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MOTORS.

No electric motors are recommended in the Phenol plant and as little use of electricity as possible.

THE APPARATUS.

Very little stock apparatus can be used.

The filling charges are quite large for each unit, and heating and agitation usually necessary at every step.

This means specially designed units for practically everything.

No stoneware, glass or pottery of any kind is required. Only one tank really requires a lead lining, the balance may be wood and can be obtained most anywhere.

No special metal is necessarily needed, either for the acids or the resultant products, though use can be made of such if it is wanted.

After neutralization, the product is harmless and has no effect on metal or the skin until fusion.

None of the operations beside sulphonating require a lengthy period of time.

With the opportunity, then, for unlimited conception of means and methods for handling the various processes, the designing of the apparatus becomes a very complex question.

A plant may be operated by high-pressure steam, or by lowpressure steam, according to which is readiest obtainable.

At a Benzol plant there is plenty of hot oil that can produce nearly all the heat that may be required.

At some other large manufacturing point exhaust steam might handle nearly everything.

Evaporation may be carried on in open tanks, in multiple effect evaporators, or in ordinary tubular boiler installations, where the steam of evaporation is utilized in operating the balance of the plant, the same as from the use of clear water.

Drying of the crystalline products can be done in pans over fire, by steam jacket, or by hot oil heat. The pans are tended by hand, or circular evaporating pans can be used that do their own stirring and discharging without any hand labor whatever.

Fusion can be carried on in open kettles or in closed auto

claves.

The fused mass or melt can be ladled by hand, or handled by pneumatic pressure in closed tanks and pipe lines.

The fluids can be conveyed by pumps or by air pressure.

The cake from the Filter Presses can be handled automatically, with no hand work whatever, or be handled in the usual way by dumping and carting.

Agitators run fast and run slow, each stage of the process requiring a different type.

Syphon discharge to kettles and autoclaves can replace the older and more familiar ways.

Distillation is effected by fire, by steam or by hot oil.

Manipulation of all the fluids can be in the open, or in airtight pipes and receptacles.

Thermometers and pressure gauges can be of the old type, or of the modern recording, indicating and alarm kind.

Every minute of the operation can be shown on a record, giving time, pressure and temperature, that can be preserved.

Automatic devices can register each mechanical step of the entire plant and all these devices to govern or keep check upon the work, can indicate, both at the unit for the operator, and also at a distance for the Director.

With all these variations and possibilities then, there is no such thing as a stereotyped plan for a Phenol plant.

The Engineer's function is to present all these various ways, explain and illustrate each in full, show the utility and cost of each and then leave the Client to intelligently select the principal features that appeal to him the most.

After this decision, plans for the arrangement of the plant and construction of the several units must be made, and so each plant becomes entirely different from any other that has preceded it, except for the smaller parts.

Each piece of apparatus is designed to be built in any Foundry, Machine Shop or Boiler Making Plant anywhere.

All the cast-iron kettles are sweep work and require no large patterns.

As most of the items are quite large, it means that the machined surfaces require large lathes, or boring mills, to handle them.

The sheet steel tanks are readily made in any locality and well detailed shop drawings are provided for everything.

Pumps, pipe and fittings are the usual stock that is on sale in every supply depot in the country.

Wooden tanks are usually 3" cypress and obtainable most anywhere.

The legs on every item are adjustable, so that the unit can be accurately plumbed, or tilted toward the outlets, as may be required.

Condensers are of every kind and type that can be thought of.

Crude Oils are used for burning in open fires. High flash oils are used in heating some portions by circulation and cheaper low flash oils for heating in other places by the same means.

THE CHEMIST.

A competent Chemist should at all times be in charge of the chemical portion of the work. Upon him rests the full responsibility of yield and profitable production.

Any technical graduate is sufficiently prepared to handle the work understandingly, and a younger man will be more desirable than some of the older ones, as there is a lot of real work to do that requires energy and ambition. There is little use in a Phenol plant for the old deliberative student or wouldbe scientist.

THE SUPERINTENDENT.

He should be of the usual type that is found in any of the other manufacturing enterprises. Youngish, strong, a student of human nature, who can handle help and knows how to do things, and who will always keep the plant moving. One that is ever ready to anticipate the troubles and difficulties of apparatus and operation, and with a remedy thought out before it is ever really needed.

"Rough-necks" will constitute a good part of the labor and it needs a real man to handle them, see that they are doing their duty, and at the same time protect them from the risks and dangers that the inexperienced are always subjected to. The welfare of the help is as necessary in a Phenol plant as is the correct operation of the best piece of mechanism that the plant holds, and it is the Superintendent who must provide all this.

Of course, the Superintendent and the Chemist must pull

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Diameter of inside tank 18 inches, outside tank 24 inches, capacity 39 gal. each. Made of sheet steel, can be built for $70.00 per pair of double tanks (4 tanks).

2 sheets of detail drawings for above pair of condensers and names of manufacturers who have submitted bids. Price, $20.00.

Also drawings of Jacketed Coil, or plain coil condenser for same purpose.

together, for each is dependent on the other. One man can not efficiently fill the place of both.

NUMBER OF SYNTHETIC PHENOL PLANTS IN THE UNITED STATES.

There are probably over a dozen Synthetic Phenol plants either in operation or in course of construction today in the United States.

The most of these are intended for Picric Acid, and so the field is practically clear for general technical purposes.

Many plants that have been reported as preparing for Phenol have ended at merely the report and some few that have attempted it have failed entirely to produce.

The largest producer so far uses the most of their Phenol in their own business. One Chemical Company who produces the best grade made today, use the larger part of their product in Pharmaceutical preparations.

Several plants at this writing are incomplete and will not be in position to produce for several weeks to come.

There is room for 25 one-ton Phenol plants in the country today, and plenty of raw materials obtainable to run them all.

COST OF A PHENOL PLANT.

A Synthetic Phenol plant is not a very expensive manufacturing project.

The apparatus and its installation for a plant producing 500 lbs. of Phenol per day can be brought down to as low a cost as $10,000.

The plant's capacity can be doubled for 25% additional cost. This small plant would expect to purchase its rectified Benzol rather than to rectify it.

A one-ton plant including a Benzol Rectifier would cost for the apparatus and its installation from $18,000 to $20,000 when put in on an economical basis, but $40,000 could be spent in making this a five-ton plant to include all the improvements and devices that are now known.

Additional to the apparatus and installation work, would be the buildings, power and the Engineer's services, on either of the above installations.

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