Eureka Daily Sentinel

Improvements at the Consolidated Furnaces.
Superintendent Donnelly is making a number of valuable improvements at the Consolidated furnaces, which, when completed, will facilitate the delivery of ore and charcoal at the feeding floor of the works and enable the laborers to handle the material much more economically than at present. Ore dumps and charcoal bins have been built directly under the trestle work of the railroad, and in such a position that the fuel and ore are discharged directly into their proper receptacles. The coal bins slope at an angle of forty-five degrees to the floor opposite the feed holes of the furnace. The lower portion of the bins are laid with slats, through which the fine coal sifts through, leaving the fuel in the best possible shape to be used in the charge. The fine coal is carted to the boilers and utilized as a substitute for wood, effecting quite a saving in that item. The discharge chutes of the ore dumps are about ten feet from the old level, and directly underneath. A railroad track is being built and cars constructed to run on it. These cars will be of the same construction as those used in the mines, and their employment will do away with the present system of wheeling in wheelbarrows. The track will extend through the building and will be constructed so as to deliver the ore at any desired point. Other improvements will be added as they suggest themselves to the Superintendent's mind, and if they are as much to the purpose as those described above, the furnaces will take on themselves the air of substantial and enduring structures.