Summary

Black and white photograph of the John Thompson - Hamworthy fuel oil pumping system for the No. 1 and No.2 boilers in the Kodak Australasia Pty Ltd Power House Boiler Hall, circa 1961. Oil was pumped from the in-ground oil tanks to the holding tanks and then it was further heated, pressurised and recirculated through the main oil supply lines to each of the boiler burner control stations.

Each boiler had a holding tank, oil pump (seen at the bottom of this image) and oil heater. Heat exchangers are the horizontal vessels above. These boilers used cheap residual oil (commonly called bunker oil) which had relatively high ash, nitrogen and sulphur content compared with other fuel oils. Under normal temperatures bunker oil was also highly viscous and required constant heating to allow it to flow through supply lines. It also required atomising steam at the burner guns to produce a reasonable spray pattern.

This system was converted to natural gas in the 1970s.

Description of Content

View of pumps and piping system with valves and supply lines.

Physical Description

Black and white photograph, landscape format.

More Information