Modern lifestyles - progress?

[aja8888]

Wow!... My stepfather was a mechanical engineer for several different mills in the 1920's through the 1950's. He would tell me stories of the horizontal hydro turbines that powered many of the mills... not electric, but belt/mechanical power. The long forgotten canal system that went throughout RI. Mass, and Ct. was a combination of power, transportation and travel. Strange that there is very little written history of this very significant part of the industrialization of America.

We pulled the drive wheel and the bucket assembly out of the bottom of the plant and the canal ran right through it! It was full of trees (no water in it) and we had to cut down several to get to the turbine house entry. What a fun project for a 30 year old engineer.

Some kids burned the old mill down in 1999 (see link). In that story, about the 5th picture going left to right is the empty penstock (they called it the crankshaft) is in the area where we took out the turbine wheel.

http://jpgmag.com/stories/18868

 

[MRG]

Aja8888, thank you very interesting. How many people and how many days do you recall this taking?

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[aja8888]

Aja8888, thank you very interesting. How many people and how many days do you recall this taking?

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Boy, it was a long time ago, but..used a contractor to get access and pull out the wheel and long shaft (2 days).

Transported to my plant and probably took a week to close the dam, pull our hydro apart, remove wheel and shaft, put in the one from the old mill, rebuild our generator (while it was out), assemble the hydro and start it up.

People wise, probably 6 on each task and a crane and forklift. We needed the wheel and shaft because our shaft had worn down at the poured lead/copper bearings and was repaired several times. The paddle wheel buckets were welded so many times, they just needed all new steel. If I remember correctly, finding that old shaft and wheel gave us the opportunity to fix it up without rushing and rebuild our generator at the same time.

 

[robnplunder]

I smell an oxymoron in here somewhere...

Agreed to disagree whether I/you like it or not.

 

[RetiredAndFree]

That is the best hidden trailer hitch I've ever seen.

It buys us back two feet of garage, which leaves enough room to continue to access our rear garage side door. Great feature.

 

[MRG]

Thanks Aja8888,
Fascinating what people make work when there's no other way. I'd seen water powered sawmills, but with a waterwheel not a turbine. None of what we saw was functioning. We looked at all the old broken mills we could, just in case you needed parts.

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