For carrying away the water, copper bowls are set into the roof, each connected by a copper pipe to the sewer system in the basement. The down-take supporting column is made of channel iron. To protect this down-take pipe a galvanized iron shield is fitted over the copper pipe.

How Sewage is Economically Disposed of

WHEN

HEN the factory is located apart from a regular sewer system, the question of sewage disposal is often a difficult one to answer. Even if the plant is located on a river the pollution of the stream must always be guarded against and solids cannot be drained into the creek without bringing about bad sanitary conditions. Moreover, this course is rapidly being outlawed by the various state legislatures.

Under these circumstances the septic tank can often be adopted to advantage. Such a system has proved successful in a railroad repair shop. The tank is shown in the accompanying diagram. The closets and wash

Figure II: A septic sewage tank for taking care of the sewage from an isolated factory

basins are located on the second floor of the shops and are piped to a cement reservoir set in the ground below frost line. The tank is divided into compartments as indicated. When the sewage is trapped in the various chambers, a bacteriological action takes place so that the effluent from the end opposite the entering sewage is practically clear water. Periodically, at long intervals, the solid matter left in the chambers can be taken out through the manholes.

The outlet pipe from the tank is connected with a regular surface sewer which carries the drainage from the buildings. This surface sewer discharges into a piece of waste land near the plant. So well does the septic tank do its work that there is no trouble of any kind at the plant. A septic tank is built for each department and all discharge into the common surface sewer which carries away the roof and ground drainage.

A

A Money Saving Shipping Platform

DVERSE weather conditions often interfere with shipments in the factory. To handle heavy machinery with the least effort it is customary to have the shipping platforms of such height that trucks can be backed directly against the structure, so that the loading can be accomplished without lifting considerable loads unnecessarily. Generally this requirement, however, necessitates an open shipping platform exposed to the weather, and not only do the shippers work at a disadvantage in the cold or wet, but a good deal of steam is wasted in the endeavor to heat the shipping room when the doors are open.

In large plants, special covered shipping floors are, of course, possible; but in the small plant, rather than go to the expense of building a covered addition, shipments

are made in bad weather from an open platform under adverse conditions.

In the new machine shops of the Mueller Machine Tool Company this difficulty has been overcome by making the shipping platform contiguous to and under the same roof with the assembling floor. From the driveway outside the shop, the wagons are backed into the building through a twelve-foot doorway provided with a sliding steel curtain. (See Plate XV.)

When the weather is inclement this doorway can be closed and shipments made under good working conditions. The floor of the driveway within the building is three feet lower than the assembling floor so that the bed of the truck comes about flush with the erecting floor and the goods can be transferred to the wagon without trouble.

This enclosed shipping platform is about twenty-five feet long and twelve feet wide. Owing to the design of the building but a small part of the length encroaches on usable floor space in the erecting room. The greater part of the length parallels the partition wall of the factory offices which are under the same roof.

Built in this way, too, the cranes which serve the erecting floor can be used advantageously in handling the outgoing product. This design saves the expense of continuing the crane runway to the outside of the building over an exposed shipping platform.

The floor of the driveway is laid in vitrified brick and drains towards the center and towards the street. A steam radiator placed on the outside wall ledge helps keep an equable temperature in the shipping room. The entire scheme is a simple, but effective, method of handling goods quickly in bad weather without causing inconvenience to the men on the erecting floor.

In the city, where ground space is valuable and the shipping carried on in a crowded thoroughfare, such a scheme not only has the advantage outlined, but has an added reason for consideration in that the loading can be done without mutual interference between the shipping and the public traffic of the thoroughfare.

Where Underground Pipes Save Floor Space

IN

N all grinding and polishing work it is necessary to provide a very complete system of exhaust pipes to carry away the dust and other particles thrown off from the polishing or grinding wheel. Piping for this exhaust system necessarily takes up a good deal of space, which interferes not only with the light, but with the working space about the polishing machines.

In the polishing room of the Fox Typewriter Company, a very ingenious arrangement has been worked out, which takes that pipe out of the way of the men. The emery grinders are set in a row facing the windows on the basement floor. The exhaust piping is made of sections of tile and is laid underground, and the hoods from the various wheels are connected direct to this underground piping by the usual galvanized iron ducts.

Electric wiring can also be put under the floor to good advantage. At the plant of the N. P. Pratt Laboratory, Atlanta, the floors are laid of pine blocks, four inches square and two inches thick, set on end on a four-inch layer of concrete. The blocks are laid in a coal tar mixture and the cracks are filled with the same preparation.

The main electric circuits are run through the shop in conduits. To wire from the conduit to the motor, all that needs to be done is to remove a row of pine blocks leading to the nearest conduit and drill a hole through

the roof of the duct.

The conduit is then laid in the

trench by removing the five blocks.

A V-shaped section is sawed from the blocks to fit over the new length of conduit, the blocks are re-set and the wires are then drawn through the conduit and connected with the motor.

This not only makes a neat and workmanlike job but the machines can all be used independently of the main conduits.

R

An Inexpensive Roof Drainage Scheme

OOF-GUTTERS and spouts are items of material importance when depreciation charges are figured. Not only do they deteriorate quickly, but leaky gutters cause much damage in shops where the product is affected by dampness.

This difficulty with gutters is also greater in cold climates where there is a heavy fall of snow. A thaw followed by a hard frost will put all the surface water piping out of commission in short order, with good chances that some of it stays out of fix.

For this reason one of the newest Canadian factories is built with an overhanging roof from which the water drips directly on to cement "spatter-boards" which are drained to the sewers. Over the shop entrances, deflect

ing gutters are placed.

Shop Floors for Good Service

Na New England mill is a form of floor construc

years. The engineers there are especially enthusiastic over tar concrete sub-floors for factories.

The advantages of wood flooring for the lower floor of a shop in comparison with any other flooring, especi