WAITEKAURI CROSS

Auckland Star, Volume XXIX, Issue 302, 22 December 1898, Page 7

WAITEKAURI CROSS

ELECTRIC POWER INSTALLATION

The installation at the' above "mine which has been in the course of erection for several months past is now ready for working. The generating station is situated at Maratoto, nearly t.wo miles as the crow flies from the Company's mine; a three foot pel.ton water wheel with two nozzles is supplied with water from two water races at 210 feet of a head, being- connected .to the penstock, at the junction of these two water races by iron piping of two feet diameter. Two compound dynamos are driven. by belts off massive fly wheels on either side of the peltqn wheel. An elaborate switch board contains all the necessary, measuring instruments, switches, safety fuses, lightening arrestors, and magnetic cut outs, spare instruments, switches, etc., being arranged to permit of the duplicating of the plant without any alteration. The current is conveyed to the mine by two pairs of cables on fluid insulators fixed on cross arms to-pole's in the usual telegraph fashion — the total weight of these cables exceeding five tons. The line traverses very rugged country along a track on which the bush has been cleared for the purpose. At the mine adistributing switchboard in telephonic communication with the generating station is fixed in the manager's office, consisting of lightening arrestors safety fuses and switches, arranged for the protection and independent control of the different circuits to hoist, pumps, lamps, stamps, etc., the first three named only having been completed up to the present. The hoist is fixed in an underground chamber at the heart of the underlay shaft now being sunk on the reef. The electric motor operating this hoist is a compound, four polo, ironclad type machine of 40 brake horse power. The wind-

ing drums are arranged in tandem, each is capable of raising one ton plus the weight of the winding rope up an incline of 60 degrees at the rate of 300 feet a minute. Incandescent electric lamps illuminate the chamber, and are also fixed at the junction and points of the underground tramway. These are of Hie latest double filament pattern with water proof caps. The electric pumps are triplex and the motor of 5 brake horse power is geared to pump at four distinct speeds to suit the different depths and volume of water met with whilst sinking. The contractors for the machinery are Messrs Belshaw and Co., of Victoria-street, London, whose representative, Mr "\V. Hawkings, A.1.E.E., is now superintending the erection, and he would like to take this opportunity of expressing his thanks to the manager of the company, Mr Thomas James, for the most able assistance rendered throughout the whole of the work.