Sifting Tower

Sifting Tower

Sifting Tower
Research
Sifting Tower
Construction Material
Planks	21		Cut Stone	5
Copper Bars		3	Machinery		1
Employees
Miner's Guild Preference		Requires one apprentice for the last slot.		3
Foot Print
Processes nonmetal ores into refined materials.				2x2x3
Building's Catalyst
			Rope is made in the Flax Spinner
Hard Labour

The Sifting Tower processes coal, potash, and rock salt into usable forms. All recipes require pumped water, but unlike other ores, no fuel is needed to convert these materials. These conversion process still results in pollution, so this building should be located away from and downwind from your colony.

Since the Sifting Tower can only produce one recipe at a time, plan on having at least 2 Sifting Towers, if not 3.

Processing coal into fuel is the most lucrative way to obtain fuel as compared to the ratio of input materials to output fuel at the Charcoal Kiln. Until you need coal for steel production, it should be converted to fuel.

The Sifting Tower also produces fertilizer once researched. This is an absolute necessity to be able to handle later game crops like tea and helps substantially with wheat and cotton too. Fertilizer can be sold to the Smuggler at a rate of 21 coins of credit towards gold bullion which is a lot better than selling potash to The Claw for 8 coins.

Production limits are encouraged for both coal and fertilizer because both recipes can overwhelm your Warehouse storage even with only one Sifting Tower in operation for both recipes, especially fertilizer.

The Sifting Tower can also produce table salt which is a catalyst for the Smokery and Bakery. The rock salt input for this is fairly limited, so a decision may need to be made between producing saline solution at the Chemist or producing table salt at a Sifting Tower.

The catalyst for the Sifting Tower is ropes and should be used since they are cheap and easy to obtain.

Third Floor Entrance

For most players the Sifting Tower is first building they encounter with an entrance above the first floor. Without a stairs or a path to this raised entrance Whiskers cannot enter the building to construct it. This can make construction appear stuck.

Another building with a second floor entrance is the Netter.

Recipes

Input		Production time	Output
Coal 1	Water 5	337.0s	Fuel 21	High Pollution
Rock Salt 1	Water 1	144.0s	Table Salt 3	High Pollution
Potash 1	Water 13	144.0s	Fertilizer 5	High pollution