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lake How New Essington Works Are Equipped to Insure Maximum Pro- duction--Methods of Routing Work Have Been Carefully Studied before has the line of EVER demarcation between the sailing craft and the steam propelled vessel been so sharply 'defined as at present. The world has .not time under present conditions to wait weeks and months to recruit the large crews neces- sary for manning fast sailing clipper ships. It is in steam, therefore, that production is being concentrated to meet the world's shortage of ocean carriers. The propelling machinery of a ship must be dependable not only for every- day performance, but it must be capable of a burst of speed when required. The steam turbine type of propulsion, it has been found, unites these qualities in a satisfactory and economical manner. Some months ago the director general of the Emergency Fleet corporation, in checking up the production of the mate- rials and equipment required in vessel construction, realized. that unless the production of turbines and auxiliary equipment were increased tremendously, our gigantic shipbuilding program was doomed to lag. How builders of ship propelling machinery have answered the urgent call for products on a_scale be- yond anything ever before known is an interesting story. The huge new plant of the Westinghouse Electric & Mfg. Co., at Essington, Pa., reflects at their best the achievements which have been made in this branch of war. work. _In January, 1917, when the Westing- house company authorized the construc- tion of this plant, there was no indica- tion of the tremendous industrial expan- sion which was to take place in the Philadelphia district after our entry into the war. Almost from the beginning, difficulty in obtaining materials, and a most acute labor shortage, proved serious handicaps in the construction and opera- tion of the plant. Necessity, however, served as a spur to astonishing results, and progress was made rapidly. Present Capacity is Large The enormous Essington plant is de- voted entirely to the production of ship propelling machinery of the Westing- house type. Its present productive capac- ity is about 75,000 horsepower monthly, or sufficient for 15 average vessels. The product of the plant includes condensers, pumps, turbines, reduction gears, pro- peller shafting and auxiliary appa- FIG. 6--CRANE RUNWAY BETWEEN ratits. In fact,'at embraces the entire equipment between the boiler plant and the propeller of a vessel. The particular work which now is engaging the Essington plant is the production of complete pro- pelling equipments for the 7500- ton merchant vessels which are being built for the government by the Merchants Shipbuilding Corp. at Bristol, "Pai, and for the. 3500- ton government merchant vessels MACHINE 349 which the Submarine Boat Corp. is building at Port Newark Terminal, N. J. To maintain production at the Essing- ton at the present unprecedented rate, an elaborate system has been instituted for keeping track of the work in all its stages, in all departments of the plant. This system is designed to focus the attention of the production department uniformly upon all parts of each pro- pelling unit, since neglect of the produc- tion of any particular part might result in chaos at the shipyards. The keystone of the manufacturing organization, therefore, is an engineer- ing department which cuts up each order as it is received and fits it: to the other departments. The engineering de- partment first supplies the pattern de- partment with preliminary information which enables it to make such new patterns as are needed. It then turns over to the supply and order depart- ment a complete list of drawings, ar- ranged by departments, which constitute a sort of' cross index to the materials which will be needed in each department for. turning out the order. Having a record of the materials which are on r , ) SHOPS LOOKING TOWARD FOUNDRY