PM2 refiners. The front 2 are the Claflins installed around 1982? Previously PM2 used the rear two of which the wide angle is visible, the Jordan is out of view behind the wide angle. The Claflins ran in parallel at around 4tph each, my recollection is that the wide angle and Jordan ran in series at 8tph – not bad for refiners said to be rated for 2tph.
The entry to the machine house is in the dark beyond, at the top of the steps down to the chest tops and machine floor.
Taking samples from the Claflins was a fraught exercise, the samples were taken from the 2″ gate valve visible at the lower rim of the refiner. The stub pipe leading to the valve would plug up under pressure so the gate had to be opened wide to clear it, then shut quickly before your feet were immersed in very hot stock – bearing in mind the stock had already passed through the hot dispersion unit on the island site, further heated by friction in the refiner, it was often 50 deg C or more.
To the left of the top of the ladder, you can see the bottom of 2mc backwater tank, and to the right the second tank. 1mc backwater tanks had been reused for storing rosin emulsion size – Hercules T-size 22/30P mainly. This replaced the BR45 saponified rosin supplied via ring main from the size plant beyond the end of the kraft beater floor range.
