In July, 1901, the El Paso, Texas, plant of the Consolidated Kansas City Smelting and Refining Company[52] was almost completely destroyed by fire. The power plant, blast-furnace building and blast furnaces were entirely destroyed, and portions of the other buildings were badly damaged. The flames were hardly extinguished before steps were taken to construct a new, modern and enlarged plant on the ruins of the old one, and on April 15, 1902, nine months after the destruction of the former plant, the new furnaces were blown in. In rebuilding it was decided to locate the new power-house at some distance from the other buildings. The furnaces have all been enlarged, each of the new lead furnaces (of which there are seven) having about 200 tons daily capacity. These and the three large copper furnaces have been located in a new position in order to secure a larger building territory. The entire plant is modern and up to date in every particular. One of the interesting features is the substitution of crude oil as fuel in the boiler and roasting departments. It is intended to use Beaumont petroleum for the generation of power and the roasting of the ores instead of wood, coal or coke, and it is expected that a considerable economy will be effected by this means. _Power Plant._—The power plant is complete in all respects. It is a duplicate plant in every sense of the word, so that it will never be necessary to shut the works down on account of the failure of any one piece of machinery. There are seven boilers, having a total of 1250 h.p. The four blowers are unusually large, having a capacity of 30,000 cu. ft. of free air per minute. They are direct-connected to three tandem compound condensing Corliss engines. No belts are used in this plant, except for driving a small blower of 10,000 cu. ft. capacity, which will act as a regulator. A large central electric plant has been installed in the power-house, consisting of two direct-connected, direct-current generators, mounted on the shafts of two cross-compound condensing Nordberg-Corliss engines. The current from these generators is transmitted through the plant, operating sampling works, briquetting machinery, pumps, hoists, motors, cars, etc., displacing all the small steam engines and steam pumps used in the old plant. The power plant is provided with two systems for condensing; one being a large Wheeler surface condenser, the other a Worthington central-elevated jet condenser, the idea being to use the surface condenser during a short period of the year when the water is so bad that it cannot be used in the boilers. During the remainder of the year the jet condenser is in service and the surface condenser can be cleaned. The condensed steam from the surface condenser, with the necessary additional water, goes back directly to the boilers when the surface condenser is in use. The power-house is absolutely fireproof throughout, being of steel and brick with iron and cement floors.