Controlling the Giant

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 2, 24 March 1927, Page 7 (Supplement)

Controlling the Giant

Helu in leash on a marble wall is the power which causes the bulk of the printing press to come swiftly into passionless movement, which

puts in action the heavy wheels and intricate parts of the stereotyping and process departments, quickens the battery of the linotype machines and neats and lights the whole ouilding. THE SUN’S electric switchboan s an inl-

ssive and massive arrangement noused in i main press gallery. Big copper switches

and dials as large as the races of grandfather clocks suggest the enormous energy which is released when the work of producing a newspaper begins. ( The switchboard is suspended on a balcony opposite the Hoe press, and the oul> means of access to it is by a flight of steps. Measuring 20ft. long and 7ft. High, it is made up of 10 marble slabs l|-in. thick and worth a considerable sum of money. The board is livided into five panels. On the first there are the dials' of two big ammeters with a capacity of 1,000 amperes each and these register the total amount of electric current being used in the building at any one

time. Under them are the seven Power Board meters which count the units of power and light used in the different departments. Here, also, is the main switch controlling the whole

ot the electrical installation. it is ot the triple-pole type and has a capacity of .JO amperes. The second panel is reserved for the control of all the large machinery using 460 volt power. These are the switches for che press motors, the stereotype mouluers and casters, and the electric hoists which running on overhead girders carry the rolls of paper to the spools on the press. All the controls of the 230 volt power required for the linotype motors and minor machinery in the stereo and process rooms are on the third panel, while the fourth and fifth hold the controlling apparatus, respectively, for the heating and the lighting. Lighting and heating the four floors of the building was no small task. There are 365 electric lights, 50 heating points and 48 small motors. The lights range from the ordinary 50 candle-power bulb to the 6000 candle-power, four-carbon arc lamp used in the photography department. The linotype machines are equipped with 300 candle-power lights, and passages and machine rooms are lighted with 400 candlepower lamps. The .installation of the electrical machinery and of the heating and lighting apparatus was carried out by Messrs. Watson, Steele and Ganley.