[bovey] presidential ADDRESS 11 



two turbines which drive each dynamo, is the actual head of the water 

 wheels in the power house. Such establishments as require wheels under 

 their own control can use about 140 feet of head, if the character of the 

 wheels used is such as not to be seriously atiected by back water. 

 Seventy-five feet represents the head devoted to the tunnel output at 

 about 26 feet per second, or a hj'draulic slope of 7i feet per 1,000 feet. 



There are many novel features in the hydraulic as well as in the 

 electrical part of the power jilant. The water wheels, two to each unit, 

 are 6 feet in diameter, each wheel being divided into three parts and the 

 speed being controlled by ring gates outside the wheels, which discharge 

 the water radially. The water wheels have, after some slight alterations 

 been working very satisfactorily. The transmission of the power from 

 the wheels is effected by means of hollow shafts made of quite light steel, 

 38 inches in external diameter, but contracted to solid shafts of 11 inches 

 in diameter at those places where the bearings, steadying the shafts, are 

 located. The experience with the bearings resulted in changes worthy of 

 attention. On the recommendation of Dr. Sellers the bearings are con- 

 tinuous in surface and so lubricated as to insure a constant film of oil 

 between the bearing and the shaft. The bearings are also lined with 

 babbet metal of very superior quality, not for economy, but fi^om actual 

 experience as to the utter impossibility of running shafts in bronze 

 bearings without babbet metal at 700 feet per minute surface velocity, 

 with any certainty of their not cutting. They now run continuously 

 without heating. 



The whole plant is said to have worked remarkably well since August, 

 1895, and the demand for power has been so great among manufacturers 

 in the immediate vicinity, as to leave no surplus power available for 

 transmission to Buffalo out of the 15,000 electrical H.P. developed by the 

 present installation. All the current now available from three dynamos 

 is being utilized within one mile of the station. Beyond the power 

 required to drive the local lighting and tram-road power stations, the 

 current has been taken by establishments erected for metallurgical 

 purposes, using large amounts of power but employing very few men, as 

 is notably the case with the Pittsburg Eeduction Co., manufacturing 

 aluminum, the Carborundum Co., making a new abrasive material in large 

 quantities, the Calcium Carbide Co., and other electro-chemical industries. 



The dynamos were designed and built by the Westinghouse Electric 

 & Manufacturing Co., of Pittsburg, Penn., making use of the rotating 

 field suggested and patented by Prof. George Forbes, and the mechanical 

 features proposed and secured to the Power Company by Dr. Sellers. An 

 important consideration in this case was that the successful governing 

 of the machinery depended upon a certain amount of fly-wheel effect, 

 which was specified to be wholly accomplished by the revolving ])arts 

 of the dynamo and not by a separate fly-wheel. 



