MAKING IT PAY.

Evening Post, Volume LXXX, Issue 3, 4 July 1910, Page 3

MAKING IT PAY.

MUNICIPAL ELECTRICITY. WHAT THE TURBINE IS DOING. VISIT TO GENERATING STATION. As one walks down Mercer-street, past the plain red brick facade of the new municipal electric light and power station, one involuntarily turns towards the loud humming noise that fills the big roomy interior of the lofty building and vibrates on the ear of the loafer even as far as the Municipal Library. It comes, of course, as every citizen knows, or ought to know nowadays, from that "busy bee" of the generating station, the new Parsons turbine. There it stands on its concrete columns at the far end of the house, like a couple of gargantuan cocoa-tins, laid on their side end to end, with further mysterious objects, like iron pots painted red, further along the line of its axis. A very unprepossessing, commonplace, insignificant thing this Parsons turbine. None of the glitter and glamour of the bright moving rods and levers and cranks and flywheels of the proud ■ reciprocator — the pugnacious vehemence of the triple expansion marine engine. "That the Parsons turbine !" a stranger might well ask, peeping through the bars of the wide gateway a benevolent City Council has left for the education of its citizens. "That the Parsons turbine! Why, it looks like a lot of tin cans." No doubt it does, but, like many another faithful servant, it belies its I appearance. "Handsome is as handsome does" is its motto, and handsomely has it done by the engineer who re- | commended it and the City Council which authorised its installation. REVIEW OF THE POSITION. Take the position of municipa' electricity, as shown by a few figures from the a-nnua,' report of the department laid before tho council some time ago. The revenue from the lighting amounted to £38,945, a decrease of £4008 as compared with the previous twelve months. The introduction of the Osram tribe of lamps did it, and, if the council got less money for its light, the citizen got a great deal more light for his money. The citizen, generally speaking, put nearly £7000 in his pocket over the deal. From public lighting there was an increase in revenue of £4438, while the- total receipts from all sources amounted to £44,814 for the year, as compared with £44,321 for the previous year. The excess of revenue over working expenses amounted to £18,880, as compared with £19,302 last year. This . is equivalent to 8i per cent, of the total capital cost of the private and public lighting undertakings. HOW TO INCREASE REVENUE. It will be remembered, also, fchaJt the late- Mayor (Dr. Newman), seeing that with the further introduction of Osram lamps the revenue from private lighting was likely to -decrease still more, advocated very strongly a modification of the insurance companies' regulations' with regard to "wiring" houses. The oast of "wiring" was too high under the regulations for Ifche average man, but if "free-wiring" op "surface-wiring" were allowed, it would give everybodiy a chance of installing electric light at a minimum of expense. Therefore the inprea.se in the number of consumers would more than compensate for the loss of revenue through" the diminished current used by the new lights. This question is not yet decided, but the council has every hop© of obtaining the desired modification. TO REDUCE EXPENSES. _ Now, it will be seen, that if ed-ectiric fighting was' !to continue a good busi.ness investment for the city, either trhiare must be a considerable increase in revenue, or a considerable reduction i-n the cost of working — the cost of producing a unit, whkh had to be sold, as it were, more cheaply than before. Towards increasing the revenue a good deal has already been done in it-he way of securing more customers for the municipal electricity. Mt. Stuart Richardson, the City Electrical Engroeer, ■e.howed_ the winter to-day a graph chart on which it he increase in applications for current were very clearly displayed. In the month of May there were no fewer than 90 applications for municipal lighting, a record, a/ndi throughout - the twelve months from June to June '.ther& has been a steadily increasing demand for current. So, from that aspect of 'Llie proposition, the department is doing exceedingly well. THE TURBINE DOES IT. The oilier aspect brings one back to the Parsons turbine, which had been nearly lost under a load, of figures, but which was humming away m-arrily as ever a.ll the time. The "tin can" on concrete has beo doing the hcmiely job of saving the pence — or, rather, th© pounds, thousands of them. The engineer in his report to the council last night said that the turbine would effect a saving of n.eiarly £3000 peT annum. With a>iii alteration in the position of two Jarge boilers, wiiicii could, be trarasferaed from .the old baiildisng to the .new, a, further paving of £600 might be made, and the council authorised the shifting of the boilers. AMONG THE MACHINERY. To realise at once what the installation of tho Parsons turbine has meant and what the shifting of the boilers will mean, one has only to pay a visit to the generating station. This was done by a Post reporter under the guidance of Mr. Richardson, who very kindly answered enquiries as to the -nature of the boilers and machinery there. The whole plant is exceedingly interesting. It affords a concrete history of elec-tric-lighting in Wellington, ana indeed of the progress in the generation of electricity during the past twenty years. The old power house is literally a museum of the electro-generators. It is nothing less than extraordinary to see the mixture of steam engines and dynamos' there. First, there is an old rope-driven Mordey alternator of the 'nineties, with its clawpoled solid saucer-shaped fields revolving about a disc-shaped armature. The engine that drives it is a wood-lagged compound of the purely marine type. Next to it is a Davey-Paxman horizontal engine, also driving its multipolar dynamo by ropes. This was the custom when electric light first came into general and municipal use. But suoh machinery is only a venerable monument of the past in these days. OLD ENGINES. Next to the Davey-Paxman comes a dismantled Curtis turbine Like yputh among the greybeards. Then follow two fairly modern three-cylinder compound high speed engines, built by Browett and Lindley, of Patricroft, and drivng directly Westingjiouse- multipolar dynamos. And od the other side is a Browett-Lind-ley compound ' engine of semi-marine type driving another Westinghouse dynamo and 1 further still is an antique-looking Brush generator. Besides there are a number of auxiliary engines. The mere catalogue of the different units of the plant Tecalls a text-book of ten years ago. The reader will imagine, no doubt, that all these multiplex and multifarious machines were in motion— that there

