1,845 Comments Posted by joe

What you are seeing is a Lincoln motor-generator welding machine. Commonly used for "stick" welding around powerplants.

Terry was a manufacturer of smaller steam turbines used to drive auxiliary equipment such as pumps and blowers. The arms are linakge from the governor on the turbine to control its speed/load.

Well, this confirms my previous comment. the MG sets may have been used to charge the batteries. Batteries provided DC power for working protective relaying and circuit breakers in the switchgear and switchyard if the plant was off line and needed power to come back.

Motor generator sets. Could have been used as auxiliary exciters. The generators had their own exciters right on the rotor shafts. Another use for MG sets in an old plant was making DC power for the bridge cranes, as well as for charging the station battery banks. Any power plant had a large bank of glass-cased lead-acid storage batteries. These made DC power to work protective relaying and operate large circuit breakers when the generators were off the line. 120 volts or 208 volt DC for these purposes was common in the power plants.

Circulator pump for corcualting cooling water thru the condenser.

CONDENSER ! 40 + years around power plants, I know a condenser when I see one. The water box cover has been removed. What is seen is thousands of tubes thru which the circulating water passes to cool/condense the steam. Bolts sticking out are staybolts to hold the end head of the water box (or more correctly, keep it from bulging out from pressure of circulating water).

End view of a condenser with the water box removed. You are seeing the tube sheet . There will be thousnads of small-diameter tubes rolled into that sheet to provide a passage for the circulating water. The bolts sticking out of the sheet are staybolts to secure the waterbox to the sheet and end flange of the condenser shell.

Circulating water pipe for the condensers. It was painted with a non-sweat insulating coating. Circulating water piping, carrying cooler water from a river or bay would "sweat" in the higher heat/humidity inside a power plant.

Water box end of a steam surface condenser. Not at all big by standards of even 40 years ago.

exciters make DC current to magnetize the field of the AC generator. What you are seeing is the commutator and brushes of the exciter. 3 phase = AC current. Exciter produces DC current, so no phases.

Commutator is a series of copper bars (gone greenish with corrosion in photo) that are on the end of the exciter armature. Brushes are carbon blocks that pick up current from the commutator bars while the armature is turning.

What you are seeing is circulating water pumps flanking the 'water box" end of a condenser. Cool water (from a river or bay) was circulated thru the tubes of the condensers to cool/condense the exhaust steam back to water/condensate.

You are seeing the condenser under the turbine. The steam was exhausted from the turbines into condensers, which ran under partial vaccum. Exhaust steam was condensed back to water (called condensate), and was fed back into the boilers to make more steam. The condensers had thousands of tubes. Steam passed thru the shell of the condenser around the outsides of the tubes, water was circulated thru the tubes to provide the cooling. Bottom of the conser is called the hotwell, condensate pumps should sit a bit below the level of the hotwell.

These turbines and generators are VERY little guys by standards of even 40 years ago.

I erected enough steam turbines and worked in power plants, so this is stuff I 've known in my sleep for the past 40-odd years.

Im writing an essay on it

Flushed if you dont mind id like to email you and ask some questions about your experience because i am trying to gather sone ingormation about the hospital

You are looking at the outside of a generator. The actual part is known as the :"STATOR". It is a very heavy cast iron frame that is accurately machined. It holds the generator "windings" (copper coils) from which the power is taken. The holes are "air holes" to allow forced air ventilation thru the stator windings. In operation, a set of fan blades on the generator rotor circulates air thru the stator and rotor to cool them.

The numer 8 simply refers to the "Unit number". Each powerplant assigns a number to each generator or "unit". If a person were referring to this particular generator they'd say something like "Toronto Power, Niagara Falls Station Unit 8".

The stator is an extremely massive casting as it has to resist the torque from the turbine as mechanical energy is converted into electrical energy. It also has to remain round and accurate to its original dimensions despite temperature changes, and magnetic fields. Plenty of good heavy cast iron insures great dimensional stability and great dampening of any slight vibrations. It is also massive to resist torque shock loads if the unit were to be tripped off line suddenly due to some electrical problem in the grid. The stator is solidly anchored to the concrete of the plant and that, I am sure, is tied to solid rock. A hydro plant has to be one of the most solidly built things.