LIGHTING STATION

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 263, 31 July 1920, Page 7

LIGHTING STATION

' ■- NEW FLUE TOXs.E USED TO-' MORROW. Slowly but surely the big power-house which supplies the city with its light is being'transformed. Although no great niiow is outwardly made, the work of remodelling the whole of. the central . portion of the power station is a. big ". and costly work, and one which will give immediate- relief to the authori- ■ tics, who have had a very anxious ' time this winter. The alterations that art. . Btill in progress involve a largo amount of brick work. Ih.order to make room for]two more big boilers the route'of the main duo had to be'altered, which meant .building.a new and larger flue through 'the centre of what'was tho old N.Z. , .Electrical Syndicate's engine-room, somo twenty feet to the eastward of the existing flue. . The new. flue, which is 3ft. higher and correspondingly broader . than the. existing one, has been coin- . pleted, and on , Sunday morning last one part of it was connected up with the. chimney stack. To-morrow tho . southern section of the new flue will be ■~.. connected, up by destroying the brick wall partition. The operation i.| really a double one, as one wall, has to be removed'and another one built to shut off ' the gases and smoko from the old flue. The work is unpleasant .while it lasts, . but a good gang will not take very long to. do tho work, and. they are to ■ be paid at the rate of lis. per hour—as it is special work performed on a Sunday. As Boon as the. new Hue is "drawing" and tho old 0110 is Mocked off, the latter —a big" brick tunnel—will lie removed altogether, so that, room will bo made for two hew boilers which are to bo "backed" against the now flue. With these in, operaliou the Mercer Street power-house will be, iii a safer nosition than for some time past, particularly as the new 2tin. pipes, which take in nud oiejt the water (from the harbour) Ti'Vl fnr condensation purposes, are now at work,-find"have already made a difference In the running of the plant.. The three old toilers on. the Harris Street side of ■ the.powerhouse. Vhich , were taken over from the . Electrical Syndicate by.,the City Council thirteen .. years ago to-morrow, have been sold to privato companies. Two of these boil, ers were used recently as peak-loa(T aids.