All about Battersea. Henry S. Simmonds
occasion sixteen persons sat on the summit and partook of this sumptuous repast. Nos. 1, 2 and 3 are ground retort houses, the other four houses are stage retort houses. With respect to the interior of these retort houses, there is plenty of room in front of the retorts for a storage of coal and good space for drawing the retorts. On the whole there is good ventilation in the roofs for allowing the smoke, etc. to escape. The floor of the stage retort houses are paved with grooved cast-iron plates. In these retort houses an open space is allowed between the furnace and the flooring in order that the coke when raked out of the retorts might fall into the coke hole below. The benches of retorts are placed in the middle of the houses. The retorts are built in settings, they are cylindrical tubes made of Stourbridge clay open through and through with mouthpieces at both ends. At the front of each bed of retorts is a furnace for heating up the retorts with the residual coke after the coals have been carbonized. The flame and hot draft of the furnaces are made to circulate thoroughly throughout the setting, traversing as great a space as possible round, under and above the retorts before egress is allowed to the main flue communicating with the chimney. The retorts are charged every six hours. Formerly, for cooling the retort lids, a pulpy mass of lime and mud of the consistence of mortar was used under the cognomen of "blue billy." This has been superseded by Morton's Patent Air-tight Lid, and Holman's Patent Lever. The two mechanical contrivances combined for this purpose are most efficient, and when financially considered must be a great saving to the Company. In the new house there are seven retorts in a bed; these, when heated sufficiently, are simultaneously charged at each end with two scoopfuls of bituminous coal; the upper retorts, on account of their retaining more heat, are charged with three scoops—each scoop contains 1 cwt. 2 qrs. of coal As soon as the lids are closed with the patent lever and cross-bar the process of gas distillation commences. In house No. 7 there are 392 mouths—total number of mouths in all the retort houses 1,793. As clay retorts when heated at first have a tendency to crack, it is necessary that the process of heating should be slow, also to get them up to their proper heat a similar caution is requisite when cooling. Apart from the manufacture of gas, in order to attend to the furnaces with the view of keeping up the heat of retorts, a certain amount of Sunday labour is involved, but it is gratifying to state that at these works labour on the Lord's day is reduced to its lowest minimum. Among several annoyances in the manufacture of gas is the choking or stoppage of ascension pipes; the person whose employment it is to look after, and if possible prevent this, is called by his fellow-workmen "the pipe jumper." Pipes connected with the mouthpieces called the ascension pipes conduct the gas to the hydraulic main, this is a large pipe at the back of the ascension pipes partly filled with water, when the works are started into which the ends of the pipes from the retorts are made to dip, and by this means forms a seal by which the gas is prevented from finding its way back either by those retorts which the workmen may be re-charging or to other parts of the bench that for the time may be out of action. The hydraulic main and its supports are very strong in order to stand the alternate and unequal heating and cooling of the benches, and the enormous strain occasioned by the large extent of pipage. Wrought iron is used in preference to cast-iron because of its lightness, strength and elasticity.
There are four lobbies for the accommodation of the stokers and seats at either end of the retort houses. The men in the carbonizing department are supplied with lockers in which to keep their provisions and clothes. Each man has a half-pint of the best Scotch oatmeal per diem allowed him to make "skilly" with. A quantity of oatmeal is put into a bucket, water is poured on and then stirred, after the meal has "settled" they dip it out with a mug to drink as often as they feel themselves thirsty. The engineer has no objection to the men having lemonade, etc., but all intoxicating drinks on the works are strictly prohibited. On Sundays, between 9 and 10 a.m., a religious service is conducted in the lobby at No. 6 retort house by the Missionary.
