264 



Popular Science Monthly 



top of the tower by natural 

 draft, just as smoke is drawn 

 out of the top of an ordinary- 

 brick chimney. 



B' 



Cold spray dropping down to the cold water sump or 

 reservoir at the extreme bottom of the wooden tower 



Cooling Engine Water in 

 Wooden Chimneys 



HUGE wooden chimneys now 

 serve to cool the water 

 from powerplant steam engines, 

 especially from stea... turbines. 

 Usually fans or blowers are 

 installed — but not in these cheap 

 towers. Think what this means 

 in keeping down cost. There 

 are no moving parts of ma- 

 chinery to be inspected and 

 overhauled at regular periods in 

 order to keep them in good con- 

 dition. 



The water is cooled by leading 

 it to a horizontal header in the 

 center, from which it is allowed 

 to drop upon a checkerwork 

 of iron pipes and lateral gutters. 

 Thus it is broken up into a fine 

 spray which ultimately drops to 

 the cold water reservoir 

 at the extreme bottom of 

 the tower. Here the hot 

 water is further cooled by 

 the passage of cold air 

 entering on either side of 

 the tower bottom and 

 forced up and out the 



Prolonging the Life of a 



Motor by Protecting 



Its Insulation 



ROADLY speaking, a 

 motor may be divided 

 into two parts — the wind- 

 ings, through which the cur- 

 rent flows, and the part into 

 which the current must not 

 be allowed to leak. The 

 windings, which may be 

 called the circulation system 

 of the motor, are analogous 

 to the arteries of the human 

 mechanism, and the insula- 

 tion to the walls of the 

 arteries. To continue the 

 simile, if the insulation is 

 cut or seriously impaired, 

 there is danger of such an 

 amount of current being 

 wasted as to destroy the life 

 or usefulness of the motor, 

 just as the severing of an 

 artery may cut short a man's 

 three score years and ten. 



Among the practices which 

 are responsible for the weaken- 

 ing or destruction of the insula- 

 tion are prying into windings 

 with metal instruments, pound- 

 ing or bumping the windings, 

 storing the motors in damp 

 places without protecting them 

 from the dampness, which may 

 proceed from a leak 

 or from escaping 

 steam, or placing 

 them in an at- 

 mosphere laden 

 with acid fumes or 

 minute flying par- 

 ticles of metal. 



Periodic atten- 

 tion to the insula- 

 tion as well as to 

 the other parts of 

 mechanism will 



XT ^. J u- be amply repaid. Acces- 

 How the wooden chimney ., , .1 u t 

 works. No expensive fans Slble parts should fre- 

 er blowers are needed quently be wiped clean. 



Water inlet 



Cooling stacks 



Air inlet 



Suction pipe 

 the 



