NEW BOILER FOR HOSPITAL

Taranaki Daily News, 23 July 1931, Page 14

NEW BOILER FOR HOSPITAL

PROBABLY FIRST OF ITS KIND.

NEW PLYMOUTH IMPROVEMENTS.

The steam boiler which has just been installed in the new laundry block under construction for the New Plymouth hospital is probably the first of its kind in New Zealand. The boiler arrived from England about four months ago and the interesting feature of it is that although it carries a working pressure ot 1201 b per square inch and is six feet six inches in diameter the use of shaped plates eliminates the necessity for a single stay to strengthen any surface. This means that there is a considerably smaller amount of dead metal to be hea'ted, stays being considered a serious disadvantage which in this case has been overcome. The boiler has two furnaces of the most modern design, so formed that expansion and contraction do not set up undue strain on the end plates. The Taranaki Hospital Board's engineer, Mr. Dunn, chose this design of boiler as being most suitable for hospital work. One of the two furnaces can be used as. a semi-destructor without interfering with the efficiency of coal consumption.. Corrugated flues in the boiler provide a greater surface for heat. The boiler weighs 11 tons and is considered by the engineer to be a subject well worth inspection by engineers. One side of the boiler-room in the new block is occupied by the boiler and the remainder of the space will be occupied bv the board’s present plant. The boiler will provide for laundry, disinfection,

fumigation, sterilisation and the heating of the hospital. A visitor to the hospital has little idea of the intricacies and the importance of the heating system. Yet takiim a walk through the tunnels and subwavs of the hospital, one would be astounded at the multitude of mechanical appliances which play a very important part in modernising a hospital.

The whole is so carefully designed th • an interruption of service is almos. possible. The duty of the steannru, , plant is purely for transmitting heat « varvina temperatures and pressut Thii. to bo ‘aoeompllshea otonom ca ; called for great care in gravitari matters, so that the utmost heat could be. returned to the oii r source of energy.