WORLD'S BIGGEST

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 05, Issue 48, 4 May 1942, Page 6

WORLD'S BIGGEST

I BRITAIN'S 500 TON ACCUMULATORS SAVE UP STEAM IN AIR RAIDS Thousands of tons of luel luivcbeen saved in Britain's war factories by storing steam in accumulators ! during air raids. Although factories do not shut down merely on getting the "alert." they have to do so when the rool' spotters signal that the t i aiders are overhead. But instead of the boilers blowing t oil their steam into the air when j work stops, the steam Is generated into the accumulators and stored, to (Continued in next column)

he used to start up the plant again when the raiders have passed. More than a thousand of these accumulators have now been installed in iron and steel works, sugar refineries, breweries, dairies, dyeworlts and (laundries. All act on the same principle—tlie storage of energy during ofi'-peakload periods, ami the calling into- action of this steam when production requires it. In one sugar refinery the installation of a steam accumulator raised production by 12 per cent and lowered coal consumption by about 7 per cent. In a dairy the time taken to produce condensed milk was reduced by 20 to 25 per cent while in a brewery 1(5 per cent of the coal was saved. Output in a laundry Avas increased by 10 per cent after installing an accumulator, and the boiler efficiency of a dyeworks Avas improved from (5(5 to 71 per cent.' Britain has the largest steam accumulators in the Avorld, their steel shell's being 14ft Dins in diameter by 82ft long and weighing approximately 500 tons.