Modern Gasworks Practice

FOUNDATIONS, GAS WORKS BUILDINGS, ETC. 55 TYPES OF RETORT HOUSES There are two standard types of retort houses to be found in use at the present day, whilst a third but less common structure is also met with. at some works. These are:— («) Stage houses. (b) Subway houses. (c) Intermediate type. A combination of (a) and (&). Included under («) are all those houses in which the clinkering-floor is on the ground-level, whilst the charging-floor is elevated. The modern vertical retort house, although differing from the horizontal type in many respects, would also-come under this heading. The former houses are invariably of greater height than the latter, averaging (for the 25-foot retorts) about 60 feet to the eaves, whilst horizontal houses are seldom more than. 40 feet. “ Vertical ” houses, moreover, can be made of fairly light design, as—unlike the house for “ horizontale ”—they have only to support themselves, and to withstand th.e wind pressure to which they may be subjected. In the subway house the ch.arging-fl.oor is on a level with. the mean ground-level, the ground being excavated so that producers, slides, etc., are all below. The intermediate type is seldom met with, and includes all those houses which have the charging-floor partly above ground-level and the clinkering-floor below it. The existence of a subway house may in many instances be accounted for by the faet that a works originally started in a more or less small way with direct fired settings —in which. case a single floor is sufficient, this being at ground-level. As business inereased it may have been decided to adopt some more efficient type of firing, which, owing to the inereased room required in order to ensure a deeper fuel bed, means either raising the roof or exeavating, the latter course very frequently being preferred. Before making a decision, however, great care is necessary to see that the surface of the proposed foundation will not be below the high-water level. In any case, it is preferable to enclose the whole of the subway with. an impervious sheeting. This may be done by lining the sides with concrete, backed with puddle, or with rendered brickwork; but preferably by building twin walls and filling in the intervening space with pitch. In spite of the inereased expenditure entailed. with. the stage house, it is almost without exception the favourite for modern retort-house work. The conditions under which men are called upon to do their work receive far greater attention than in the past, and it is generally recognized that the intense heat of the majority of subways, with. the escaping steam arising from quenclied coke or clinker, and the-inability to adequately ventilate the subways, is anything but conducive to the honest performance of duty. On the other hånd, the stage house can be effectively venti-lated, coke quenching is facilitated, and steam can be quickly got rid of. The coke, moreover, can be wheeled out direct into carts, this also applying to ash.es and clinker. In the case of the subway house, some means has to be provided for bringing the ash.es (and in many cases the whole of the coke) to ground-level. So far as the intake of coal is concerned, the subway house will in some instances