[no source, no date]
HIGH OFFICIALS
VISITED THE TNT PLANT AREA
Word From Washington
That Plant Will Be Twice As Large As Originally Announced
200 TONS DAILY
Production Lines Will
Be Two Miles Long; Sixteen of Them 500 Feet Apart Will Be Built
The
production capacity of the Weldon Spring TNT plant has been ordered doubled by
War Department officials, R. Newton McDowell announced last night after taking
high officials of the War Department, Fraser-Brace Engineer Company, Inc., of
New York, the contractors, and the Atlas Powder Company of Wilmington, Del.,
which operate the plant, on an inspection tour of the 2,000 acre site.
McDowell
said the plant will be doubled in size over the original plans to provide a
daily output of 400,000 pounds or 200 tons of TNT and DNT daily. The original
production schedule called for 100 tons a day.
Sixteen
production lines, each two miles long, will be built in the center of the area
and will be about 500 feet apart, according to the new announcement.
Enlargement of the plant will not affect the area but will mean a material
increase in the force. The original announcement was that between 8,000 and
10,000 men would be employed at the plant.
Those in
the inspection party were F. W. Maynard and W. T. Penniman, vice-president of
the Atlas Powder Company, J. C. Allen, an assistant Chief Engineer, Mr.
Erickson, another high Atlas official; Major Brace and Mr. Fraser of the
Fraser-Brace Company, Mr. Woodward, and Mr. Englander, chief engineer and
general superintendent of the Fraser-Brace Company and Capt. C. R. Dutton of
the War Department.
Capt.
Dutton will move to St. Charles to make his home as he will remain here during
the construction and operation of the plant. Mr. Englander will also move his
family.
Plans are
being made to turn the almost completed Miller grade school into an office for
the construction company. This afternoon
Capt. Dutton, McDowell, members of the Howell School Board and representatives
of the State Department of Education met at Howell and discussed immediate
plans to take care of the 175 students of the Francis Howell High School which
is in the plan area.
Three
airplanes will leave Philadelphia Saturday to begin an aerial survey of the
20,000 acre site. Crews of engineers are now enroute here to begin the ground
survey. Construction of a railroad spur from the M. K. & T. into the area
will begin soon. The spur will run about as far as the junction known as
Toonerville.
McDowell
announced that since the awarding of the contract for construction the options
have been coming in fast and at the present time more than half of the 20,000
acres have been secured. None of the families have moved yet but the exodus is
expected to begin the early part of next week after the definite site in the
area for the production plant is designated.
