The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1917-03-09
v0LCANO-ELECTR|C PLANT
DEVELOPS $4,000 HORSEPOWER

ces rising up to prohibitive limits, the
possibility of using on large scale
this natural steam became very i'm
portant.
Prince Ginori-Conti considered it
his duty to carry out this trial on a
large scale, avajling himself of his
long and successful experiments. Act
ing on the advice of the Tosi Works
of Legnano-specialist in steam tur-
bines and alternating current cleo
trio generators he ordered three
groups Of condensing tuTbo electric
engines, each Of 5000 XIV. $4,000 H.
PO, working with superheated steam
at IL atmosphere, generated in
| specially constructed multitubular
boilers, the latter arranged vertically
and with aluminium tubes, both for
better utilization of the heat and bet
| ter resistance to the corrosive action
| of the natural steam from the SOfhoni.
This steam, it should be noted, is us
ed instead of combustible; it loses
part of it's heat in the boiler, reducing
| ing it's temperature from 1870 degrees
c., to about 120 degrees c., and is then
utilized for the borax industries.
The steam thus generated in the
boilers and used for the turbines is
ordinary water steam, which, on its
way to the turbine, passes along al
minimum pipes heated outside by a cur
rent of superheated natural steam at
100 degrees c., and thus gets in it's
turn superheated to about $50 degrees
G.. After passing through the tur-
bine the steam is discharged into a
surface condenser, the circulating wa
nf which 10 in it9 f11rn cooled in
an ordinary cooling tower, as shown
in our accompanying illustration. The
condensed steam frmo the turbines is,
of course pumped back into the boil
ers, and thus no natural steam ever
comes in contact with the turbine; by
this arrangement copfosion is COM
pletely avoided This was the real
and chief difficulty to be overcome.
The three-phase electric current is
generated at $500 volts and so cycles
per second, stepped up through an
oil transformer to $4,000 volts, and
sent along aerial conductors to Flo
renee, Leghorn. Volterra, Grosseto
and many smaller towns of Tuscany,
to be principally used as motive pow
er for munition works during daytime
and partly for lighting purposes at
night.
One of the 3,000-kw units has been
at work since January, 1916, the sec
ond since April, and the third has just
been started. So far, the first two
groups have worked quite successfully
and have been a great boon to the in
dustries of Tuscany, greatly crippled
by the scarcity and high price Of COAL
This very successful Harvesting of vol
canic heat to an electric power house
can be increased practically to hun
dreds Of thousands of horsepower, as
the region of Soff1oni extends for
many square miles around Larderel-
10.
Thus we see how apparently uncon-
trollable forces of nature have been
tanned and harnessed to do the work
of man. In America we are still in
command of large coal deposits, but
hydro electric developments are fast
becoming a. highly profitable and pay
ing investment But when these have
reached their limit, we may have to
look to the ocean waves, and yet again
future generations may witness the
sight of electric power plants deriv-
ing their energy from the heat Of the
earth through long steel pipes sunk
down thousands of feet. In the light
Of modern science it seems possible.