The weekly Iberian. (New Iberia, La.) 1894-1946, 1910-10-01
LIGHT PLANT.
The big Engine" and Its
Dynamo Disabled by the
Breaking Of the Engine
Governor.

The Plant now Truly on
zone Leg A Better Plant
under Contemplation.
90 -
Last Sa' urday evening Engineer
Henry BrOusssrd went to the
throttle Of the big engine mt Ihc
Electric Light Plant to set the
machinery in motion a little ah"ad
Of schedule time, in consequence
Of the early darkness caused by
the rain storm and clouds Of :he
afternoon just az the engine
vas picking up her speed, without
warning and without apparent
cause, the governor went 70
pieces. The confusion and dam
age which followed cannot be told
in Il 3riet paragraph.
Mr. Broussard. who was still
standing at the throttle with his
hand upon the rim If the wheel at
The moment of the break, giving
the last turn Of the wheel, found
himself suddenly hurled against
the brick wall back of the engine.
The racing Of the engine, the con
tinu0us flying Of broken metal
parts, made it extremely danger
GUS to return to the throttle Ap-
preciating that the engine had to
he stopped and at once, he ran
back to the boiler valves and clos
cd one while the fireman closed
the other.
1t was not till he attempted to
use his right hand IN closing the
valve at the boiler that he became
conscious Of the fact THAT he had
been injured by the flying pieces
OF metal. His right arm refused
to obey his will. He had been
struck on the outside of the fore
arm and it was rapidly swelling
and bleeding. The engine stop
ped, hurry calls were put in for a
doctor. Drs. Shaw and Sabatier
both promptly arrived at the
plant. DR.. Shaw took charge of
the patient and dressed the
wound
When an examination of the en-
CINE aud dynamo was made it was
easily seen that the former was
cripple and the latter all but
wreck The next step was to
make such arrangements as were
practicable with The means at
hand for caring for the patrons Of
the plant
The commercial lights were cut
on the small dynamo and the arc
lights were cut out altogether.
On Monday afternoon the Board
OF Commissioner met at the plants
office with the following members
present: Chairman j. s. Powers, O.
Renoudet, G. c. Laughlin, l.. Indest,
Sr., and E. F. Willard.
After reading of the minutes and
The usual reports, the one serious
question of putting the plant in
such condition as to again make it
meet the needs of the public and
private service, came up for dis
The present system is what
s styled 1873 cycle, 1900 alternating
single phase. It has long
,een known to our people as an ex-
,ensive system and its great liabili-
y to troubles and burn-outs are
llso too well known. Under the
light OF past experiences there was
10 difficulty in persuading the
'oard to agree in Mr.. o. Renoudet's
to discard the 1873 cycle
ystem, and that instead of at
large and expensive re-
airs to the present system, to sub
titute for such machines and en-
ines as may be necessary to mod
rize the plant. Mr.. Renoudet
bought the change could be safely
lnanced by the City Council at this
inc to the extent Of about $4,000.
After agreeing to this /, was decided =
send Mr.. Walter Broussard, the
hief Electrician. to New Orleans to t
'e II he could gather such materials o
might be necessary to repair the n
recked dynamo or to rent a substi- e
lte for 1t till the new machinery p
'uld be installed. Upon Mr. Brons.
lrds return 1t was made plain that it 10
0uld take as long 10 get the neces. b
ry parts for the old DYNAMO as II 70
ould take TO get a 60 cycle 3-phase n
'namo and that the repairs would 81
st between $500 and $500 perhaps Nv
ore than the crippled machine
ou'd sell for when repaired r.
After a conference with members :,
the Board kilograms were sent n,
Wednesday to the three electric tr
achine builders asking for rock =
'ttom quotatinos on two genera -
rs, one to be of IS X. w. Capacity
I'd the other to be of 200 X. W. ca, -
lclty; both to be of the so cycle. -
phase, pattern. The smaller gen,
ator to be for belt drive and the b
rger one to be built for direct =,
to Corlis Engine q
lese two dynamos would have =,
mbined normal capacity of $500 ~ ~
hts. The capacity of our Old =,
ant was $500 lights. a..
{ was not long after the sending a
the telagrams before the ans. re
RS were Nomin gin and the next m.
'rning (Thursday) Mr.. Mcclellan. c.
representative of the Fort m,
ayne people was here on the
1und6 exD1aininO tho Iot.:l