THE NEW GASOMETER

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 275, 13 August 1908, Page 9

THE NEW GASOMETER

AN INTERESTINQ STAGE

V A STUDY IN HEAVY WORK. The workmen engaged in riveting up the new huge gasometer at ! Miramar are at present able to!ply their hammers with a pleas-' urablo sense of warmth, but' it will bo in hehvy perspiration that their task will be finished, . Good progress bap been made with the structure since its commencement in April last, but it will be Christmas timo before the final blow is delivered.

Gasometers ar'o familiar if unsightly objects on the landscape, and it is not necessary to say that every particle of the present structure is of iron. It may not bis generally known, however, that the gasometer will be . the largest in New Zealand, and that the total weight of all (he material" used is a little: oyer one thousand tons. This material has been brought from the yards of Messrs.' Clayton, Son, , and Co., England, landed over, tho Wellington wharves, and carted-out to Miraniar The final consignment; weighing some 140; tons, arrived on Monday jast in the s.s. Mamari. Operations so far have resulted, in the raising of the "tank" of the gasometer, ii structure 31ft. high", 'which will .be quite complete in about three 'weeks' time. ' The heaviest portion of tli{i .task will'then' havo been accomplished, owing ' v to ; the 'solid : nature of this ivork. Previous,to erecting tho sides'of the tank a floor, had to be carefully kid down,, concrete going first, then a three-inch layer of sand, ahd then sheets of iron riveted together, the object of tho sand, layer being to provide a bed for the bolts and rivets. Then tho heavy standards were reared and the plates bolted up one abovo tho other. The lower plates are spven-eighths of an inch ,in . thickness, and in lifting each the men had to'cope with a weight' of twentytwo, hundredweight; As the sides ascended, however, ihe thickness gradually decreased, and the weight correspondingly, though not to any great extent. '

Riveting tho Platss. b The operation of riveting the plates is rapidly carried ouy, and each man, or section of four men, drive in an average of 220 bolts per day.' ; lnsida'th'o'tank'two men stand on a platform withVileavy riveting hammers, and wait until they 'Seo a red-hot bolt poked gingerly through. >'When this if} hit hard homo from tho.outside they fall upon it with rapid strokes, and before It ha's lost its ruddy glow-the bolt hss< become a rivet. 'Oirtbo outside of tho taitk the workman who had driven tho bolt home holds against' its head \while it'is being riveted a hoavy ! hammer suspended by a rope. • Beside him on tho scantling is tho hand-f6rge in which tho bolts are heated, and which is manipulated by tho fourth workman. Half a dozen of thoso parties are engaged around the tank, and tho multiplied,sound,of their- blows can bo hoard afar off. J Ityr the imaginative it might be stated'that in (jiio circle of;tho tank about 1700; rivets! are. flsod, 'and there are nine of these.circles in;the tank. In addition, thero aro 840 rivets liiod in each of tho nine circles for jointing, the plates. On the bottom of tho tank over'3o.ooQ.bolts were driven home and meted,;. Men- are meanwhile engaged in caulking the' seams between, tho plates with a col'd chisel, Other men. again aro variously employed, several in bringing fresh material . from the iron stock to tho sceno of operations. This latter work is done-by means of a steam winch and derrick, apd a process very' the 1 hauling of Jogs through the bush' to % sawmill.

Insitto tha Tank. One obtains better idea of tho immense size of .the. tank from the inside. Tho diameter is ,152 ft., .which is considerably larger than that of a Wirth's oircus tent, and it would be interesting to calculate., tno.. audience this amphitheatre ■ would accommodate. ; Assuming?.-:that readers are acquainted with the, structural principle of gasometers, it will.,bfl/ionly,necessary .to.say, in giving the; capacity, of tlio completed gasometer, that besides tlio tank, which will bo watertight and .contain water, there will be three "lifts"—ih'o' telescopic portion of tho structure, Thfe;.lifts will take less timo to con-struct.-owing to tho lighter iron .used. Tho smallest qna will bo elected first msido the tank, so that men may work between tho sido of the tank and the lift, and tho remaining two. afterwards, The latter will be" pieced together from abovo-and lowered , five fe.ot at a time-until they r.est on tho floor. • A iHOse-'Structiire. ' i When'the gasometer is inflated to its full telescopic, capacity its top'will be 132 feet high and the holding capacity ono and a half million . pubio feet. Huge standards will bo erected to tho full reach of ■ tho distended gasometer. By a Pressman's guess, on days whon'ijiuch gas is stored, ono might expect to seo tho top of the gasometer peeping over tho'.Miramar hill, beliind which the structure nestles, and which immediately divides it from the sea. •: In this connection it might, however, be recalled that in tho circular recently issued by the; Gas Company uso is made of the; expressioni that the 14 acres comprising tho now site is "situated close to deep water," the inference from which is that in a little tyno .there "may be no hill left there., : Though the. gasometer is : to be the. biggest'in New Zealand, it is still small in comparison to mariimoths elsewhere. At Greenwich, there stands,* one 300 feet in diameter, and with six lifts, and a capacity of twelve million cubic feet of gas, and in. New York there is still a .larger one. ;