strength and are ready for shipment to supply the demand for a better refractory in open hearth furnaces, kilns and elec tric furnaces. As The Permanente Metals Cor poration, Henry J. Kaiser and asso ciates operate several outlying plants in connection with their magnesium operation. These include a silica quarry at Le Grande, Calif., a quarry and a dolomite calcining plant at Natividad, Calif., and a sea water magnesia plant at Moss Land ing. These units are now operating (Continued on page 75) ing facilities at the port of Redwood City, 18 miles from the plant proper on San Francisco Bay, and pack- house and silo storage facilities at Honolulu and Seattle, where con struction is being completed. Bulk i trucks deliver cement to the Red wood City silos, where huge pumps can load a ship with 40,000 barrels in about 18 hours. The plant had a wartime record of having never missed a convoy. Permanente sup plied all bulk cement for military fortifications in the Pacific until July, 1945, and filled major govern ment war contracts totaling more than $25,000,000. T h e Redwood City plant was described in March, 1943. Permanente's facilities also include a 1,500-ton-daily commercial rock plant for production of concrete ag gregates, railroad ballast, highway paving material, etc. A plant by product is a high-grade limestone known as "sugar rock" by reason of its use in the process of refining beet sugar. (Two major sugar companies 72 Pit and Quarry A mg rings and girth gears will often times get quite warm through con duction. A lubricant having a fairly high liquefying point should there fore be used. It must also of course, resist the cutting and drying action of the inevitable dust. Lubricants suitable for the dryers should prove satisfactory upon the corresponding parts of the clinker coolers. CONVEYING THE MATERIALS Cement materials are handled to or from the various crushing devices, dryers and kilns by a screw, apron, pan or flight conveyor; by elevators, or by a suitable pressure pumping system. Lubrication a Factor In operating such equipment, every consideration should be given to the fact that high temperatures, and frequently considerable thrust pressure may be involved. Lubrica tion therefore, must not be neglect ed. Dust also presents a problem. In the pan or apron conveyor, for ex ample, the roll bearings may be ex posed to a sufficient extent to permit of entry of enough abrasive foreign matter to cause considerable wear. The builders have made special ef fort to counteract this by oil-tight and dust-tight design. The lubricant must be chosen ac cording to the design of the convey or. Certain types of rollers, for ex ample, will require oil, a suitable wick being used as a distributor. There a straight mineral oil of from 300 to 500 seconds Saybolt Universal Viscosity at 100 F. will be satis factory. In general, such an oil also will be adaptable for the lubrication of the driving motor bearings of either ring oiled or anti-friction type, provided the housing will retain oil and abnormal temperatures do not develop. There are other types of conveyor rollers which are designed for grease lubrication. They are usually equipped either with compression cups or pressure grease fittings. Grease serves as an effective seal at the rims of the bearings to prevent entry of dirt or dust. Screw conveyors very often are not lubricated due to constant contact with the materia] being handled. In such installations shafts of tool steel running on dry cast iron bearings are favored. It is less costly to renew bearings than to try to maintain lu brication. Where High Temperatures Prevail Where high temperature condi tions may prevail a relatively high melting point grease should be used of the type applicable to kiln or dryer trunnion bearings. Tempera ture frequently must be given espe cial attention in the lubrication of the ball bearings of pumps which are used to force cement materials through pipe lines for a considerable distance under pressure. Wherever the pump bearings are subjected to considerable heat, as for example, where flue dust or hot cement must be handled, the grease should be of adequate melting point and consist ency to withstand the thinning down effects which will be promoted by high temperatures. CONCLUSION Treatment of the mechanical de tails of the production machinery used in the manufacture of cement has been briefed, with the thought that those who are particularly inter ested in lubrication will gain more by studying the details of the ac companying illustrations. Power equipment has not been discussed since other issues of Lubrication and certain booklets are available which are more specific. For additional reference material see the following: "Air Power and Compressor Lubri cation," Lubrication, January, 1940; "Electric Motor Bearings," Lubrication, April, 1940; "Steam Cylinder Lubrica tion in Industry," Lubrication, April, 1942; "Steam Turbine Lubricating Oils," Lubrication, May, 1944; "Indus trial Gears," Lubrication, September, 1945; also Diesel Operation and Ball and Roller Bearing Lubrication--book lets published by The Texas Company. Men of the Industry (From page 72) at capacity, producing and market ing such products as calcined dolo mite, dehydrated a n d processed lime, magnesium oxide, periclase, chemicals and others. Mr. Kaiser's entry into the gyp sum business came in 1944, with the incorporation of Standard Gypsum Co. of California for the purpose of mining, manufacturing and proc essing gypsum. This company has assumed complete control and oper ation of Standard Gypsum Co., Inc., whose existing properties included a leased gypsum deposit (estimated 500,000,000 tons) on San Marcos Island, Mexico : land at Long Beach, Calif., with calcining and plaster plants and a quarry located thereon ; and mining claims at Ludwig, Nev. A gypsum plant, plaster mill a n d other facilities are located on the Nevada property. Construction of plant facilities at Long Beach are now being rushed to completion. For improvements at Long Beach and elsewhere, a $1,- 000,000 investment is already pro jected. I n c l u d e d will be the purchase or construction of rock handling, grinding and plaster mill facilities. Standard Gypsum w i l l manufacture all types of hardwall and casting plasters and gypsum lath, wallboard and tile, as well as gauging plasters, acoustical, indus trial and patching plasters, and agri cultural gypsum and pebble gypsum. The service is intended to supply the entire Pacific coast area, as well as export markets. At the age of 63 years, Henry J. Kaiser is now actively engaged in some 25 major industries, among which his interests in the production of nonmetallic minerals are likely to be minimized in the public eye. The 1,517 combat and cargo ships pro duced at Kaiser yards, steel produc tion at the Fontana plant, aircraft engineering and munitions for war --all such have bulked large in the public imagination during wartime. With the coming of peace, Mr. Kaiser's entry into the automobile and household-appliance fields, his production of the Kaiser-Hammond family safety plane, and his initia tion of a broad Pacific Coast housing program (10,000 homes in 1946) have particularly gripped the public interest. But although the Kaiser interests now produce more than 140 prod ucts, Mr. Kaiser himself still ag gressively maintains his activity in the continued development of his early interest, the nonmetallic min erals industries. $250,000 Dust Collector Sold as Cowell Plant Closes A $250,000 Cottrell Electrical Dust Precipitator installed ten years ago by the Cowell Portland Cement Company at Cowell, California, was sold to the Santa Cruz Portland Cement Company, accord ing to an announcement from E. D. Barnett, Cowell superintendent. The structure has a 200-foot main collecting flue, which feeds a mass of machinery; it ends in a stack 16 feet in diameter and 235 feet high. Other installations at Cowell are also being sold to dismantle the plant. The 37-year-old industry closed s e v e r a l months ago because of the lack of ac cessible limestone rock. Paraffine Companies, Inc., announced recently through its whollv-owned sub sidian-, Plant Rubber & Asbestos Works, that it will erect a $1,000,000 asbestos cement products plant at Redwood City, California. The announcement was made by' R H. Shainwald, executive vice-presi dent, who is president of Plant Rubber & Asbestos Works.