_Power Plant._—The power plant is complete in all respects. It is a duplicate plant in every sense of the word, so that it will never be necessary to shut the works down on account of the failure of any one piece of machinery. There are seven boilers, having a total of 1250 h.p. The four blowers are unusually large, having a capacity of 30,000 cu. ft. of free air per minute. They are direct-connected to three tandem compound condensing Corliss engines. No belts are used in this plant, except for driving a small blower of 10,000 cu. ft. capacity, which will act as a regulator. A large central electric plant has been installed in the power-house, consisting of two direct-connected, direct-current generators, mounted on the shafts of two cross-compound condensing Nordberg-Corliss engines. The current from these generators is transmitted through the plant, operating sampling works, briquetting machinery, pumps, hoists, motors, cars, etc., displacing all the small steam engines and steam pumps used in the old plant. The power plant is provided with two systems for condensing; one being a large Wheeler surface condenser, the other a Worthington central-elevated jet condenser, the idea being to use the surface condenser during a short period of the year when the water is so bad that it cannot be used in the boilers. During the remainder of the year the jet condenser is in service and the surface condenser can be cleaned. The condensed steam from the surface condenser, with the necessary additional water, goes back directly to the boilers when the surface condenser is in use. The power-house is absolutely fireproof throughout, being of steel and brick with iron and cement floors. It is provided with a traveling crane, and no expense has been spared to make this, as all other parts of the plant, complete in every respect. The main conductors from the generators pass out through a tunnel into a brick and steel lightning-arrester house, from which point the various distributing lines go to different parts of the plant.
_Blast Furnaces._—There are seven large lead furnaces, each having a capacity of 200 to 250 tons of charge per day, and three large copper furnaces, each having a capacity of 250 to 300 tons per day. All of the furnaces are enclosed in one steel fireproof building, the lead furnaces being at one end and the copper furnaces at the other. Each of the furnaces has its independent flue system and stack. An entirely new system of feeding these furnaces has been devised, consisting of a 6 ton charge car operated by means of a street railroad motor and controller with third-rail system. The charge cars collect their charge at the ore beds, lime-rock and coke storage, and are run on to 15 ton hydraulic elevators. They are then elevated 38 ft. to the top of the furnaces, traveling over them to the charging doors, through which the loads are dumped directly into the furnaces. This system permits of two men handling about 1000 tons per day. The same system and cars are used for charging the copper furnaces, except that, as these furnaces are much lower than the lead furnaces, the charge is dropped into a large hopper, from which it is fed to the copper furnaces by a man on the copper furnace feed-floor level.