CAMP POWER-HOUSES

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 163, 30 March 1918, Page 12

CAMP POWER-HOUSES

PULSING LIFE CENTRES

THE CAMPS ARE LIGHTED

Among the ninny departments of the military training camps which will slow down, but not stop, during the Easter holidays will be tho departments under the chief electrician. Day in, day out, and night in, night out, tho big machines in the power-houses throb and buzz, to keep the lamps burning and the hundred-and-one machines turning in the camps. But, on the evo df the holidays, tho heavy call will be relaxed.

Few people who visit the camps, even at night, realise, the important part in the camp's being ,that is played by the dynamos. The lighting of the streets and huts and other buildings is, of course, self-evident. That, however, is only a part of the work of the boiler 3 and engines and generators. Trentham.and I'catliorston differ in details of electrical equipment and power. Yet in describing one, a very fair account of the other is presented, too.

In Trcntham Camp there are 6000 lamps, varying in power from the little five-candle power, in small corners, to the 1000 candle-power lamps which light the roadway at tho gates unci other busy places. To feed these thousands of lamps with the life-giving current, eighty miles of overhead lines are needed, as well as many miles of inside wiring in the numerous buildings of the camp. Theso outsido overhead wires aro of bare copper. Insulating covering is expensive and unnecessary. The only risk the hare copper involves is that of being struck by lightning; and this is overcome by the provision of twelve lightning arresters in the power-house. These are situated above the switchboard. . "Whatever pranks the lightning may play among the wires outside, none of its fluid can enter tho circuits, for extra tension- causes the arresters to "blow out" and break the circuit of the wires which have been HiriicS". The plant in the power-house consists of a steam boiler, a large generator, which is driven b,v the steam, and does tho heavy- duty work, and a smaller sot, consisting of an oil-engine and dynamo. This smaller plant is used when the call for power is comparatively light, as in the daylight hours. The large plant has a total capacity of 150 kilowatts, a kilowatt being equal to 1 1-3 horse-power. At present this plant is fully laden when all the services in tho camp are in full swing, a state of things which is of frequent occurrence. It is like a gigantic parent toiling to feed the mouths of hundreds of hungry offspring, that are scattered in a hundred directions.

. scattered in a nuu Ul __. The hosDitels of the camps maki their call on the power-house for ligh and heat. Here, twenty radiators an provided for the purpose of keeping a required temperatures the wards occu pied by' special cases. These radiator; alone will abs.ovb 15 kilowatts of power and the camps also use a good deal o current, as well as the numerouß smal fan? that .spin to ensure free ventila tion in the wards. Across the way ir the laboratories the swabs taken fron soldiers' throats are developed am subsequently destroyed by electric heat The mechanical department of th< Dental Hospital is a busy placo Lathes are made to revolve there bj electric motors, enabling the staff w turn out work more rapidly than woulc be done by lathes drivon by footpower. In another direction, the same curront keeps the fans moving whict cool the air in the cold storage where the camp's stock of fresh meat is kept. One of the- heaviest calls conies from the pumping-stations, where are located the pumps which lift the effluent and soakago water from the huge underground tanks to which tho drains carry it and force it, under pressure, through a pipe-lino into , the Hutt River, two miles away. These pump-ing-stations—there are two of them, each equipped with two pumps —are mlorosting places. Each pump is driven by a 25-horse-power motor. They work in pairs, with tho motors aboveground, while on the same shaft, fifteen feet below, in concrete pits, the pumps are located. On tho other side of one of the concrete walls is tho huge underground tank in which the effluent is collected in readiness to be pumped away.. In flood-times, or. on olhor strenuous occasions, each of these pumps is. able'to throw out 450 gallons per minute. And, owing to their special construction, such trifles as_ lumps of wood, dead rabbits or otuer debris do not impair their work. Attached to the shaft near tho inlet is a special revolving kuifo-blade. This pulversises matter which otherwise would choke the pumps. These pumps are not tho only heavy machines which aro driven by electric power. Circular saws and other plant aro so driven, while off-shoots from the main current do such work as the running of the computing machines in tho post office.

All the work in equipping the powerstation at Trenthain, such as making switchboards and instalment of plant, has been done by military labour. On no occasion has outside assistance been called in, the department; which carries out the work being under Mr. E. H. Mfiey, Director of' Railways and AVorks. Up till two years ago tho power-house was situated in another quarter of the camp. The change to the present situation was carriea\out under the direction of the chief electrician, Regimental Quartermaster-Ser-geant R. A'orbury, who is also responsible for the present excellent system in operation in both camps. , During the Easter holidays the deeptoned song of the engines and dynamos will fall from the keen note of driven energy to a softer, slower uote. Though they may rarely stop, except at midday, when tho camp rests, tho strain relaxes sometimes, when tho number "of hungry mouths waiting for current to eat, is reduced, and the present'is one of these occasions.