D. C. Renton to S. A. Williams on Pittsburg Dust Exhaust Layouts (1933)

A two-page memo of June 29, 1933, from D. C. Renton, J-M's chief engineer of factories and mines, at Manville, to S. A. Williams, vice president, on the dust exhaust system for the Pittsburg, California, factory. Renton enclosed his letters to the plant manager, C. L. Bates, and to H. E. Miller, with prints of layouts he had suggested in January. The layouts from the various vendors were "entirely too elaborate and much too expensive for the application," he wrote, and he had returned them to Bates asking that the vendors "adhere a little closer to our original schemes."

What it shows

Renton also described ways to cut the cost, such as splitting the pipe covering saw room into two groups so that fans and dust arresters need not handle the whole line at once. With Renton's June 26 memo and Bates's reply of July 31, it shows J-M's engineers working to hold down the cost of dust control at Pittsburg.

In Johns-Manville's chronology

Johns-Manville's own chronology of what the company knew describes this document as follows:

D.C. Renton memorandum to S.A. Williams, 6/29/33, states that the layouts submitted by the various vendors for the Pittsburg plant dust control systems are "entirely too elaborate and much too expensive for the application." Renton mentions that he has returned the layouts to Bates with a request that Bates ask the vendors "to adhere a little closer to our original schemes."

Related documents

• D. C. Renton to C. L. Bates on Pittsburg Dust Exhaust Estimates (1933)