Scene in a retort house on week-day.—The stokers, after having been at work in the retort houses for half an hour, are "off" for nearly an hour, during which they employ their time in various ways; some play at cards, some at draughts, some at dominoes, others read the newspapers—eight men in a group will club together and subscribe a penny each, this enables them to purchase six dailies and two weeklies, thus a group is furnished with newspaper intelligence for a week. Others of the stokers will seek to bring grist to their mill by employing the time they are off to their own pecuniary advantage either in mending their own boots and shoes or the boots and shoes of their fellow-workmen. At times some of the men may be seen mending their clothes, or washing a pair of trowsers in a bucket of water and using the wooden handle of a shovel as a substitute for a "dolly." Now and then a man will lie on his back at full length on a heap of coals, locked in the arms of Morpheus, presently he awakes out of his dreams, rubs his eyes astonished at what has transpired during the past hour. The foreman's whistle, similar to that used by a railway guard when a train is ready to start, is the signal for the men to resume their work, and to their credit be it said, they go at it manly and rush to their shovels and scoops like British sailors fly to their guns when commanded to salute a Prince or fire at an enemy! A stranger for the first time is startled when the lids or "lips" as they are called are removed from the mouths of the retorts by the bomb! bombing! a kind of percussion or shock occasioned by the gaseous vapours confined in the retorts being liberated by coming into direct contact with the atmosphere, then commences the belching forth of flame, the issuing of smoke, the raking out of carbonized coal blazing with tar in order to clear the retorts which are again quickly charged with that peculiar fossil of vegetable origin found among the carboniferous strata of the earth. It is interesting to mark the agility with which the stokers perform their duty. Five men constitute a gang—there are three men to a scoop. Scoops are made of iron. A scoop is 10 feet long, 7½ inches wide, and 5½ inches deep with a T piece for a handle. It is placed on the ground, filled as soon as possible, then raised by two men who put underneath it a wrought iron bar called a "horse" so bent or curved in the middle on which to rest the scoop. These two men, with the aid of the man who holds the T piece, thrust the coals into the retorts as quickly as artillerymen ram cannon, and so work at each bed of retorts stripped to the waist, while the perspiration is oozing from the pores of their skin like melted tallow! Now and again a hissing noise with steam accompanied with clouds of vapour caused by buckets of water thrown on the carbonized coal taken from the retorts. No sooner is the coke thus cooled than it is (in keeping with all the movements preceding) wheeled in iron barrows to a place in the yard, where pyramidically it is piled stage upon stage until purchased by the coal contractor and coke merchants who require it for their customers. Respecting the employés at these important works—beneath the rough exterior of their sooty skin, incidental to their occupation, these sons of toil who forsooth earn their livelihood by the sweat of their brow in common with their brother man, have hearts akin to the finest specimens of humanity, and stand related to our Father in heaven, for we are all His offspring, brothers for whom the Saviour died. Whatever a man's status in social life, whatever part he may take, however humble in the divisions of industrial, honest labour, these men know that as Robert Burns says; "A man's a man for a' that."
From the hydraulic main the gas passes on to a set of condensers or coolers at the south side of the works, through which it is made to circulate until it is reduced to a temperature bearing some approximation to the surrounding atmosphere, also to separate condensable vapours before allowing the gas to pass to the purifiers. The tar well or tank is a receptacle for the overflow of the hydraulic, etc. A branch pipe from the main is inserted and sealed in a stationary lute at the bottom. The tar thus deposited as well as the ammoniacal liquor is valuable. There are five scrubbers, the tops of which are reached by flights of wooden steps with hand-rails and a stage or gallery above communicating from one scrubber to another. Each scrubber is a cylinder 19 feet in diameter and 70 feet high, they are made of cast-iron plates and contain a series of iron trays or gratings on which are spread layers of coke, furze, etc. Water is injected from the top by means of a revolving apparatus connected with vertical and horizontal shafting and driven by a small engine below, thereby keeping up a constant humid spray, the object being to separate the ammonia and acids from the gas.
In front of houses Nos. 4 and 5 (which by the way are the oldest retort houses inside these works) is situated the boiler and engine house. There are three boilers 28 feet by 6 in diameter. In the engine house four of Beal's exhausters occupy prominent positions, they are used to exhaust or suck the gas from the retorts and afterwards force it through the vessels for