Democrat and Chronicle from Rochester, New York • Page 39

ROCHESTER DEMOCRAT AND C1IR0N7CLE, SUNDAY, JANUARY 30, 1921 S3 sw 1 MGIANT WATER AND STEAM TURBINES AND BIG SWITCHBOARD HELP. IN LIGHTING ROCHESTER I THE R. G. E. CORP ELECTRIC STATIONS.

Wliat Is Under the Hood? 111 Jh imli That is what concerns every Purchaser of a New Passenger Car or Truck, and the dealers at Automohiie Shows know it Every exhibitor at the Rochester Motor Car Show next week will have competent men who thoroughly understand the motor WA and chassis. "nmm i fc? 1 ,,31 4) -i 6WA The map shown bove zirti coffiprehenslTe Idea of the location of tha alectrle etticna of the Bochaiter Gaa and Electric Corporation and the territory they aerve. Top: This stenm turbine In Station 3 haa a capacity of 14,500 horse-power, weipfcs 390,000 pounds, Is thirty feet fifteen feet In width and twelve feet In height. Center: Two of the giant water turbines at station 5, having- a capacity of 18,500 horse-power each. Each wetg-hs 400,000 pounds and the turbine and generator are twenty-nve feet in diameter and thirty feet In height.

Bottom: Electric switchboard used to deal with much smaller power units were thrown with crude hand lever. The great 123 foot switchboard seen here is at station 3, controlling the entire output of that steam plant as well as connecting lines between stations, rail way power, street-lighting and industrial feeders. The switches are motor operated on the floor below ad are thrown by pushing buttons on SU51MEB5 can the board. Indicating, recording and other meters en this board show at a glance the full operating conditions. spectieulsr engineering accomplishment added kilo wart -hours yearly te the capacity of the company a aydran lie equipment Filled War Demand.

The war broke to And the Industries Energy of Electric Plants' Generators Equal to Light Hhdiated by Immense Stars Staggering Figures Computed by Experts of Rochester Electric Corporation. or tne city dependent as never before upon the lightithg company for power. The new station and river development meant that the company was able to fulfil the i 'I f. yon are in the company's largest steam plant. No.

station at Mill street and Brown's rsce. An enormous amount of steam is hing jreneirared forth steam turbines and also for the use of great industrial plants-1 nd buildings in that neighborhood. A brief glimpse into the activities of thia plant shows many of the reasons why a small force of men can operate it. Automatic stokers are keeping the furnaces filled. An ingenious recording instrument is graphicallysrepre-sentiug on a chart what is taking place inside the furnace, indicating at a glance whether or not the right aruoimt of air is beittt furnished.

There are gauges to show the variation in draft, gauges to give the temperature snd pressure in the furnace and stack, damper nermann upon it and that industrial Itoch That the lightness of the Bssinen Car united to great ttensth li proven by the tplendid tervke it ia rendering everywhere under widely varying condition. The lightness of the car keep the gas and oil costs down, and its sound construction renders repairs infrequent. ester, as a consequence, was able to give a mighty production for the armies and navies of America -and it allies. Sixty thousand, tons of coal would have-beet consumed in producing the equivalent of rue iiyqrauiic station vear yui.rn wri ip factory and easier burdens for your family, you are repealed a thrilling picture. You learn that while you are carelessly regulators, water-level Indicators, a nrxprecwienteo: jevela, but So.

ft Station enabled the company to supply electricity at the old price. This power nlant tire. fJacting favors from the power on the senta an alluring picture the man of 8uppose a rtar ruxhed iuto tpllite position and blaaed upon the earlh with candlwpower radiance. Ton, a nierp human, would gasp uncimi-prehendingly at the stupendous estimate of its light imtensitjr made by seientint and catalogue it as one of those wondors of the infinite cosmos, beyond the power of man to duplicate in powea. But pore through the production fig-nres of the Rochester (ras and Electric mechanuun which records on a chart the condition of the smoke issuing from the top of th stack snd eksbles the.

fire-njea to keep wh.hiu the requirements of the city's smoke ordinance, etid many other labor-saving devices. The company buys all its coal not by the ton, but on thebasts of'fts heating value, a small portly) of each shipment received being carefully tested. wires men down in compact plants with inuring dynamo, turbines and converters, huge switchboards, giant transformers and bewildering maws of rabies and mystifying apparatus are hard at work twenty-four hours a day, 365 days la the year, so that you may not be disappoint inuusrnai imagination, as he look down upon it nd its upper river development from the Driving Park avenue bridge. No. 5 station is particularly appealing to the layman for he sees in it one of tne world nnest and must modern hy Corporation for 1020, get a few reams of paper and several pcudfn and delre in mathematics, and you find that the draulic electric plants.

Engineers from many parts of this and foreign countries have visited ft and grown enthusiastic The steam from the boilers at No. 3 E.J.ELLI5ElCDMPANYIHC. Station is superheated ss it passes generators of etils company released en over its efficiency. The construction of CHAS) iit through a nest of coils in the path of hot 14 scto Tmav TONJ IW ill ergy during that interim equivalent to gages on Its way to the sis grat tur the tunnel from the top of the Middle Falls diigtaally across the river the bines. The, plant has a steam-generating the ferocious light of such a star.

