Abstract
A DESCRIPTION is given in the Electrical Review of August 4 of a factory without any windows which is being constructed for the Simonds Saw and Steel Co. at Fitchburg, Mass., U.S.A. It is completely air-conditioned and artificially illuminated throughout. It concentrates productive machinery now covering 17½ acres in several plants, into 5½ acres of production space, from which daylight is completely excluded. Lighting fixtures are being installed in 1,440 positions. Each consists of a 100-watt lamp and a simple curved porcelain reflector. These produce an illumination of not less than 20 ft. candles throughout each room on the working plane. The Company plans to operate the new plant intensively on a three-shift basis, so that the work goes on continuously day and night. Service mains for water, gas, steam, power, light, air and oil are laid between the floors through ducts direct to more than 1,000 machines and furnace positions. The plant has a connected power load of 6,000 horsepower and a total of 4,200 electric outlets giving current for light, machine power, transformers, motor-generators and other units. Dust and exhaust gases are removed through underground ducts, served by thirty dust-removal units. the entire building is air-conditioned by Carrier units and the humidity and temperature controlled through hydrostats and thermostats at four special positions. ‘Man-cooler’ systems have been provided for the comfort of men working at the furnaces. Air will be circulated through the building at the rate of about 400,000 cub. ft. per minute. It enters the structure through louvres on the end walls of four lean-to buildings which adjoin the main building. Water is obtained from four artesian wells by electric pumping. Air is blown through water-sprays in each of these structures before being distributed.
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A Factory without Windows. Nature 144, 322 (1939). https://doi.org/10.1038/144322c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/144322c0