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<br />.\ .... <br /> <br />0266 <br /> <br />- 3 <br /> <br />(- <br /> <br />In addition to power, they proposed to furnish compressed air and water <br />to the mines and communities in the district. The opening of this, plant <br />in 1899 was announced in a booklet describing plant and machinery in <br />detail. This is what they had to say about the air compressor installed <br />in the plant. "The air compressor has a capacity of fifty drills, and <br />supplies air to twenty mines in the district through about ten miles of <br />underground pipes. The compressor is driven by a compound condensing <br /> <br />Corless engine, manufactured by the E. P. Allis Company of Milwaukee. <br />The air cylinders are compoun~, with an intercooler between the cylinders. <br />The cylinders and intercooler were 'manufactured by the Ingersoll-Sargeant <br />Company of New York. The air is carried from the compressor to a large <br />receiver, where al~ moisture is separated, and from there it is distri- <br /> <br />buted to the air mains. The air pressure carried is 100 pounds per <br />, <br /> <br />. square inch." It didn't take the operators of the La Bella plant long <br /> <br />to find out that their scheme for furnishing air to their scattered <br /> <br />customers was a losing venture. On account of the altitude and the long <br />hard winters, they could not keep their air meters from freezing, so it <br />was impossible to measure and coIect for the air they furnished. Then <br />when they went on a flat rate for air at so much per machine, th6ir <br />customers soon stumbled on the fact that it was dead easy to steal <br />enough air out of the line to ventilate, their workings, and that is <br />exactly what they did. So the air angle of the plant was abandoned. <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />After operating a short while they found that fuel costs and maintenance <br /> <br />. <br />in that altitude was prohibitive, so they shut down the plant and it was <br />absorbed in the system that eventually became the Southern Colorado Power <br /> <br />r' <br /> <br />Company. The La Bella plant stood idle for quite a number of years, but <br />was torn down in 1920, and the machinery including the compressor was <br />lost in the hustle and bustle of reorganization. <br /> <br />l <br /> <br />"' "~ <br />:0. <->-" <br />