View images which have a corresponding photograph from another period
Gas Works Pipework
3. GASWORKS TO DOME\Old photos\Gasworks for Website\tippgas works popework.jpg
gasworks
Authored by: tony coles | Fri, 2010-09-03 14:25
these are the coke ovens built by Simon Carves Ltd
the concrete bunker held the coal which was dropped into the ovens 88 in all and carbonised for 15 hours then pushed out by the machine on the rails as red hot coke.
I have detailed drawings of the heating flues if any one is interested.
One of the foreman was 'Orry' Homer who was thrown out of Navy in the Mutiny at Invergordon. i used to argue politics with him on night shifts.
Producer gas for heating the ovens was made from coke just to the right of the picture and was piped accross bridge.
These are the retorts. The
These are the retorts. The coal arrived by ship, and was loaded into the top, was carried by conveyor to the blending bunkers, and then there is a machine on the top of the ovens which took the coal from the blending bunkers and brought it down; when it filled up the big hopper, then that was enough coal.
It burned for hours and out of that was taken the tar and the gasses. There was another machine at the front of the doors, like the carraige of a train. The doors on either side would open and then the 'pusher' - a great big hydraulic ram - would come under pressure and would push what was now red-hot coke into the hopper on the back of the train. Then the train would run along and would go under a cooling tower. Once under there there would be tons of water dropped on teh hot coke to cool it down. The coke then came back along the front face and there was a sloping wall - made of very hard fired mauve bricks - and at the bottom, when the coke went down, before it was allowed to go onto the conveyor belts, the men slowly allowed the coke to drop onto the belt. At the same time there were a couple men with hoses because the quenching towers never god the coke cool enough, and the belt had to be protected to stop it burning. The belts lasting quite a while. The coke went from there to another area and eventually it went through another plant and was burnt again (though not all of it); under another system of burning you got other gasses. Then down near the main gate the lorries would come and bag up the remaining coke.