WHEN I GROW UP I WANT TO BE A... (EIGHTH OF 10 PARTS)

Richard Baker monitored the cement process in the control room at Lone Star Industries.

Richard Baker checked control parameters from the control systems manual.

The finish mills rotate continuously at Lone Star Industries.

The kiln at Lone Star Industries Inc. is an impressive sight.

The huge cylinder furnace, the largest piece of moving machinery used in the cement-making industry -- 225 feet in length and 14 feet in diameter -- rambles through an upstairs portion of the Lone Star plant at 2524 S. Sprigg St. in Cape Girardeau.

The kiln, control room and finishing room are impressive sights for visitors to the plant, said Richard Baker, the plant's process engineer.

"The kiln is big, and it rotates consistently," said Baker.

The kiln, which produces the clinker used in the manufacture of cement, is mounted with one end higher than the other. Raw materials are fed into the high end of the kiln and slide slowly toward the lower end as the giant furnace rotates.

Coal and alternative fuels are used to heat the kiln from 2,700 degrees to more than 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit, changing the raw materials into clinkers. More than 320 tons of raw materials pass through the kiln an hour, producing as much as 170 tons of clinker.

If a problem develops in the kiln, it has to set 36 hours before it will cool down enough for someone to enter it.

The clinkers are mixed with four other materials, including gypsum, to produce powdery Portland cement that is finer than flour.

"The cement is shipped from here by rail, river and trucks to concrete manufacturers for use in concrete," said Baker, a native of Cape Girardeau, and formerly a schoolteacher who has been in the cement industry about 10 years.

Another impressive sight is the giant roller presses in the plant's finishing room. This is where the final grinding of the clinker takes place.

The large control room at the plant includes more than a dozen computers and a large control board, filled with lights, representing all phases of work in the plant.

"Green lights on the board indicate that everything is running smoothly," said Baker. "An amber light indicates some problem may be brewing and a red light indicates that a particular piece of equipment will not run, or is not running."

If a horn sounds in the control room, it means something is running that shouldn't be, added Baker.

Computer operators quickly scan the control systems to determine where and what the problem is and send a technician to correct it.

Baker has a nine-volume set of technical manuals in his office that explains the entire operation of making cement.

The Lone Star facility has constructed three new klinker silos over the past two years.

Lone Star employs 210 people and has an annual payroll in excess of $8.2 million.

The making of cement at the plant, which towers above the landscape on South Sprigg Street, dates back to 1909 when Portland Cement Co. established a plant at the site, which has abundant limestone reserves and is accessible to the Mississippi River.

Marquette Cement Co. acquired the plant in 1923 and twice expanded it.

Lone Star Industries bought the plant in 1982. Since then the plant has been completely upgraded and expanded many times.

The plant produces more than 1.3 million tons of cement a year, said W.S. (Steve) Leus Jr., plant manager.

About 85 percent of that is shipped out by barge from the plant's loading terminal on the Mississippi River to Lone Star's river terminals in St. Louis, Paducah, Ky., and Memphis and Nashville in Tennessee, and New Orleans. Some cement is shipped by train and truck, and some cement is used locally.

"We've provided a lot of cement to companies for making concrete being used in construction of the Bill Emerson Memorial Bridge here," said Leus.

Founded in 1919 as International Cement Co., the company became Lone Star Cement Corp. in the 1930s when headquarters were moved east. The Lone Star Industries Inc. name was adopted in the 1960s.

Lone Star is headquartered at Stamford, Conn. The Cape Girardeau plant is the largest cement plant operated by the company.