Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1908-07-10

WORLDS LARGEST
IURBO-GENE |: : !! | [ /
WHAT 10000 HORSE POWER
" MEANS -- ASTONISHING FIG
UREs SHOWING ELECTRICAL
ENERGY.
On the testing floor of the turbine
shop of the General Electric COM
pany's plant in Schenectady stands
the largest steam turbine in the
world Four of these mammoth MAJ
chimes, capable of producing 10000
horsepower each, have been ordered
and two will be put in service at
Chicago by the Chicago Edison COM
pany, and two in New York by the
New York Edison company. The
first of these giant machines will be
ready for installation early this fall,
and once it is set up in Chicago the
Edson's company's output will be in
creased by the work Of twenty thous.
and horses, although the entire floor.
space occupied by the turbo-gener-
ator is only 40 square feet.
The Curtis turbo-generator is an
electric generator mounted above a
steam turbine engine and directly,
connected to the same shaft.
To those not familiar with engin-
eering problems it is difficult to
comprehend what 10000 electrical
horsepower really means.
In this giant turbine one of the ro-
tating disks, which carries the blades
against which the expanding steam
strikes, imparting It's energy to the
shaft, is u feet inches in dia-
meter and runs at $50 revolutions
per minute. If it ran along the
ground at this ratefit would go 5.66
miles in minute, or nearly $3.50
miles a day, and would run from
New York to San Francisco in 8 IL
hours. This and the other four
wheels which constitute the moving
part of the turbine together with the
shaft and the rotating fields of the
generator, weigh some 100000
pounds, and yet so freely are they
carried upon a cushion of oil that
this enormous weight can be re-
volved by one finger.
Even at the very low rate of 13
pounds Of steam per hour per kilo-
watt this unit would require 1872, 900
pounds Of water evaporated into
steam each hour to supply it when
running at its rated capacity. The
days supply would make a 41.2 foot
cube or fill a pond 2Sx50 feet to a
depth of 5 feet, and at the usual rate
of $1.5O per thousand cubic feet
would cost over s1O5 per day. AS
% pounds of condensing water is nee
essary to condense one pound of
steam it would require 1902 cubic
feet per minute, or as much water
as would issue in a jet one foot in
diameter, with a velocity that would
carry it to height Of 123 feet: or
as much water as would flow natur-
ally over a weir or dam in a sheet
a foot thick and 21 feet wide.
Supposing one pound Of coal to
evaporate and superheat 81 pounds
of water. It would take 52O, 900
pounds, or 260 tons of coal a day to
make the steam to run this turbine.
This would maKs a pyramid 40 feet
square on the base and % IL feet in
height, and would take a train Of
ten 30-ton cars for its transportation
It's cost delivered would be, for the
ordinary case, somewhere around
$1,000.
II all applied to lighting, the H.
600 kilowatts, or 10000 horsepower,
which this unit will generate, would
maintain about $50 900 16-candle-
power incandescent lamps, which, If
hung in straight line, would supply
ample illumination to 500 miles OF
Railways 10 feet wide; or would sup
ply 81 900 arc lights, which il spaced
150 feet apart, would illuminate SOC
miles Of ordinary streets. Using the
output of this unit for fan motor
service, $50, 900 of these little ma.
chimes could be kept going. The
energy delivered at the terminals Of
the generator during days run al
full load, would be SUFFICIENT to nell
a cone Of copper 81 feet In diameter
at the base and 100 feet high, OF
400 miles Of copper rod one inch in
diameter. 81
It will take only two men to oper.
ate this wonderful machine and all
Its auxiliaries, not including the boil
er room equipment.
Proposals for Public Printing.
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