was a buzzing, and clanging and rumbling and rapping of cranks, pistons, valves, eccentrics, levers, ropes and pulleys. Not at all. The whole place was as silent as death. Not a wheel was moving. Only steam, escaping here and there in jets, showed that there was yet life-blood, as it were, in the veins, if the limbs were still inert. THE BUSY BEE. How, then, was the electricity of the city being generated? Listen to that familiar, loud murmur, tho steady business hum, heard by everybody passing along Mercer-street. It pervadoa the whole of the large generating station. That's where the electricity of the city was coming from — the cocoa-tin on concrete — the Parsons turbine, which has proved such a good and faithful servant to the city. With its Parsons-made dynamo it was doing all the day work of generating electricity for the motors and the lights required. At night they call in one or two of the museum plants and keep going that way. THE BOILER QUESTION. It ismot now hardto understand how the Parsons -turbine will save the city £3000 a year. Now comes the other item of £600 to be saved by shifting some boilers. In this respect there is again the same, mixture of old and new. An old Davey-Paxman Lancashire boiler has been sold. Opposite are four small Babcock and Wilcox water-tube boilers, handfired. Iney are chiefly emergency boilers. Then in the next boiler house — for there are three in this legacy of the old company — are two good up-to-date Babcock and Wilcox boilers, mechanically stoked. Their heating surface is 5560 square feet apiece. These are the pair destined for removal into a highei' sphere. Then in tho new buildings is a brand-new big Babcock and Wilcox boiler of 7740 square feet of heating surface. It would feed on its own an engine of 1000 horse-power. There is ample space in these new buildings, and the two SS6O"s are to take their place beside the big 7740. ' What is the reason? Simply that the length of steam-piping from the present position of the two boilers to the turbine is so great as to bring about a certain condensation and loss on the way. Besides, steam turbines require very dry steam. In their future place the two boilers will be quite close to the turbine they are to serve. Of the present turbine, pigmy though it appears, it should be added that at ordinary, normal full load it can generate as much electricity as three-quarters of the collection in the museum, and at a pinch may be pushed to equal their full capacity. This is one of the further advantages of turbines. They are extremely elastic in their capacity for loading, and never work better than when they are carrying their fullest burden. THE PARSONS MAKE. The Parsons turbine cost £14,000, a few thousand over the next quotation for a make, of tarbines that found strong advocates in the council of the time. The Parsons make was, however, deemed more reliable, and installed, and there it is to-day, doing its work day and nignt, with nevor a breakdown. What's to happen to the old machinery? Frankly, to the ordinary man in the street it is perfectly obvious that to run it regularly would be extremely wasteful. Probably it will be disposed of from time to time to make room for improvements. The fact remains that the_ turbine is the hero of the day in municipal electricity, and fully deserves all the praise it has won. .