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THE PUBLISHERS' DEPARTMENT. 



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FOUR NEW TURBINES FOR NIAGARA. 



The Niagara Falls Hydraulic Power and Manu- 

 facturing Company have recently contracted with 

 James Leffel & Co., of Springfield, Ohio, for four of 

 their Improved Double Discharge Horizontal 

 Shaft Water Wheels, to be of eight thousand (8,000) 

 horse-power capacity, under a maximum head 

 pressure of 218 feet, which is far the highest head 

 under which turbines of large capacity have ever 

 been applied in this country or elsewhere. These 

 wheels will drive eight electrical generators, 

 which will be connected direct to the horizontal 

 turbine shafts without gears or bolting; the wheels 

 and generators all running in vertical planes. 

 This is the second large order for turbines built 

 by James Leffel & Co. for Niagara Falls; there be- 

 ing already several of this make of wheel, each of 

 1,200 horse-power, in daily operation in the Cliff 

 Paper Company Mills, located at the cliffs, near 

 the tunnel. This water wheel company is also 

 building four of their Cascade wheels for one 

 company, to be operated under 730 feet head; part 

 of the power to be electrically transmitted, by 

 connecting the wheel shaft directly to the genera- 

 tors. The Cascade wheel is, however, essentially 

 and entirely different in construction and opera- 

 tion from the turbine, being in principle an im- 

 pulse and reaction wheel. This Cascade wheel 

 plant will have an aggregate capacity of six hun- 

 dred (600) horse-power. If you mention THE IRKI- 

 GATION AGE when you write, a complete catalogue 

 will be sent free upon application to Jas. Leffel & 

 Co., Springfield, Ohio. 



A LARGE ELECTRIC PLANT. 



The installation of the electric transmission 

 plant made by the. Portland General Electric Com- 

 pany, which owns the entire water power of the 

 falls on the Willamette river, at Oregon City, 

 twelve miles above Portland, estimated at 50,000 

 H. P., was recently completed. Part of the power 

 has already been utilized by numerous factories 

 and mills erected near by, and in addition to 

 these an electric station, erected some years ago, 

 has supplied current for lighting the streets and 

 dwellings of Portland, and for operating an elec- 

 tric street railway between Oregon and Milwaukee, 

 seven miles away. 



The water is taken from the canal, led through 

 an extensive hydraulic installation and discharged 

 into the river below on the other side. The water- 

 wheel plant is from the works of the Stilwell- 

 Bierce & Smith-Vaile Company, of Dayton, Ohio, 

 and consists at the present time of three units, each 

 consisting of a pair of vertical cylinder gate im- 

 proved Victor turbine wheels, forty-two inches 

 and sixty inches in diameter respectively. The 

 smaller wheel runs at a speed of 200 revolu- 

 tions per minute, and the larger at 100 revolutions 

 per minute. Both turbines are set at the same 

 level, and each carries a pulley; that of the sixty- 

 inch wheel being fixed to the generator shaft. 

 When the large wheel is in operation the two pul- 



leys are belted together, the smaller wheel is dis- 

 connected, and the large wheel drives the generator 

 at a uniform speed of 200 revolutions. When the 

 smaller turbine is operated alone the belt lies 

 upon a shelf surrounding the pulleys. 



The water is admitted to the penstocks from the 

 upper canal by means of a head gate operated from 

 a platform on the canal side of the station. Each 

 penstock is ten feet in diameter, and is constructed 

 of riveted steel plates. Each wheel has its own 

 flume, the water passing first through the large 

 flume of the larger wheel to the flume of the 

 smaller wheel, whence it passes through a tube 

 into the tail race. In addition to this turbine 

 equipment, an auxiliary power equipment has 

 been furnished, consisting of a set of pumps, in- 

 cluding a hydraulic pump for supplying oil to the 

 thrust-bearing cylinders, and a duplex water pump 

 to circulate the water in the cylinder water- 

 jackets. They are operated by two fifteen-inch 

 horizontal turbines inclosed in the same flume. 



The complete power plant will consist of twenty 

 three-phase generators and two direct current 

 generators, acting as exciters. The total capacity 

 of the station, therefore, will be 12,800 horse-power, 

 divided into twenty units, each one independent 

 of the other. 



This plant when finished will be one of tbe 

 largest long-distance transmission plants in the 

 world. Its satisfactory operation so far shows 

 admirably, not only the effectiveness of the three- 

 phase transmission system for general service, but 

 also its feasibility. 



A PREMIUM IRRIGATION ENGINE. 



The Finney County Fair & Irrigation Conven- 

 tion held at Garden City, Kan., October 2, 

 brought out some very interesting irrigation ma- 

 chinery, principally of which the Witte gasoline 

 engine, which was awarded the first premium, was 

 most notable. This ten-horse power engine which 

 was one of their latest improved, run ten hours 

 elevating 2,000 gallons of water or the enormous 

 amount of 1,200,000 gallons, elevated to a distance 

 of twelve feet high and thrown horizontally eight 

 feet at an entire expense of only seven gallons of gas- 

 oline; the engine only arrived on the grounds the 

 day before the fair, it was immediately set up and 

 for six consecutive days it kept a small river flow- 

 ing. The Witte Company also had attached there- 

 to another pump which any farmer could make, it 

 was simply their usual walking beam and pumping 

 jack with a pump made out of a regular oil barrel, 

 running forty strokes per minute, but at every 

 stroke discharging something like thirty gallons 

 of water. The company have spent considerable 

 time and energy in perfecting irrigation machin- 

 ery, and are now prepared to furnish an outfit, 

 either mounted or stationary, and guarantee re- 

 sults. One of their latest plants was recently in- 

 stalled at Ellis, Kansas, another at Wakeeney, 

 Kansas. Send for a complete catalogue to the 

 Witte Gas Engine Company, Kansas City and 

 mention THE IKRIGATION AGE fora special dis- 

 count. 



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