TONS OF GRIT

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 84, 10 April 1945, Page 6

TONS OF GRIT

WIND-BLOWN VARIETY POWER PLANT PROBLEM The man on the telephone had the sound of one tested past endurance. "Do something about this grit," he pleaded. "It seeps in everywhere. It's on my desk. It's on the window sills. My clients have to dust off a chair before they sit on it. It's in my eyes, and in my teeth." His voice strained gratingly to prove it. "We've heard about the Auckland gaol. What about something showing what we on the outside have to endure?" ' It was an appeal that could not be resisted. A reporter went, saw, felt, and did not need to be told. The complaint came from Anzac Avenue,! a third floor office. It was justified. It could equally have been justified from Customs Street, Quay Street, Beach Road, or anywhere in that area, to leeward of the King's wharf power station. A constant drift of grit carried on the northerly wind. Drifts and Eddies of Grit About King's wharf and adjacent properties, it lay in drifts, whirled about in eddies, got in the eyes of passers-by, and caused workers in the vicinity to swear, heart-feelingly. On the more sheltered sides of buildings, like the Auckland Farmers' Freezing Company, it lay thick on roofs, filled gutters. It caused endless cleaning operations, the reporter was told, or it clogged down-pipes and produced leaks in rainy weather. And that cleaning business was costly when spread over a year. Mr. A. E. Davenport, district electrical engineer of the Works Department, whose office adjoins the power works, which has been part of his responsibilities for tine past two years (since the Government took it over from the Auckland Electric Power Board) spoke as feelingly on the subject as any other victim. More so . . . for he pointed out that he and his fellow officers at the plant had first share of it. The windows of his office facing north were closed fast. Those to the east were opened only where a cowl protected them from the drift. He had just come from the power station building, and there was grit in his hair. "It's a serious problem," he agreed. "We fully appreciate that there is cause for complaint." Cinders in a Bottle What was it, exactly, this grit that floated out from the station chimney. Was it unburnt coal dust, carried out by forced draught? No, he said, it was cinders, produced by the combustion of coal. He brought a bottle of it from his cupboard; poured some of it on a file. It was einders, all right—nasty black, or grey-black cinders. Mr. Davenport explained about it, as he admitted he had explained it many times before in personal conversation, in conferences, and in letters to other victims. The plant was built for the consumption of North Island coal. Its combustion methods were as efficient as possible. With North Island coal being burnt that was no cause for complaint. But the coal situation was bad ... as everybody knew. Coal controllers allocated available supplies to the best of their ability, but the bulk of supplies for the King's Wharf power station came from the South Island. From that coal came the cinders. As a test, on one occasion, they tried out North Island coal only. It was cinder-free. The use of South Island coal was the root of the trouble. Anything up to 600 tons of coal a day could be consumed when the plant was operating. What was the percentage of cinder that. —ejected via the chimney he didn't know, but it was a lot. Three Courses Open To cure the trouble there were three courses open to them. The first was to stop the plant altogether. Secondly, they could burn the type of coal that didn't produce cinders. Thirdly, thev cnuld put in '->lant that would collect the cinders. To instal such plant—a grit arrester—at the time of building the power-station was one thing. To add it to an already established power plant was another. It was a bulkv and cos*'- equipment. Inquiries about such arrester equipment were being made. The English manufacturers had been consulted, the King's Wharf problem being posed to them. A re" 1 " was awaited. The only immediate cure for the trouble was to burn North Island, coal only. And that was another problem in present war conditions.

Grit, in a half-mile radius to the leeward of the King's Wharf powerstation, is,' it seems, a serious minor problem serious major problems. It is, for the moment, to be endured.