Ion aak what is the candle-power of the sun I eastern base of the Lower Falls, a dis capacity of 60,000 horsepower and pre ed. Ton realize that otker men are out -on repair work, guarding the distribution system or engaged on construction that will extend the service to your ntighbora. Charge In Quarter Century. The electric central station has changed from its counterpart of twenty-five years ago, both in construction and operation. The old water plant consisted of head-gates, water-wheel, dynamos ami wires leading to the outside and the early steam plant simply had a -boiler iocheMer is not in competition with the tance feet is registered in the sents a most interesting panorama of ac ib of this solar system so a comparison tivity with its boilers, turbines and in-j engineering world as an accomplishment noteworthy in power development One ntrmerable auxiliaries.

It is one of the ieatur waa the erection of a huge surge best known plants to Kochestarians because of its three giant smokestacks. The '1 tank before the station and on top of largest stack is of brick, 1)5 feet high and with an, average diameter of eighteen feet. The other two are self-support would he most valueless lid, perhaps, disconcerting. i iWierd In its IigKtning manifestations, unknown an its tee. elertridty has nevertheless, w-ith its silent, efficierat, bountiful giving of light, heat and piiver grown to be such a vital part of life In Kochfpter rtiat it it tboutrht of with the sanie amttg romplac-enre etvept on the day that mails bring certain billsas the sun, moon, air and watr.

and enirine belted to a jenerator. Hoch-eter has rrown lectrically in the last number of and the magnitude of this growth may be appreciated somewhat when one learn that the nitn the tunnel. Should the turbines suddenly stop In the utation, the waters would quietly back up in this tank instead of gaining such a pressure thst they would sweep forward to carry the station into the river. The surge tank is, therefore, a regulator and protector of the plant Partial Storage Provided. Prevision was made at this new hy-drsulic plant for the installation of three mighty turbine of lfi.500 horsepower ing steel stacks, each 165 feet high and with an average diameter of eleven feet Water Saves Money.

Thousands of householder in Rochester have wondered why it was that lighting company was able in maintain its old rates for electricity during the last few years when the price of everything else in Hochester has aviated. The an In the central energy stations of the Uocliester Gas and Electric Corporation have developed from the Its TJsea Myriad. ire until lo-nay- nno water mrmnes The -wife sits reading before an elec-' wjrt pgcitvf ItJ.Wxrhorsepoer and trie lamp; maybe, an electrir washer to unju borrower capac- each. Two have been installed and are operating. In the pipes feeding these ity at its stations.

dnst with a vacuum 'cleaner; a steak is broiling onj an electric gridiron: her is coming home on an electrically great turbines are placed valves that permit th dosing down of eith-r turbine Appearance aa well as sije of these stations supplying the city with electric energy has chanced. The steam turbine swer is found snnggled on the east side 'of the Genesee river at the toot of the lxiwer Falls Station 5, vthe largest hydraulic unit ef the company. Years ago, the executives and engineers who control the destiny of the lighting company visiooed great future conservation while the other operates. These valves driven street car from a factory operated wit electric power; her baby is playing withla aoon BlateiTbT eleotrolyjis; the placed in enlarged portions of the pipes, ea being a huge, movable, pointed cylinder operated by water pressure applied to their interiors. Resides the of the water power of the Genesee river and a tremendous harnessing of it for Ty-'Mer she is lookirxr over has been Whnted by electric lwer bow could yfme to g4 t)ionriiig out in the ground for.

tho viaualiaatiog of the ceos the production of this beneficient pow two large turbines. No. 5 Station has four turbine of horsepower each and has replaced the old. imposing engine. Its working heart hidden from view srith heavy casing, the most powerful of the turbines seems an insignificant piece of machinery, so insignificant that the visitor, who bus heard of the titanic power of the turbine, often stands before on and asks: "Where are theorblnesr Steam.

Plant Interesting. i One of the first things to impress the development of deetric energy. In 1917 one part of tls vision -the creation of large pondage of reserve water by construction of a dam on the brink of the Middle Falls aad bringing this water one smaller one of SMK horsepower, giv-mg the tsrJm a total generatin capacity ef 42.300 hmepower. The Genesee river in it present, stat er which eem8 so enmmtinplci. kk much a jturt of life en ting and sleeping When the day eoraes when ome fancy has aroused you to a visit te the other end ol the te the source of the strange, mysterious power that is giving you hsht, transportation, work at the under a powerful head through a tunnel under the river to the water turbines of development bss no with the exception of the pondage above D.

C. "WANTS" BRING RESULTS visitor oee of the plants of the light--in romnany is the few men required to of a new Xo. 5 StatioA at the foot of the Lower Falls became a fact. Thia, O0STITBD ON PAGE operate ao great an industry. Perhaps,.